Artificial Intelligence has moved from theory to force. It is reshaping economies, accelerating scientific discovery, and redistributing power at a speed unmatched by any previous technology. The real question is no longer whether AI will change the world, but whether humanity is still directing that change.

Ken Mulvany brings a practitioner’s perspective from more than a decade of building and deploying AI systems in healthcare. During the COVID-19 pandemic, his company used AI to scan existing medicines and identified baricitinib as a potential treatment in just 48 hours. It went on to become the first FDA-approved drug discovered by AI and was used to treat tens of thousands of patients in the NHS alone. The lesson was clear: AI’s true strength is not speed, but scope, the ability to connect vast bodies of knowledge in ways no human mind can.

This same capability could transform energy, climate modelling, materials science, food security and crisis prediction. But benefits are not automatic. AI is not an autonomous moral force; it is a mirror that magnifies human intent. Incentives, governance and access will determine whether it serves the public good or entrenches inequality and concentration of power.

On this panel, Ken will explore AI as the latest great experiment with power, comparable to fire, electricity or nuclear energy. He will discuss economic disruption, job redesign, geopolitical competition, and the urgent need for transparent, accountable governance. Ultimately, the next decade will decide whether AI becomes a shared utility that augments human judgement or a force that outpaces our ability to control it.