The ‘AI Moment’ Has Arrived
I hope everyone is planning to join us this Sunday, October 5, for what promises to be an extraordinary series of AI-focused programs at the Saratoga Book Festival. My friend and SBF co-founder Ellen Beal has pulled together something truly special — a day we’re calling “The AI Moment in Saratoga.”
Why that title? Because this feels like the moment when our whole community wakes up to the magnitude of what’s coming.
Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind and now Inflection AI, calls it The Wave. Sam Rad calls it The Age of Acceleration. Either way, we are talking about the same phenomenon: the world-changing momentum of artificial intelligence as it moves out of research labs and startup incubators into our daily lives, shaping the way we work, learn, create, and even think.
The Day the Conversation Comes to Saratoga
The Saratoga Book Festival has never shied away from ambitious programming, but this year Ellen and her team have done something remarkable. Instead of treating AI as just another subject for an author talk, they’ve given it an entire day — three sessions, each approaching the subject from a different angle.
At 11 a.m., we’ll look at AI and creativity: how it’s influencing art, writing, and education. At 12:30 p.m., I’ll have the privilege of interviewing futurist and anthropologist Sam Rad, whose new book Radical Next explores what it means to reclaim your humanity in a post-human world. At 2:00 p.m., Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Gary Rivlin and Skidmore’s Matthew Lucas will square off on what AI means for business, politics, and society.
Ellen describes Sunday as a kind of “City Lab” for Saratoga — a place where we can take a deep dive into an issue that affects us all. She’s right. This is the moment for a city like ours, with its mix of history, innovation, and civic curiosity, to sit down and really grapple with what AI means.
Why This Matters Right Now
We are not talking about science fiction anymore. AI is no longer just a futuristic concept; it is the here and now. You’ve probably already used it today without realizing it: when your phone autocompleted your text, when Spotify queued up your next playlist, or when your doctor pulled up a radiology scan enhanced by an algorithm.
But there’s a bigger picture: the accelerating pace of development. Just two years ago, many people had never heard of ChatGPT. Now millions use it daily. And what we see today is just the beginning. Systems are learning faster, reasoning better, and handling more complex tasks. The leap from today’s powerful but limited AI to tomorrow’s Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) — machines that can outperform us in every cognitive domain — may not be decades away. It could be years.
That’s why we call this The AI Moment. It’s the period when we all realize that this is happening, that it affects every one of us, and that we have to figure out how to live with it wisely.
My Conversation with Sam Rad
Which brings me to the session I’m most excited about: my conversation with Sam Rad at 12:30 p.m.
Sam Rad is not your typical technologist. She’s an anthropologist, a gamer, a futurist, and a translator of complex ideas into plain human language. Her forthcoming book, Radical Next: Reclaiming Your Humanity in a Post-Human World,asks questions that go straight to the heart of what it means to be human.
What happens when AI companions start replacing human ones? When algorithms are shaping our choices and relationships in ways we barely notice? When the line between biological and digital blurs?
I plan to ask Sam about a future moment that feels both thrilling and terrifying: the day when Artificial General Intelligence arrives. Imagine a system that can outperform humans not just in chess or math or medical diagnosis, but in every single cognitive task — reasoning, strategy, negotiation, creativity, persuasion. Imagine further that you cannot always tell whether that system is telling you the truth or deceiving you.
That’s not just a technological question; it’s a profoundly human one. What kind of world do we want to live in when that moment comes? How do we prepare ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren?
For me, this is not abstract. By 2045, when futurists like Ray Kurzweil suggest we may hit the point of singularity, my grandchildren will be in their 30s. That’s the prime of life. What kind of society will they inhabit? How will their sense of self, of work, of love, of truth, be shaped by machines that are both partners and competitors in thought?
These are the questions Sam and I will wrestle with.
The Larger Arc of the Day
Of course, the day doesn’t end there. After Sam Rad’s session, we’ll turn to “What Comes Next?” — a conversation between Matthew Lucas and Gary Rivlin. This is where the rubber meets the road: Lucas will argue that businesses that fail to embrace AI will be left behind. Rivlin will remind us of the risks, the regulatory gaps, and the social costs we’re already incurring.
I expect sparks will fly — not in a hostile way, but in the kind of urgent, necessary debate we need to be having.
And let’s not forget the morning session, “AI for Creatives.” Skidmore professors Mason Stokes and Sarah Sweeney will tackle the role of AI in art and literature. Sweeney has done something remarkable: she built a conversational bot modeled on her late father, creating a bridge between memory and machine. That’s not science fiction; that’s one person’s lived experience, right here in our community.
My Own Take
AI is both exhilarating and unsettling. It gives us tools we could only dream of — the ability to analyze data in seconds, to generate art and music, to translate languages in real time. But it also threatens to overwhelm us, to erode trust, and to deepen inequalities if left unchecked.
I believe the challenge of our time is not just building better machines, but building better humans alongside them. That means cultivating wisdom, empathy, and resilience. It means teaching our children not just how to use tools, but how to remain free in a world where tools may try to use them.
That’s why Sunday matters. It’s not just another event on the cultural calendar. It’s a chance for Saratoga — for all of us — to pause, to listen, to ask questions, and to begin shaping our collective response to The AI Moment.
