Future of Intelligence Convening
Future of Intelligence Convening
Thursday, October 22, 2026
San José State University, Student Union
As AI becomes increasingly ubiquitous, what do we mean by intelligence—and how is it being reshaped in contemporary life?
The Future of Intelligence Convening will bring approximately 50 leading thinkers and cross-disciplinary scholars to San José State University for a highly interactive, discussion-driven day. The convening will include invitation-only discussions and a public keynote address by distinguished scholar N. Katherine Hayles. The keynote is open to the entire SJSU campus community.
This gathering is the inaugural event in a new “Future of” series, designed to bring leading thinkers together for focused, forward-looking conversations about critical questions shaping our world.
About the Convening
The notion of intelligence has a long and colorful history and continues to generate significant scholarly and public interest. This workshop invites us to look ahead—to imagine the future of intelligence and to consider how its meanings, forms, and implications may evolve in the years to come. The convening will be organized around key framing questions and structured small-group dialogues, grounded in a brief set of pre-readings shared in advance.
Participants will explore questions including:
- What are the histories, current challenges, and tensions that will shape the future study of intelligence?
- What do we mean by the term intelligence in the current and historical context, and how is the concept of intelligence being shaped by the current social-cultural and political-economic contexts?
- How might emerging forms of intelligence—human and non-human—transform our understanding of cognition and consciousness?
- In what ways do artificial systems that mimic human behavior help or hinder this inquiry?
- Is intelligence inherently embodied, or can it meaningfully exist exclusively in non-human systems?
- What are the stakes of adopting broader or narrower definitions of intelligence in the future and marginalizing our histories of intelligence?
Public Keynote Address
N. Katherine Hayles
UCLA Distinguished Research Professor
James B. Duke Distinguished Professor Emerita of Literature, Duke University
Time: 4:00-5:00pm
Register for the Keynote Address
The entire SJSU campus community is invited to attend the keynote address.
N. Katherine Hayles is an internationally recognized scholar whose work has shaped contemporary conversations about cognition, media, technology and technogenesis.
Her influential books include Postprint: Books and Becoming Computational (Columbia University Press, 2021), Unthought: The Power of the Cognitive Nonconscious (University of Chicago Press, 2017), and How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis (University of Chicago Press, 2012). She has also authored more than 100 peer-reviewed articles.
Her books have received numerous honors, including the René Wellek Prize for How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics and the Suzanne Langer Award for Writing Machines. Her fellowships and honors include two National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Rockefeller Foundation residency at Bellagio and two University of California Presidential Research Fellowships. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Learn more about Professor Hayles on the UCLA Department of English website and at nkhayles.com.
Event Participation
The daytime convening is an invitation-only gathering for invited participants. The keynote address is open to the SJSU campus community.
Sponsorship and Planning
The Future of Intelligence Convening is sponsored by the Office of the Provost at San José State University.
Steering Committee
- Sandy Hirsh, Special Assistant to the Provost for AI Initiatives
- Yu Chen, Associate Professor, Information Systems and Technology
- Roberto González, Professor, Anthropology
- Vishnu Pendyala, Associate Professor, Applied Data Science
- Jon Rawski, Assistant Professor, Linguistics
- Janet Stemwedel, Professor and Chair, Philosophy
Questions
For more information, contact Sandy Hirsh at sandy.hirsh@sjsu.edu.
