Byron Reese | AI Expert, Optimistic Futurist, Tech Entrepreneur, WSJ Best-Selling Author of 5 Books Translated into 13 Languages

Byron Reese

AI Expert, Optimistic Futurist, Tech Entrepreneur, WSJ Best-Selling Author of 5 Books Translated into 13 Languages

Fee Range
$30,000
Travels From
Austin, TX, US

Byron Reese
Biography

With over 25 years as a successful tech entrepreneur, Byron Reese is uniquely suited to speak on the transformative effect of technology on the workplace and society at large.

Byron delights audiences worldwide and has been invited to share his reasoned optimism and vivid and energetic presentations on the future with audiences on every continent, including Antarctica. 

Known as the “Future of” guy, Byron has spoken on the future of AI, the future of work, the future of banking, the future of education, the future of the planet, the future of agriculture, the future of finance, and the list goes on. When not speaking, he writes books that explore the intersection of technology and humanity and covers topics such as robotics, consciousness, progress, natural resources, and superorganisms.

Bloomberg Businessweek credits Byron with having “quietly pioneered a new breed of media company.” The Financial Times of London reported that he “is typical of the new wave of internet entrepreneurs out to turn the economics of the media industry on its head.” Byron and his work have been featured in hundreds of news outlets, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Entrepreneur Magazine, USA Today, Reader’s Digest, NPR, and the LA Times Magazine. Byron holds numerous patents and has started and sold multiple companies, including two NASDAQ IPOs.

As a lifelong entrepreneur with multiple IPOs and successful exits, Byron frequently speaks to business audiences on how to excel in the world of tomorrow and how to deploy technology successfully. 

He states: “Technology multiplies human ability. That’s its trick. It magnifies us. We can move more bricks with a forklift than we can on our backs. Technological advancement is not to be feared; rather, it should be welcomed, for by enhancing human ability, we enhance our productivity and, therefore, our standard of living. This is why we live so much more lavish and prosperous lives than our great-grandparents. An hour of our time is vastly more productive than was an hour of theirs.” 

With a gift for storytelling, Byron captivates audiences worldwide with the message that technology is empowering us to build a better world, and he invites his listeners to imagine this better world and build it.

Byron Reese
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Byron Reese
Featured Keynote Programs

Automation, AI & The Future of Work

How will automation reshape the workplace? Will robots take all the jobs? Will artificial intelligence displace human intelligence? Are we destined to a future where we work harder and harder for less and less?

Futurist, author, and technologist, Byron Reese dispels the fearful myths around these topics and describes a world where workers of all skill levels use new technology to increase their own productivity.

Byron explains, “Technology will continue to transform the workplace. That is certain. But it will do so by making humans more valuable.  The biggest problems of tomorrow will not be a lack of jobs, but a shortage of humans to take advantage of all of the opportunities technology will offer.”

While much of this talk focuses on how technology will reshape the workplace, Byron pays special attention to what workers can do today to maximize their productivity tomorrow. “A few simple rules,” he explains, “will help anyone position themselves to prosper in the world of tomorrow.”

“Workers today should be no more fearful of AI and robots than our great-grandparents should have been fearful of mechanization and electricity. Those devices changed the workplace, but they did so by empowering workers, not replacing them. This is what will happen this time as well.” – Byron Reese
 

A Great Time to Be a Human
Why No Machine Can Replace a Person

Daily, the media greets readers with a variant of “THE ROBOTS ARE COMING FOR YOUR JOB!” The logic is simple: Everyday robots get smarter, learn faster, and they will never ask for a raise. But Byron believes this simplistic reasoning is entirely wrong. "Just as electricity and the assembly line weren’t bad for workers, in spite of shrill predictions otherwise, AI and robots won’t be either," he says. "In fact, they will create so many new jobs that our bigger problem will be a labor shortage."

Sharing insights from his book, “The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers and the Future of Humanity,” Byron invites us to explore the many advances leading to today’s technological age, and then to consider the vast possibilities of the future, the coming Fourth Age.

