We’ve entered what tech entrepreneur Byron Reese calls the Fourth Age — an era driven by Artificial Intelligence. This fall, the Saratoga Torch Club, Academy for Lifelong Learning, and Saratoga Book Festival invite you to a series of conversations exploring this mysterious force — which is now as ubiquitous as electricity and some compare to an invasive species.

Join the Saratoga Torch Club Monday night, September 22, for a far-reaching conversation focused on the development of new forms of AI-augmented journalism in Saratoga. Smartacus Founder Dan Forbush and Five Towers Media President Michael Nelson will demonstrate what the new tools make possible.

The Saratoga Book Festival is hosting three back-to-back sessions at Universal Preservation Hall on Sunday, October 5 with a focus on AI. Let’s consider this the beginning of a vital community-wide conversation about where our technologies are leading us.

We see many ways to support the Academy for Lifelong Learning with Artificial Intelligence. We started by demonstrating its power to Gerald Stulc, chair of the Academy since 2022. 

Join us this fall for a six-week Zoom course in development with the Academy for Lifelong Learning. We’ll explore where AI is leading us—through live demos, expert insights, and thoughtful conversations with experts.

As AI increasingly outperforms humans, we’re deploying a hybrid approach—pairing expert insight with AI tools like Otter, NotebookLM, Gemini, and ChatGPT to craft magazine-length stories that are richly told. .

Peter Bowden developed the Adaptive Thought Protocol by blending Zen mindfulness, small group facilitation, and digital storytelling into a framework that helps large language models engage in more dynamic, reflective thinking.

We’re exploring how communities can prepare for the profound changes Artificial General Intelligence will bring. We invite citizens of all backgrounds to engage with the hopes, risks, and responsibilities of our rapidly approaching future.

"Thinking through the design of such a system is becoming a necessary task," writes Tobias Rose-Stockwell. "Any platform that controls and influences humans at such an enormous scale must provide us with clear ways of understanding it." 

Mustafa Suleyman says we’re approaching a critical threshold where the integration of AI in our daily lives, alongside advancements in quantum computing, synthetic biology, and more, will change everything.

Brain sensors are giving us new ways to interact with our devices. "We are rapidly heading toward a world of brain transparency, in which scientists, doctors, governments, and companies may peer into our brains and minds at will,” says Duke law professor Nita Farahany.

“AI has opened up a vast design space, offering new materials and modes of operation, as well as novel ways to explore the space at a rate much faster than biological evolution,” writes Susan Schneider. “Mind design is a form of intelligent design, but by humans, not God.”

Elon Musk has made his move into humans, calling Neuralink’s new implant “Telepathy.”