Keynote Speaking
From the frontier of production AI and the ideas in The AI Instinct (Wiley)
Function1 2025: Opening Keynote — Fighting AI with AI · 10,000+ Attendees
Keynote Topics
Artificial General Experience and the Next Architecture of Mind
This talk introduces Artificial General Experience, or AGE, as a missing dimension in current AGI discourse, arguing that the next architecture of mind will require not more intelligence alone, but intelligence joined with experience, continuity, consequence, and lived internal structure, enabled by systems that integrate persistent internal state, temporally extended memory, valuation, self modeling, and adaptive perception action loops.
Hybrid Cognition: When Humans and Machines Become One System
The next unit of intelligence is not human or machine. It is both, functioning as one coupled system. This talk explores how hybrid cognition is already reshaping decision-making in defense, healthcare, and finance, and what happens to agency, accountability, and identity when the boundary between biological and computational thinking becomes porous.
Fighting AI with AI: Deepfakes, Trust, and the Future of Authenticity
Hearing is no longer believing. Audio deepfakes can now fool voice authentication systems, families, and even military command chains. This talk draws from Behavioral Signals' production deepfake detection work to explain how behavioral mapping, temporal modeling, and vocal biomarker analysis are becoming the last line of defense against synthetic deception.
The AI Instinct: What Happens When AI Shapes How We Think and Feel
AI was built by modeling human cognition. For decades, machines excelled at slow, deliberate reasoning while humans dominated fast, intuitive, emotion-based thinking. That boundary is now fading. This talk explores how modern AI systems already influence what gets trusted, what gets believed, and how decisions get made.
Superintelligence Will Not Be a Machine. It Will Be Us.
The dominant narrative imagines superintelligence as a godlike external mind. Rana argues for a fundamentally different view: superintelligence emerges not from a standalone system but from the tight integration of human and machine cognition, when hybrid systems become continuous, scalable, and consistently outperform either side alone.
From Production AI to the Philosophy of Mind: A Builder's Perspective
Rana has spent years shipping production AI systems that infer intent, emotion, and risk from voice in real time. This talk bridges the gap between building real systems and the deeper questions they raise about cognition, consciousness, and what it means to be human.
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On Stages Around the World
Past Speaking Venues
What Organizers Say
“The room was still talking about Rana's talk two days later.”
TNW Conference
“One of the most requested speakers we've ever had.”
DeepFest (LEAP)
“He spoke to government leaders and technologists in the same room and held both.”
GovAI Summit
“Stayed an hour after his session taking questions. That never happens.”
DSC Europe
“Our audience left understanding AI differently than when they walked in.”
World AI Cannes Festival (WAICF)
“Had our security audience leaning in from the first minute.”
SIA GovSummit
“We've invited him back twice. That should tell you everything.”
Rise of AI Conference
“Tailored perfectly to our audience. No generic keynote.”
CONAREC
Speaker Resources
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