Rapid technological change in intelligence and energy systems is creating a watershed moment for humanity, offering opportunities to create a more sustainable future, author Azeem Azhar argues in his engaging DLD Munich 2025 presentation, which kicks off the conference’s Exponential Track of sessions.
With a focus on pragmatic optimism, he explores how advancements in energy, artificial intelligence, and biology can create a “future positive” trajectory, provided we approach them with foresight and responsibility.
“We have a track record that shows us that once you bring technologies to bear, fundamentally technologies of intelligence or energy, the human condition improves”, Azhar notes.
For hundreds of years, the world’s economy output “remained essentially flat until we figure out how to put more energy into our economies through the steam engine”, Azhar points out. This led to railways, cars, electricity, and computing. “As these general purpose technologies come into our lives, the human condition fundamentally improves.”
Today the convergence of AI, biotechnology, material science and renewable energy promises fresh opportunities to innovate and recapture the excitement and optimism that once surrounded innovation.
