Neil Jacobstein

Chair, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

Neil Jacobstein Chairs the AI and Robotics Track at Singularity University. He is a founding faculty member, and a former President of Singularity University. Jacobstein is a mediaX Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Stanford University where his research focuses on augmented decision systems. He was a Senior Research Fellow in the Reuters Digital Vision Program at Stanford. He was CEO of Teknowledge Corporation, a pioneering AI company, that developed hybrid AI applications systems for industry and government. He has served as an AI technical consultant to leading business, government, and defense organizations including Deloitte, PWC, XPRIZE, GM, Ford, Boeing, ING, Wells Fargo, Citibank, J.D. Edwards, UBS, FMC, P&G, Harman, GE, Wipro, Dow, Genentech, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Applied Materials, Samsung, Fijitsu, Mount Sinai Harris Center, Texas Medical Center, YPO, PWC, Google, IBM, NSF, DARPA, NASA, NIH, EPA, DOE, Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and the intelligence community.

Jacobstein chaired the 17th Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence's (AAAI) Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI) Conference and has reviewed IAAI technical papers from 1998-2019. Jacobstein is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute. He has moderated Aspen Institute seminars on the technical and ethical implications of advanced technologies such as machine learning. He is a member of the board of the Aspen Institute New Zealand. He created and moderated over 50 “Exponentials on Trial” mock trials that examined the ethics of AI and robotics with international executives and students. He was a Graduate Research Intern in Alan Kay's Learning Research Group at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, and a consultant in PARC's Software Concepts Group. Since 1992, he has served as Chairman of the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing, a 501c3 nanotechnology R&D organization.

Jacobstein was appointed by the US National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to the Earth and Life Studies Committee for the period 2015-2021. He is deeply interdisciplinary and has a keen sense of how the arts and sciences can integrate. Neil is an engaging public speaker who can make complex topics clear to diverse audiences. He has given invited talks worldwide on the technical, business, and ethical implications of AI, robotics, and nanotechnology. He was appointed in 2016 to the Founding Editorial Board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science's (AAAS) Science Robotics journal. Jacobstein is serving in a wide variety of executive and advisory roles for industry, startup, nonprofit, and government organizations.