Robots will be tools, not tyrants

In this session, Bernardo clarified his ambition for the Agentic AI hardware company he founded. His primary motivation is philosophical: By being directly involved in building the hardware that powers AI systems, he and his collaborators aim to have credible standing in debates about the nature of mind and consciousness. The second motivation is technological sovereignty for Europe, as the US and China now dominate AI infrastructure.

We also covered the difference between intelligence, consciousness and creativity, and why AI will have the first in abundance but not the later two. It will do a very convincing simulation however!

This will create challenges, but robots taking over won't be one of them. Far more important is whether humans develop the wisdom to wield ever increasing power.

Other points covered in the session included:

• We know how AI works... yet we don't know how it works
• AI progress isn't limited by our understanding
• AI as a tool, and our future depends on how we use it
• Future scenarios: human extinction vs human thriving
• Robots wont take control: Why Hollywood depictions are unrealistic
• Augmented humans are inevitable
• Personal growth as preparation for an uncertain future

To play us out, here are Flight of the Conchords with their prematurely prescient vision for our future.

Speakers

Bernardo Kastrup

Analytic idealism

Bernardo Kastrup is the Executive Director of Essentia Foundation and Founder/CEO at AI systems company Euclyd BV. His work has set off the modern renaissance of metaphysical idealism. He has a Ph.D. in philosophy (ontology, philosophy of mind) and another in computer engineering (reconfigurable computing, artificial intelligence).

As a scientist, he has worked for the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and the Philips Research Laboratories (where the ‘Casimir Effect’ of Quantum Field Theory was discovered). He has also been creatively active in the high-tech industry for almost 30 years, having founded parallel processor company Silicon Hive (acquired by Intel in 2011) and worked as a technology strategist for the geopolitically significant company ASML. Most recently, he has founded AI company Euclyd BV.

Formulated in detail in many academic papers and books, his ideas have been featured in Scientific American, the magazine of The Institute of Art and Ideas, the Blog of the American Philosophical Association and Big Think, among others. His most defining book is Analytic Idealism in a Nutshell: A straightforward summary of the 21st-century’s only plausible metaphysics.

Explore Bernardo’s work →