We were distracted last week, managing a parent's failing health, and didn't get a newsletter out. So this week's newsletter is full of new things. I'll be a bit brief in my descriptions to keep the email length down...make sure to check everything out.
Btw, you'll need to be logged in to read the latter chapters. We are reserving some of our writing for human eyes only, not machines. Subscriptions are how we will keep it that way—AI crawlers can't reach what's behind the gate. We can't do anything about all of our historical writing being consumed by LLMs—but we can protect some writing now.
We're thrilled to announce more speakers for the Artificiality Summit 2026! Don't forget that Early pricing ends on March 31—jump in before the price goes up! More info & tickets here.
Jenna Fizel leads IDEO's emerging technology practice. They guide clients in transforming abstract concepts into tangible experiences using AI, XR, and digital fabrication, believing these technologies unlock fresh perspectives in design. Jenna founded a learning community of 100+ people dedicated to making technical skills accessible across IDEO's diverse workforce. Previously, they were a partner at an agency specializing in data visualizations in physical-digital environments. Jenna also co-founded a fashion tech startup and served as CTO for an intimate apparel brand. With a background in computational geometry from MIT, they view software as a way of exploring and solving complex design challenges.
Jess Holbrook has spent the last 12 years researching how people's lives can be meaningfully improved with AI at Google, Meta, and now Microsoft where he leads UX Research for the Microsoft AI team. Prior to that, he was Director of UX Research for Generative AI and Responsible AI at Meta. He got his start in human-AI research at Google where he was a founder and lead of Google’s People + AI Research group (PAIR). His research interests range from applied product work to steering AI model behaviors to creating tools for thought to community-based research practices to extended mind theory, and of course, collective intelligence.
Savannah Kunovsky leads organizations in creating the next generation of technology. Her work spans ecosystems – AI/ML, XR, robotics, the future of the internet, new hardware, and more. As Managing Director of IDEO’s Emerging Technology Lab, she guides teams in creating human-centered products for a global network of clients. Savannah works across IDEO’s full portfolio, but specializes in collaborating with large tech and electronics companies. Her past work includes working with Dr. John Gottman to serve millions of people using emotion AI for mental health, and co-founding Moringa School, a chain of tech education schools in Africa that have graduated over 20k people. She began her career as a software engineer. Savannah has spoken at places like SxSW, Fast Company Innovation Festival, the MIT Media Lab, and Harvard. Her work has been recognized by MIT, Forbes, and the World Economic Forum. She’s delivered international keynotes, created interactive emerging technology museums, and published numerous articles that illustrate the future of tech.
Wakanyi Macharia-Hoffman is an African indigenous scholar born and raised in a forest in Kenya. She is an internationally recognised speaker working at the intersection of Ubuntu ethics to promote African relational intelligence in AI systems. She is the lead researcher for Responsible African AI at the Inclusive AI Lab at Utrecht University. She founded the African Folktales Project, a digital knowledge commons that treats folktales as living archives of Indigenous relational ethics, ecological intelligence, and social knowledge, now serving over 21,000 teachers across the African continent on the Ubuntu Education Hub online platform. Her children’s books—including Sala, Mountain Warrior —extend this work through literature that dignifies African heritage and ways of knowing. As a senior fellow at The New Institute, she contributed to research on new conceptions of human flourishing, aimed at reformulating the sustainable development goals. She sits on the advisory board of the IDG Foundation and the Global Citizens Assembly. She is a global nomad and mother of four who has lived in nine countries on four continents. She, her husband and children are currently spread out in the Netherlands, Japan and the US.
Cognitive Sovereignty: Authoring Your Mind in the AI Age
This paper presents original research from the Artificiality Institute studying how humans psychologically adapt to AI collaboration. The framework emerged from analysis of stories and transcripts of AI users across workplace, scientific, and creative domains.
Our goal is to give people a language for what's happening to them as AI becomes embedded in cognitive work, and to identify what distinguishes those who maintain authorship over their own development from those who drift into configurations they didn't choose.
Caldera: April 16 in Sisters, Oregon. Join us and Heather Crank for an intimate Drawing Room fundraiser focused on the lived experience of youth in 2026. At a time when it has never been harder to be a kid, we’ll explore how identity, technology, and community shape the lives of Oregon’s youth—and how Caldera’s work to awaken creativity supports their sense of belonging.
World Beautiful Business Forum: May 7-10 in Athens, Greece. We're proud to partner on this edition of the Forum that marks the 10-year anniversary of the House of Beautiful Business, and it feels particularly meaningful in the current context. The Forum is described as “the most human gathering for the more-than-human world.” That theme reflects its ambition: to explore how business can operate responsibly and creatively within an increasingly complex ecosystem shaped by technology, democracy, culture, and geopolitical realities.
Artificiality Summit: October 22-24, 2026 in Bend, Oregon. Our theme will be Unknowing. Why? For centuries, humans believed we were the only species with reason, agency, self-improvement. Then came AI. We are no longer the only system that learns, adapts, or acts with agency. And when the boundary of intelligence moves, the boundary of humanity moves with it. Something is happening to our thinking, our being, our becoming. If AI changes how we think, and how we think shapes who we become, then how might AI change what it means to be human?
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Dave Edwards is a Co-Founder of Artificiality. He previously co-founded Intelligentsia.ai (acquired by Atlantic Media) and worked at Apple, CRV, Macromedia, Morgan Stanley, Quartz, and ThinkEquity.
