AI for Everyone

The pace of change in AI has outrun almost everyone trying to make sense of it. Students are using it to write papers. Workers are using it to do their jobs faster, or quietly worrying it'll do their jobs instead. Entrepreneurs are building entire companies around it. Competitors are using it whether you are or not. And still, most of what you've read about it is either breathless hype or end-of-the-world panic, with very little in between.

Spend an evening with Kevin Goldberg and Alan Hellawell for a plain-English conversation about where AI actually is today, where it's headed, and what it means for your work, your family, and the decisions you're making right now. No jargon. No doom. No magic.

Why This Conversation, Why Now

Most public conversations about AI fall into one of two camps. The first is hype: every new tool will change the world by Tuesday. The second is panic: the robots are coming for your job, your future, everything. Neither is especially useful if you're trying to figure out what to actually do on Monday morning.

This event is for the rest of us. For the student trying to understand the world they're about to step into and which skills still matter. For the new graduate hunting a first job in a market that looks different than the one they were prepared for. For the professional who uses ChatGPT a few times a week and suspects there's more going on than they realize. For the entrepreneur trying to figure out where AI fits into the business. For the experienced worker who keeps meaning to "learn AI" but gets buried under articles that assume you already know what a large language model is.

Whatever your starting point, this is an honest conversation between two people who've spent their careers at the intersection of technology and the real world.

The Format

This is a fireside chat, not a lecture. Alan Hellawell, a technology financier with three decades at the intersection of tech and capital will interview Kevin Goldberg, an AI educator and 30+ year software veteran. The format is deliberately conversational: questions, follow-ups, the occasional tangent. The kind of exchange you'd get sitting in on a thoughtful dinner conversation rather than a slide deck.

What You'll Walk Out With

A working mental model of what AI (like ChatGPT or Claude) actually is, and what it isn't. Why the same tool that writes a brilliant essay can confidently invent fake legal cases. Why AI is moving beyond chat and starting to take action on your behalf, and what that shift means in practice. Why the AI you tried a year ago and gave up on isn't the same product anymore, at all.

And while much of this feels unprecedented, it isn't entirely. We'll connect today's moment to past technology shifts such as calculators, word processors, YouTube, and electricity, to help you make sense of where we are in this shift, and how to harness this one rather than be steamrolled by it.

Speakers

Alan Hellawell spent his career at the intersection of technology and finance, starting in Silicon Valley, then 20+ years in Hong Kong and Singapore taking some of Asia's most promising tech companies public. He now advises Asia-based startups and teaches MBA students in finance and leadership. Princeton undergrad; MBA and Master's in East Asian Studies from Stanford.

Kevin Goldberg is the CEO of iS2 Digital, a Wharton graduate, and a best-selling author. He's spent 30+ years in software, with clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to emerging businesses. He authors the newsletter Artificially Intelligent, Actually Useful, and has built a reputation for cutting through AI noise and giving people something they can actually use.