Fostering candid discussions on the future of AI
The Berkeley AI Futures Salon is a new series beginning Fall 2026 convening senior leaders across the UC system, government, and industry several times a semester to foster candid discussions on the future of AI and its impact across key sectors.
Through events and collaborations forged at AI Futures Lab, like the Berkeley AI Futures Salon series, we create opportunities for UC Investments to build direct relationships with UC faculty and researchers as they tackle big questions with data science and artificial intelligence.
Attendance is by-invitation only, and events will feature a conversation between an eminent leader in AI and a facilitator who can guide the discussion for a diverse, interdisciplinary audience.
September 2026: On the Subject of Art in Artificial Intelligence
On September 16, 2026, AI Futures Lab welcomed Sonja Thiel, a curator, philosopher, and historian, for a conversation with Greg Niemeyer, UC Berkeley Professor of Media Innovation. Following the conversation, there was a facilitated discussion and a post-discussion gathering. Other guests include featured artists from the art exhibition “Hidden Layers: AI Infrastructures and Hallucinations”, curated by Antonio Somaini with Hannes Bajohr and Sonja Thiel, in dialogue with the France–Berkeley research initiative The Latent Spaces of Culture, and on display at the Worth Ryder Art Gallery.
October 2026: AI, Cities, and Collective Cooperation
On October 28, 2026, AI Futures Lab welcomes Neha Arora, Engineering Lead for Mobility AI at Google Research, for a conversation around the transportation sector with Marta González, UC Berkeley Professor of City & Regional Planning and Civil and Environmental Engineering. Mobility AI builds tools to measure how people move through cities, simulate entire metropolitan networks as calibrated digital twins, and optimize interventions from traffic signal timing to evacuation planning. Traffic is a collective outcome: every route, departure time, and shared ride adds up to congestion, emissions, and risk that no individual chooses alone. We will ask how technology can help cities coordinate toward shared goals rather than simply moving cars faster. Can serious games and apps for social good shift travel demand, coordinate ride pooling to large events, or let residents test a redesigned street before it is built? Who should own the objective a city's mobility system optimizes, and how do incentives for cooperation avoid becoming surveillance? The conversation will be followed by an open discussion.
November 2026: Math Research in the Age of AI
On November 18, AI Futures Lab welcomes Tatiana Toro, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Washington and Director of MSRI / Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute, for a conversation with Fernando Pérez, UC Berkeley Professor and BIDS Faculty Director. Advances in the capabilities of AI systems are changing the shape of the mathematical research community. Leaders in the field are making the case for the human understanding of mathematics, leveraging the opportunities AI brings to this new era, and proposing new modes of collaboration among the mathematical community and between mathematics and other sciences. We are exploring the roles of open source tools, formalization and auto-formalization, and how academic mathematicians could -- and should -- work effectively with frontier AI labs. Toro will share some of these fast-changing perspectives, and will invite salon attendees to share their feedback and reactions. Following the conversation, there was a facilitated discussion and a post-discussion gathering.
February 2027: A Tale of Two Cultures, Can Agentic Coding Close the Gap?
On February 3, 2027, AI Futures Lab welcomes Ken Goldberg, UC Berkeley Professor and William S. Floyd Jr. Distinguished Chair in Engineering, for a conversation around the global robotics research community. (details coming soon!)