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The Lavin Agency Speakers Bureau

A speakers bureau that represents the best original thinkers,
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Jacob Ward

The trick to working well with AI—and avoiding its most dangerous outcomes—is learning to spot the risky forms of psychosis it can produce in us all.

Author of The Loop: How A.I. is Creating a World without Choices and How to Fight Back | NBC News Technology Correspondent | Former Editor-in-Chief of Popular Science Magazine | AI Strategic Advisor to Fortune 500 Companies

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Black Box: How AI Will Amplify the Best and Worst of Humanity (19:05)

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We have a natural tendency to believe AI can do more than it actually can, says Jacob Ward. That “AI psychosis” is wiping out real skills and stopping many leaders from fully leveraging this technology—which means that those who understand the limited but powerful role AI can play in their organizations will reap enormous rewards. Jacob is a veteran journalist who’s covered the intersection of technology, human behavior, and social change for NBC, The New York Times, WIRED, and many more. He’s also the author of The Loop, in which he predicted the rise of for-profit AI (and the consequences of using it recklessly) nearly a year before ChatGPT arrived on the scene. Roger McNamee (Zucked) writes that “if AI is to get back on track, then Ward will be the guide.” An honest, warm, inspiring, and high-energy keynote speaker, Jacob reveals how thoughtless adoption of AI is doing real damage to our organizations, employees, and societies—and how using it the right way can amplify the best parts of being human.

Jacob Ward is a veteran journalist covering the intersection of technology, human behavior, and social change. He’s currently reporter-in-residence at The Omidyar Network, writing about cutting-edge innovation and pioneering forms of restraint, and a strategic advisor on the deployment of AI for companies large and small.

From 2018 to 2024 he was technology correspondent for NBC News, reporting for Nightly News, The TODAY Show, and MSNBC. He is the former editor-in-chief of Popular Science magazine, and was Al Jazeera’s science and technology correspondent from 2013 to 2018.

Jacob is a lecturer at the Stanford d.school, and was a 2018-2019 Berggruen Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, where he began writing The Loop: How AI is Creating a World without Choices and How to Fight Back (Hachette Book Group). The book explores how artificial intelligence and other decision-shaping technologies will amplify good and bad human instincts, and predicted the AI psychosis in which society is currently mired.

Jacob has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Wired, and many other publications. In addition to hosting documentaries for Nat Geo and Discovery, he’s the host and co-writer of the landmark four-hour PBS television series, “Hacking Your Mind,” about human decision-making, behavioral economics, and political manipulation. His weekly podcast The Rip Current covers the big, hidden forces at work in our lives, and he speaks to an audience of more than 250,000 viewers on TikTok, on podcast appearances, and on This Week in Tech, where he’s a regular co-host.

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Speech Topics

Artificial Intelligence

The Pitfalls of "AI Psychosis"And How Your Company Can Avoid It

The temptation in our AI age is to jump right in. Faster emails! Lightning-quick research! Productivity gains in every department! But the dirty secret of AI is that deploying it the wrong way can cut your people off at the knees, wiping out their skills and their job satisfaction without adding a dollar to your bottom line. “AI can make your best people extraordinarily productive… and miserable enough to quit their jobs,” says Jacob Ward.

How do you avoid this? By understanding the nature of AI psychosis.

In this rapid-fire, high-energy presentation, this long-time technology journalist explains the psychological pitfalls and breakthrough opportunities of AI, drawing from his groundbreaking 2022 book The Loop, which predicted our AI moment and the mania it has inspired. He offers practical frameworks that leaders can use to seize the actual benefits of AI, and gives audiences the tools to understand the true role of this technology and reap enormous rewards.