Artificial Intelligence: Seeking the Common Good with Jerome Maryon

Longtime Workbar Cambridge member and Harvard Professor Jerome Maryon recently hosted a Lunch & Learn on finding the good in the wave of artificial intelligence. Jerome's background is in Political Science, History, and French Civilization. He served as Commissioner of the U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of Military Review, the highest court in the Naval Service, and is currently writing three books for Pope Francis. He graciously summarized his presentation for us below. 

Hi. I’m Jerome, a long-term (pre-pandemic!) member of Workbar. I recently had the pleasure of giving a talk at the Central Square, Cambridge, office on “Artificial Intelligence: Seeking the Common Good.”

As you’d expect in a Workbar setting, we have members drawn from all over the globe - and with diverse tastes to match. So our Community Manager, Lauren, very kindly ordered a full range of dishes from a good Indian restaurant nearby: vegan, vegetarian, and meaty dishes, complete with a couple of types of rice and several choices of naan. Something for everyone!

The talk tried to match the food. Because the world faces so many challenges (we quickly listed 36 of the biggest challenges) and because it is not at all clear - not even from the leaders of the AI revolution - just how much AI may help us and how much it may hinder us as we attempt to come to grips with this “perfect storm,” it seemed only prudent to call on all the wisdom we could muster. That meant recalling some truly enduring counsel from the Ancient, the Medieval, & the Modern Worlds alike - and taking counsel from a diversity of perspectives, from East and West, and even from the AI summit at the recent G7 meeting in Italy, which very closely followed the counsel of Pope Francis. And as if all that was not surprising enough, we even found very solid advice from a Chinese text from some 3,000 years ago: from the I Ching, the Book of Changes! 

So our procedure was one of Dialogue - Discernment - Decision: very democratic! And everyone pitched in! Our conference room was standing room only. And the dialogue among the Members ran from 12:00 noon until … 2:40 P.M. Amazing! What’s more, team leaders dropped into the kitchen from 2:45 (after a quick but much-needed bathroom break!) until 7:40. 

That’s how powerfully AI gets folks to focus. And Workbar is the place that made it all happen!

Thanks all around,

    Jerome