Drake University announced today the 4thAnnual Bucksbaum Lectureship in Business. Speakers Karen Hao and Nicholas Thompson will headline the lecture: “Decoding America’s Tech Moment.” Hao is a best-selling author and award-winning reporter covering artificial intelligence and Thompson is CEO of The Atlantic.
The event will take place at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 21, at the Knapp Center. The event is free and open to the public.
“We are thrilled to welcome Karen Hao and Nicholas Thompson—two of the foremost tech journalists in the world—to our campus,” said Dr. Alanah Mitchell, dean of the Zimpleman College of Business. “Their deep, behind-the-scenes knowledge of the rapidly evolving tech industry and the vast implication of AI is critical to the public’s understanding of tech’s impact on every aspect of our lives.”
Hao is a bestselling author and award-winning reporter covering artificial intelligence. She was the first journalist to profile OpenAI and wrote a book, EMPIRE OF AI, about the company and the AI industry. It was an instant New York Times bestseller, Sunday Times bestseller, New York Times notable book, and winner of six awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction. She sits on the board of AI Now, a research institute challenging and reimagining the current trajectory of AI development. She also co-created the Pulitzer Center’s AI Spotlight Series, a program that trains thousands of journalists around the world on how to cover AI, and the AI Resist List, a project that counters Silicon Valley’s inevitability narrative by showcasing global grassroots movements holding it accountable. Visit Hao’s website for more details.
About Nicholas Thompson
Thompson has been CEO of The Atlantic since 2021. During that time, the publication has won three National Magazine Awards for General Excellence, three Pulitzer Prizes, and been named Digiday’s Publisher of the Year. He was previously the editor-in-chief of WIRED and the editor of NewYorker.com. Thompson is also a cofounder of The Atavist, a multimedia CMS that was sold to WordPress, and Speakeasy.ai, which was sold to Amplica Labs. He is a board member at ProRata.AI and The National Committee on American Foreign Policy, as well as the author of The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War. He films a daily video on tech policy for LinkedIn and has roughly two million followers across social media platforms. Visit Thompson’s LinkedIn profile for more information about him.
The lecture is free, open to the public, and will be livestreamed at live.drake.edu.
About the Bucksbaum Lectureship in BusinessThe Bucksbaum Lectureship in Business is a signature event of Drake’s Zimpleman College of Business. The lectureship is made possible by a generous gift from the Bucksbaum family. It brings distinguished leaders in business and economics to Des Moines to engage with students, faculty, and the community. The discussions focus on how business and entrepreneurialism can create both an economic and societal impact.