Last week, Lux convened about 300 AI engineers, scientists, researchers and founders in New York City to discuss the frontiers of the field under the banner of “the AI canvas.” The idea was to move the conversation away from what can be built, to what should be built and why. AI tools have made extraordinary progress since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, and we are still just figuring out all of the ways we can use these miraculous correlation machines.Even so, there remains prodigious work on the research frontiers of artificial intelligence to identify ways of improving model performance, merging models together, and ensuring that training and inference costs are as efficient as possible. To that end, we brought together two stars of the science world to talk more about the future of AI.Kyunghyun Cho is a computer science professor at New York University and executive director of frontier research at the Prescient Design team within Genentech Research & Early Development (gRED). Shirley Ho is Group Leader of Cosmology X Data Science at the Flatiron Institute of the Simons Foundation as well as Research Professor in Physics at New York University.Together with hosts Danny Crichton and Laurence Pevsner, we talk about the state of the art in AI today, how scientific discovery can potentially be automated with AI, whether PhDs are a thing of the past, and what the future of universities is in a time of funding cuts and endowment taxes.
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17:52
The present and future of wargaming
Riskgaming is part of the broader movement known as wargaming, playful experiences designed to improve decision-making across domains like defense planning, business leadership and competitive analysis. It’s a burgeoning field, and it has now attracted its very own publication in the form of the Substack newsletter Wargaming Weekly. This week, I talk with the editor Rwizi Rweizooba Ainomugisha. He’s a wargaming fanatic based in Uganda, where he first started learning the gaming world in high school by building an underground casino. He then discovered gamification while working in B2B marketing before eventually entering the wargaming world as a player and now as a designer of two micro-games. He’s also a co-founder of the gamified fintech startup, Lupiiya Books. We talk about Rwizi’s background, how gamification is infiltrating all kinds of different fields, the rise of wargaming and the artificial delineations that still plague the field, the ebb and flow of strategic thinking, and finally, why solitaire games offer a unique on-ramp into this world.
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39:50
Riskgaming State of the Union
In this episode, Danny Crichton and Laurence Pevsner do a special outdoor recording from Carmel, where they reflect on the successful launch of their latest game, Gray Matter, at multiple locations, including the Lux Leaders retreat. The hosts discuss the emergent gameplay that surprised them, from spontaneous character-driven debates to unexpected trading outcomes. They explore the game's core mechanics around information markets, attention economies, and strategic publication decisions—examining how players navigate the tension between keeping information proprietary versus making it public for advantage.The conversation shifts to Southwest Silicon, their recently launched deep-dive simulation focused on Arizona's semiconductor industry and water security challenges. Danny and Laurence discuss how this immersive format differs from their larger salon experiences, highlighting the complex world of water rights in the American Southwest and how players grappled with resource allocation decisions that mirror real-world policy dilemmas.Looking ahead, the hosts preview upcoming games exploring urban automation, critical mineral supply chains, university research funding, civil infrastructure security, and the future of international development institutions. They discuss their philosophy of using game design to model emerging technologies and reimagine institutional frameworks for an AI-driven future.
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The global future of wargaming in Lithuania
Wargaming (of which Riskgaming is but one example) has a long and global history, from Europe and Asia into the Americas. Yet, its utility is increasingly being recognized by business, military and political leaders as a more authentic way to understand the behavior of people across all kinds of contexts. Competition, incentives, risk and decision-making flow together in a way that traditional policy memos and consultant-written PPTs can’t compare.That’s part of the work that Pijus Krūminas is focused on. He’s a professor at Lithuania’s ISM University of Management and Economics and is the head of its Wargaming Lab. His research converges the social sciences into modeling and simulations, tapping into fields like political economy, game theory, management and more to create a new synthesis.Subbing for host Danny Crichton this week is Ian Curtiss, our independent Riskgaming scenario designer, who recently launched Southwest Silicon as Lux’s latest offering.Ian and Pijus talk about simulating the polycrisis, how academic research flows into wargaming design, how students are learning through experiences, why political economy is overlooked compared to traditional military wargames, and a variety of recommended games for newcomers to the field.
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Behind the scenes of our new scenario, Southwest Silicon
One of the best parts of running a game studio and policy shop here at Riskgaming at Lux Capital is the actual public launch of a new game. That day is today, because we are dropping Southwest Silicon to the world. It’s a game that models the tensions between residents, farmers as well as old and new industries in the context of the rise of chip fabs in Arizona. Water security is one of the most challenging and complex issues facing the American Southwest, and through the lens of nine characters in the game, we hope to leave every player with a more profound set of questions on what’s next as America continues to grow.On the podcast today, host Danny Crichton talks with the game’s designer, Ian Curtiss. Ian previously designed our Chinese electric vehicle scenario, Powering Up, and now he brings his hometown lens to bear on the future of advanced manufacturing and economic development.The two talk about the game’s design, its implications and what we’ve witnessed as we have watched players the world over compete over the future of silicon and sand. Listen in, and we hope you join a live runthrough soon — or host your own.
A podcast by venture capital firm Lux Capital on the opportunities and risks of science, technology, finance and the human condition. Hosted by Danny Crichton from our New York City studios.
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