COURSE OVERVIEW

This executive education course will present a framework for understanding the process of how new technologies emerge and diffuse with an emphasis on translating insights into business/policy applications. The course will employ the AI field as a central case study illustrating the overall process as well as a focal area for identifying future AI trends and impacts, with a focus on opportunities for Dubai.

Participants will be able to identify how specific technological innovations are likely to mature through a selected framework and will be able to frame the resulting trends in order to reveal critical societal/policy impacts. Through group engagements, participants will learn how to work with three critical time frames: two years, 10 years and 30 years, exploring how both the forecast and implications exploration process differs for each.

Facilitator

Paul Saffo
Adjunct Professor, Stanford University

Paul is a Silicon Valley-based forecaster who studies the dynamics of large-scale, long-term technological change and advises corporate, NGO and governmental clients worldwide. He is an Adjunct Professor in Stanford’s School of Engineering and previously was Chair of Future Studies at Singularity University. Paul is also a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, and a Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. Paul was the founding Chair of the Samsung Science Board, and has served on the technology advisory boards of AT&T and Motorola, as well as the boards of a range of public and private companies. Paul holds degrees from Harvard College, Cambridge University, and Stanford University.