AI and Future of Society
In this candid, wide-ranging interview, investor–computer scientist David Siegel (Two Sigma cofounder) traces his path from early access to NYU mainframes at age 12 and formative years at the MIT AI Lab (advised by Tomas Lozano-Pérez) to DE Shaw—where he overlapped with Jeff Bezos—and ultimately to building Two Sigma and an MIT-style culture of curiosity. He argues U.S. culture has been conditioned to fear AI by Hollywood, while his own “agenda” is simply using technology to improve society and inspire young people. On today’s AI, Siegel praises transformers’ achievements but warns they’re not the final answer: the once-elegant stack is accruing hacks, we shouldn’t starve alternative approaches, and real progress now hinges on rigorous benchmarking of practical value (he notes code-gen’s burst of speed often hits integration slowdowns). To test the limits himself, he used AI to generate ~50k lines of code in days for a personal music/Crestron controller—impressive, yet illustrative of brittleness at scale. Looking ahead, he’s backing Open Athena, a nonprofit embedding AI engineers with university labs to build the data and tooling scaffolds needed to accelerate scientific discovery, ensuring academia—and society—can fully benefit from AI’s next wave.
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About Imagination In Action
Imagination In Action, a global event series presented by the non-profit organization Ideas In Action, embodies the belief that a single spark can ignite groundbreaking innovation. Hosted at venues like MIT, Silicon Valley, and Davos, these summits bring together the world’s leading innovators and changemakers, cultivating dialogues that shape the future of innovation.
In this candid, wide-ranging interview, investor–computer scientist David Siegel (Two Sigma cofounder) traces his path from early access to NYU mainframes at age 12 and formative years at the MIT AI Lab (advised by Tomas Lozano-Pérez) to DE Shaw—where he overlapped with Jeff Bezos—and ultimately to building Two Sigma and an MIT-style culture of curiosity. He argues U.S. culture has been conditioned to fear AI by Hollywood, while his own “agenda” is simply using technology to improve society and inspire young people. On today’s AI, Siegel praises transformers’ achievements but warns they’re not the final answer: the once-elegant stack is accruing hacks, we shouldn’t starve alternative approaches, and real progress now hinges on rigorous benchmarking of practical value (he notes code-gen’s burst of speed often hits integration slowdowns). To test the limits himself, he used AI to generate ~50k lines of code in days for a personal music/Crestron controller—impressive, yet illustrative of brittleness at scale. Looking ahead, he’s backing Open Athena, a nonprofit embedding AI engineers with university labs to build the data and tooling scaffolds needed to accelerate scientific discovery, ensuring academia—and society—can fully benefit from AI’s next wave.
======
✌️ Subscribe! http://bit.ly/ImaginationInAction-YouTube
👉 More info: https://www.imaginationinaction.co/
🐦 Join the conversation! #ImaginationInAction
======
About Imagination In Action
Imagination In Action, a global event series presented by the non-profit organization Ideas In Action, embodies the belief that a single spark can ignite groundbreaking innovation. Hosted at venues like MIT, Silicon Valley, and Davos, these summits bring together the world’s leading innovators and changemakers, cultivating dialogues that shape the future of innovation.
