Tech leaders gather for 'AI Summit @ Stanford' to tackle breakthrough opportunities, risks - ABC7 Bay Area

STANFORD, Calif. (KGO) -- As AI's rapid development continues to be hotly debated, some of its key players are meeting for a three-day summit at Stanford University.

Current university president Jonathan Levin as well as former university president John Hennessy - called a "pioneer in computer architecture" - helped kick off the 'AI Summit @ Stanford' with fireside chats.

Hennessy, who is now board chairman of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, told ABC7 Eyewitness News anchor Nancy Chen it was important to hold such gatherings to "ensure that the breakthrough technologies really benefit people."

"We're still in our infancy on this technology, it's still early on. I think we've discovered it's more powerful and that there are potential misuses of the technology that are more dangerous than we thought," Hennessy said. "So we need to think about how do we reduce the potential harms while at the same time, taking advantage of what this incredible technology can do for us - improving medical diagnosis, improving education, improving lives around the world. The opportunity is great, but there are some challenges to ensure it's used for good."

About 600 people are expected to attend the third annual conference, including founders, investors, operators and researchers from companies like OpenAI, NVIDIA and Microsoft.

"As AI continues to develop, the more we're going to see the beauty of being human, and the more we're going to emphasize and capitalize on human-to-human connections," said Nabila Elassar, the founder of Startup Universe and Evion, which organized the event, along with Stanford students and alumni. "These events are the reason technology keeps developing so fast and why Silicon Valley is different from everywhere else."