Athena Aktipis
@athenaaktipis
Professor at ASU, Executive Director at Cooperative Futures Institute
ProSocial World in partnership with Cooperative Futures Institute and others, is hosting Evolving AI at Harvard this October - a gathering of AI researchers and evolutionary scientists exploring what AI means as an evolutionary transition.
I was on @kjzzphoenix.bsky.social this morning talking about why academia avoids scary futures and how the zombie apocalypse gives researchers across disciplines a shared language to actually tackle them. 🧟
The Cooperative Futures Institute and Frontier Tower present an evening salon with Geoffrey Miller, Emmett Shear, and myself discussing this pivotal moment in time with AI and evolving a cooperative future with it.
Excited to be talking about ideas related to this post - about how replicator dynamics and hijacking evolve in AI systems - at the International Society for Evolution, Ecology, and Cancer meeting this week in Crete. open.substack.com/pub/athenaak...
This morning I’ll be talking about the Cooperation Benchmark and what biology can teach us about building AI. Most benchmarks measure what a system can do on its own. What we’re asking is what does it look like when AI actually shows up for you? See you at 10am! @humantechweek.bsky.social
This was in Greece last summer. I’m excited to return, this time for ISEEC! You still have time to register and submit your breaking abstracts. Check it out: www.eventbrite.com/e/2026-iseec...
I'm speaking at Human+Tech Week in San Francisco next week. It's not a conference. It's an offsite for people building what comes next across health, work, and cities, with the human stakes kept front and center.
Cooperative Futures Academy is happening this June in SF! Join us for a four-day intensive that applies cooperation science and evolutionary theory to intelligence, health, AI alignment, and system design.
TONIGHT! Hear from Devinder & Alexia from Frontier Tower in San Francisco about how to cultivate community, arts and coworking - and making it a viable model that can be duplicated. It all starts at 5:30 PM tonight at The Dark Side in Tempe. See you soon!
We are currently moving into the era of Web 4.0, in which digital entities have an unprecedented ability to process information and behave autonomously. Read my latest Substack post “The Digital Cambrian: Evolution, Autonomy, and the Rise of the Agentic Web”. substack.com/@athenaaktip...
Nobel Prize winner, Geoffrey Hinton, has suggested that making AI “love us like a mother” could help keep it safe. It’s an intuitive idea. But evolution tells a more complicated story.
I’ll be giving a keynote at the upcoming symposium “Organisms, Algorithms, and Alignment” at the Bielefeld University in Germany on March 24. The alignment problem is not new.
I’ve been putting a lot of my heart and soul - along with my brains - into writing substack posts these last few month so it’s really exciting to see that it’s having impact. It’s at #14 Rising in Science!
Excited to share that I’ll be in Davos this week for the World Economic Forum.
Since it cost a lot to win And even more to lose You and me bound to spend some time Wondering what to choose This line from the Grateful Dead’s Deal has been on my mind as the new year begins - not as a metaphor about gambling or fate, but as a statement about choice under uncertainty.
For most of our evolutionary history, alcohol looked nothing like today’s Bud Lights, Margaritas, or White Claws.
I’m delighted to share that I’ll be hosting at Human Tech Week in SF this Spring.
Join me Tuesday with authors J. Arvid Agren and Manus M. Patten for the launch of their book The Paradox of the Organism: Adaptation and Internal Conflict.
The AI safety conversation focuses on alignment, making powerful systems do what we want. But what if that’s the wrong question? What if the issue isn’t controlling one system, but cultivating healthy ecosystems? substack.com/home/post/p-...
I talked to Human Energy about the topics I’ll be discussing this evening during the Global Salon Series panel. Check out the link to join the conversation that starts at 7 pm pst! www.youtube.com/live/73om6Pw...
I started a Substack called Not For Peer Review. I’ve filled my notebooks with ideas, many of which have inspired my articles and books. But there are so many ideas that I haven’t published, and, if I’m being honest with myself, I know I will never publish through the traditional peer review system.
I thought I was extremely lucky - then, a flicker. Something floated up from my subconscious: My mom’s autopsy report. My essay about the secret my mom took with her to the grave, and how learning it changed my life. https://www.transformationnarratives.com/blog/2020/05/28/the-secret-she-never-knew
Excited to keynote IT@UofT Transforming Tomorrow conference at the University of Toronto this Thursday! Amid pandemics, climate change & AI advances, many doubt our resilience. Yet history shows humans repeatedly adapt to existential threats. https://conference2025.its.utoronto.ca/schedule/speakers/
Just had the best experience again at the @buenavidabodega with Rae and Jackie! The Apocalypse Road Show brought together academics and artists alike who share a community-based vision. While my conversations about hosting events at the bodega may have begun with these (cont.)
What's the science behind our love of horror? 🧟♂️ Dr. Coltan Scrivner presents "The Evolution of Scary Play" at ASU From horror films to apocalyptic scenarios, explore how morbid curiosity shapes human behavior and builds resilience. Feb 6, 3:30PM (AZ) PSY 230 / Zoom
With only a few clicks, you too can look like my friend Paola here holding her very own copy of AFGTTA! This little gem is packed with fascinating insights and tips on navigating any apocalyptic scenario—and my book is pretty helpful, too! ;)