The Merritt Dialogues: AI

The Merritt Dialogues presents AI: Can We Control What We Create?, a provocative conversation on the future of artificial intelligence with Roman Yampolskiy and Rumman Chowdhury, moderated in person by Jeff Chang, author of Water Mirror Echo.

Join us at The New Parkway in Uptown Oakland for an evening that bridges technology, ethics, and art. Our distinguished thinkers will explore what it means to create intelligence we may not fully understand or be able to contain. This is a watch party format with both speakers presented virtually on the big screen and the moderator in person. Only the in-person audience will experience a live performance by a local Oakland artist and a community post-discussion. Drinks and food are available from the theater and books will be for sale after the event.

Both in-person and virtual tickets are available for this hybrid event. Come engage in one of the most urgent conversations of our time.

Series description: The quarterly Merritt Dialogues, launched in Uptown Oakland in 2025, invites us into generative conversation—where two thinkers, whose viewpoints may align or diverge, engage in dialogue that engenders critical thinking and deepens understanding of complex issues. Our aim is not to sway but to illuminate, cultivating nuance and richer perspective. Rather than trickle up or down, insights move in and out, sending reverberations through our myceliadic communities, weaving empathy and complexity into our collective consciousness. Participants will leave not only transformed as individuals, but also as threads in a larger societal stitching, our communal weave ever more intricate and alive.