A tale of two cities: Riyadh and Dublin

Calum and David reflect on their involvement in two recent conferences, one in Riyadh, and one in Dublin. Each conference highlighted a potential disruption in a major industry: a country with large ambitions in the AI space, and a new foundation in the longevity space.00.00 A tale of two cities, two conferences, two industries00.44 First, the 2nd Saudi Global AI Conference01.03 Vision 203001.11 Saudi has always been a coalition between the fundamentalist Wahhabis and the Royal Family01.38 The King chooses reform in the wake of 9/1102.07 Mohamed bin Salman appointed Crown Prince, who embarks on reform02.28 The partial liberation of women, and the fundamentalists side-lined03.10 The “Sheikhdown” in 201703.49 The Khashoggi affair and the Yemen war lead to Saudi being shunned04.26 The West is missing what’s going on in Saudi05.00 Lifting the Saudi economy’s reliance on petrochemicals05.27 AI is central to Vision 203006.00 Can Saudi become one of the world’s top 10 or 15 AI countries?06.20 The AI duopoly between the US and China is so strong, this isn’t as hard as you might think06.55 Saudi’s advantages07.22 Saudi’s disadvantages07.54 The goal is not implausible08.10 The short-term goals of the conference. A forum for discussions, deals, and trying to open the world’s eyes09.45 Saudi is arguably on the way to becoming another Dubai. Continuation and success are not inevitable, but it is encouraging11.00 Fastest-growth country in the G20, with an oil bonanza11.25 The proposed brand-new city of Neom with The Line, a futuristic environment13.07 The second conference: the Longevity Summit in Dublin13.48 A new foundation announced14.05 Reports updating on progress in longevity research around the world14.20 A dozen were new and surprising. Four examples…14.50 1. Bats. A speaker from Dublin discussed why they live so long – 40 years – and what we can learn from that15.55 2. Parabiosis on steroids. Linking the blood flow of two animals suggests there are aging elements in our blood which can be removed17.50 3. Using AI to develop drugs. Companies like Exscientia and Insilico. Cortex Discovery is a smaller, perhaps more nimble player19.40 4. Hevolution, a new longevity fund backed with up to $1bn of Saudi money per year for 20 years22.05 As Aubrey de Grey has long said, we need engineering as much as research22.40 Aubrey thinks aging should be tackled by undoing cell damage rather than changing the human metabolism24.00 Three phases of his career. Methuselah. SENS. New foundation25.00 Let’s avoid cancer, heart disease and dementias by continually reversing aging damage26.00 He is always itchy to explore new areas. This led to a power struggle within SENS, which he lost27.00 What should previous SENS donors do now?27.15 The rich crypto investors who have provided large amounts to SENS are backing the new foundation28.30 One of the new foundation’s investment areas will be parabiosis28.55 Cryonics will be another investment area29.15 Lobbying legislators will be another29.50 Robust Mouse Rejuvenation will be the initial priority30.50 Pets may be the animal models whose rejuvenation breaks humanity’s “trance of death”31.05 David has been appointed a director the new foundation31.50 The other directors33.05 An exciting futureAudio engineering by Alexander Chace.Music: Spike Protein, by Koi Discovery, available under CC0 1.0 Public Domain DeclarationThe conference websites: https://globalaisummit.org/ and https://longevitysummitdublin.com/For more about the podcast hosts, see https://calumchace.com/ and https://dw2blog.com/C-Suite PerspectivesElevate how you lead with insight from today’s most influential executives.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify