SOPHIE HACKFORD ON DRONES, SATELLITES AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Sophie Hackford is currently on a self-designed underground research program to discover extraordinary tech breakthroughs and the social contexts in which they are built and used. Her aim is to map these technologies over shifting demographics, economics and geopolitics to provide a richer understanding of the challenges and opportunities ahead. Hackford previously launched and ran WIRED magazine’s consulting business, spent two years in Silicon Valley working at Singularity University, and brought more than $120 million of investment to the Oxford Martin School. In this equally riveting and terrifying talk, the self-described "huge optimist” posits that artificial intelligence will offer a searchable real-time CCTV of our planet. She also predicts that virtual reality, which can create synthetic environments like those that have proven more effective than morphine in pain relief for burn victims, will not only become a surveillance universe but will also allow us to be active characters in films, even dancing with Ryan Gosling in La La Land.