Speaker: Sarah E. Hunt, Founder and President, Joseph Rainey Center for Public Policy
In this urgent examination of 21st-century geopolitics, Hunt explores the critical distinction between artificial intelligence agents — systems vulnerable to optimization without moral understanding — and human agency, our capacity for self-determination and moral reasoning.
The Chinese Communist Party’s massive energy infrastructure advantage, adding 10 times more electrical capacity than America in 2024, threatens to determine global AI leadership and whether authoritarian or democratic values shape human-AI interaction. Hunt will argue that America must build energy abundance through a conservative approach to light-touch industrial policy mobilization akin to WWII or the Cold War to preserve Western civilization’s commitment to individual freedom, constitutional governance, and human flourishing in the age of artificial intelligence.
The Weston Roundtable is made possible by a generous donation from Roy F. Weston, a highly accomplished UW-Madison alumnus. Designed to promote a robust understanding of sustainability science, engineering, and policy, these interactive lectures are co-sponsored by the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE), the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and the Office of Sustainability.