What skills will be useful to have in the future? Which technologies should we adopt? How will technology affect the workplace, the home, and society in general?

Answering these questions, Byron suggests that the future is not going to be a frightening place where humans become displaced, but rather “one in which the things that make us human become incredibly valuable. We are entering a world of more choice and more opportunity than ever before,” says Byron, and “the best response is to expand our dreams and expectations, not our fears and concerns.”

Attendees can expect to gain an understanding of:
•    AI and robots
•    Why AI and robots will create jobs
•    How what makes you human makes you valuable
•    The coming labor shortage

“When 90% of people farmed, the 10% that didn’t undoubtedly look upon those that did as capable of little else. The idea that those very people could become lab techs, marketing directors, and ice sculptors would have struck them as ludicrous. ‘They are just plain farmers,’ would have been the common retort. But people farmed because we needed farmers, not because that was all they could do. And I believe that a great part of the workforce needs to be liberated from the drudgery of doing the work a machine can do.” – Byron Reese
 

Preparing for the Jobs of Tomorrow

While audience members once commonly asked, "What should I teach my kids to make sure they have a job in the future?” Byron says today they ask, "What do I need to learn to stay relevant in the future?" And, "How do I keep from falling behind?" Everyone agrees that technology is changing the world. The question is how should we change in response to it? In this talk, Byron tells the story of technology's advancement from the invention of language until today. He explores what's to come in the next decade, and examines what we as individuals can do to make the most of changing times.

What skills are useful to have in the future? Which technologies should we adopt? How will technology affect the workplace, the home, and society in general? In this empowering talk, Byron suggests that the future is not going to be a frightening place where humans become displaced, but rather one in which the things that make humans become incredibly valuable.

“We are entering a world of more choice and more opportunity than ever before, and the best response is to expand our dreams and expectations, not our fears and concerns.” – Byron Reese
 

The Fourth Age
Answering the Big Questions of Tomorrow

Our present age is grappling with big questions around technology: What is really possible with artificial intelligence? Should we fear it or welcome it? Will robots take all the jobs, and if they did, would that be a good thing? Can computers achieve consciousness, and if so, do they then acquire rights?

In a talk from his book, “The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity,” futurist, author, and technologist, Byron Reese identifies these as fundamentally philosophical, not technical, questions. Instead of telling the audience what he thinks, he teaches them how to apply their own beliefs and values to them to come up with their own answers.

Byron then proceeds to tell the story of technology over the last 100,000 years, focusing on three times in the past when we created a technology so profound that it permanently altered our bodies and minds, changing the trajectory of human history in a dramatic way. Byron believes that humanity is about to be so transformed a fourth time, due to artificial intelligence and robots.

“As humans progressively “outsource” our cognitive activity to computers and our physical activity to machines, once again we will be permanently changed, and in this Fourth Age, humanity will embark on the next stage of its evolution, towards a better world for everyone.” – Byron Reese

This talk overflows with reasoned optimism and is suitable for all audiences, as its focus is not specific technologies, but how to think about technology.
 

Byron Reese
Featured Books

We Are Agora: How Humanity Functions as a Single Superorganism That Shapes Our World and Our Futureby Byron Reese

We Are Agora: How Humanity Functions as a Single Superorganism That Shapes Our World and Our Future

by Byron Reese
Stories, Dice, and Rocks That Think: How Humans Learned to See the Future--and Shape Itby Byron Reese

Stories, Dice, and Rocks That Think: How Humans Learned to See the Future--and Shape It

by Byron Reese
Wastedby Byron Reese

Wasted

by Byron Reese
The Fourth Ageby Byron Reese

The Fourth Age

by Byron Reese
Infinite Progress: How the Internet and Technology Will End Ignorance, Disease, Poverty, Hunger, and Warby Byron Reese

Infinite Progress: How the Internet and Technology Will End Ignorance, Disease, Poverty, Hunger, and War

by Byron Reese

Byron Reese
Featured Reviews

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