Rendezvous with the Future

Hundreds of science enthusiasts had a blast on Saturday at NYU Shanghai by envisioning the future world with leading researchers from the most cutting-edge frontiers of life science and artificial intelligence.

Organized by the Future Forum and NYU Shanghai, the 20th Future Science Lecture saw almost five hours of thought-provoking keynote addresses and panels among scientists, entrepreneurs and the audience. It was the first time that the forum moved to Shanghai following 19 successful sessions in Beijing.

Jeffrey Lehman, Vice Chancellor of NYU Shanghai, hailed the forum as exemplary as it seeks to connect the world through science and technological innovation, which touches every aspect of our lives.

“NYU Shanghai, as part of our mission, is designed to provide a venue where we can welcome people from different communities to convene with conversations over serious issues and develop new ideas,” Lehman said.

In the first half of the lecture, William Haseltine, Chairman and President of ACCESS Health International, shared his insights on regenerative medicine and immunotherapy, describing them as “critical to the health of you and your loved ones”.

According to Haseltine, regenerative medicine seeks to generate new tissues and organs within one human body, which will reset the tissue’s age and bring body functions back to a younger stage, while immunotherapy allows us to “use our immune system to find malignant tumors”. He called for increasing investment in the two fields to produce more technological breakthroughs.

The second half of the lecture featured lively speeches over the history, nature and impacts of artificial intelligence. Yu Kai, Founder and CEO of Horizon Robotics, believed that AI will turn many of today’s user terminals into something truly “smart” and data-based.

“From an entrepreneurial perspective, it can be the biggest industrial opportunity in the next 10-20 years,” Yu said.

In particular, Zhang Zheng, Professor of Computer Science, and Jeffrey Erlich, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at NYU Shanghai, joined the panel discussion over questions such as what changes AI will bring to our society in the next five years and their concerns about its expansion.

“As a citizen, I’m excited about real-time translation: something that people can wear which will allow them to talk to anyone,” said Professor Erlich.

“Considering different cultures and global security, allowing one individual on the planet to talk to another in real-time will bring enormous benefit,” he added.