PLACEHOLDER - July 2025

Details to follow. May be cancelled if there are no speakers available.

Thrill Us, Then Kill Us? AI Existential Risk: The Hardest Conversation
Every major AI CEO signed a 22-word statement in May 2023 saying "Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI shouldbe a global priority alongisde other societal scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war." So why isn't anyone acting like it? Nuclear and pandemic threats are both highly regulated fields, led by elected leaders, experts and organizations that are accountable to the public. AI is led by unelected leaders motivated by profit, accountable only to their shareholders. You hear and read all day about all of the amazing things AI is going to do for us. This talk is not that. This is the hardest conversation humans have ever had. The makers of AI openly admit their technology could kill all life on earth, openly admit the technology is not aligned with human goals or values, openly admit they do not understand how it works, openly admit it has the power to cause human extinction, within 1-50 years, and openly admit that they are focusing nearly all of their time and money making it stronger not safer. The greatest, most immediate threat to you and your family is artificial intelligence. Learn why and what you can do about it.

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Microsoft requires everyone to check-in when entering their facility. You must provide your first and last name when signing up for this in-person event to be on the attendees list we submit to Microsoft.

Hoagies, chips, cookies, and water will be provided.

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John Sherman is an entrepreneur and former journalist living in Baltimore. As an investigative local TV news reporter from 1999-2010, John won every major national journalism award, including a Peabody Award, a duPont-Columbia Award (the electronic media version of the Pulitzer Prize), a National Emmy Award, a National Edward R. Murrow Award, among others. In 2010 John left news to start Storyfarm, a now 15-year-old Addy and Emmy winning creative video agency with clients including Under Armour, SAP, Uber, Match Group, T. Rowe Price, Starbucks, Mastercard, and many more. In March 2023, John read Eliezer Yudkowsky's AI safety article in Time Magazine on-line, and his life was forever changed. The son of a nuclear arms-control negotiator, John grew up to believe our most serious problems are solveable. So he put his communications skills to use, launching For Humanity: An AI Safety Podcast in November 2023. For Humanity is becoming more than a podcast, it's becoming a community of people who believe the AI makers when they say their products can kill us all, and are committed to spreading the word to any human who will listen. John joins the AI safety reseach leaders in believing there is literally nothing on earth more urgent.