University of Alberta Convocation Address
Rich Sutton, March 18, 2026
Good afternoon graduating students, parents, and ladies and
gentlemen of the university community.
It is my great honor to receive this degree from the University of
Alberta. I am receiving this honor because of my work in
artificial intelligence, so I thought I would take this
opportunity to talk to you all about the public perception of AI.
Today, talk of AI is everywhere. In the news, on billboards, in
almost every software product. The headlines scream that
intelligence is now a commodity, that conventional programming
jobs are disappearing, and that almost all current jobs will soon
be automated. There are anxious calls for AI development to be
paused or stopped, for fear that an AI will take over the world.
Others claim that AI will lead to tremendous increases in
productivity, that our new economies may require AI, and that
accelerating AI development may be the only way to avoid
recession.
The current level of public excitement about AI is a new thing.
The field is about 70 years old, and for most of this time it has
been like any other specialized intellectual activity. Experts did
research, wrote papers, and went to conferences. There was always
a hope, a belief, that AI research would someday have a big impact
on the economy and on society. After all, the aim was to
understand intelligence, humanity’s most prized distinguishing
feature, the ability that made us powerful. If intelligence was
understood, then we could build tools that would make us vastly
more powerful. But it would also challenge us. If we understood
minds, then we could create minds stronger than our own. Would we
just use them, or would we have to become them? The success of AI
— of understanding our minds — is a step that cannot help but be
profoundly challenging and transformative.
Is this what is happening today? In short, no. We do not
yet understand how to make minds like our own, that are truly
aware of their world and their influence on it, and that are
powerful as a result. The coming of true AI still lies in the
future, but what is happening now is almost as profound. It is not
the moment when true AI arrives, but it is the moment when it
becomes clear to the public that true AI will arrive. It
is the moment of first contact between the public and the reality
of AI in its midst. This moment is pivotal for our society and its
relationship to machine minds. Will we fear them and suppress
them, or will we embrace them, and even become them? Will we see
the AIs as alien competitors, or as our progeny? This is the
moment when we have that discussion.
“Discussion” of course seems too tame a word. It is loud and
noisy. It is controversial at so many levels. It is utopic and
dystopic. It is tech billionaires and manipulative governments.
And so much of it is driven by fear. Fear of the Terminator and
Skynet, of people losing jobs and the machines taking over, of the
world suddenly changing underneath us without our permission. The
AI fear-mongers have not helped us see clearly, but they have
gotten us to pay attention.
So, this is what is happening now. Not true AI — that is yet to
come, and probably not for another decade or two. But now the
public is realizing that it is coming, that mind really can be
reproduced in machines, and what that might mean.
So when you hear about AI and wonder what is really going on, when
you feel powerless because you don’t understand the technology,
when you feel that things are changing too fast and that you are
being left out, remember this: The reality is exactly the
opposite. You have not been passed by and you are not powerless.
In fact, you are the main event at this moment. You are what it is
all about. You and your reaction, your time and attention, your
fear and your dollars, are what it is really all about. Society is
struggling over the AI narrative, over how the public thinks about
AI, and your part of that is in your head and under your control.
It is you that all the newspapers and AI companies are trying to
influence.
Of course, I too am trying to influence you. What I want is for
you to relax and think, to not be afraid, but to pay attention. I
want you to know that true AI is not here yet, but that it is
coming. I want you to know that machine minds will be joining us
in the near future. We have not met them yet, so really it is too
soon to be judging them. I want you to be open to the machine
minds. I don’t want you to feel entitled — to feel that you were
here first, and that therefore you should always have priority.
You are the creator species, so you will always be special and
perhaps revered, even if you are superseded in some ways.
In summary, when science brings us machine minds, I want you to be
open, humble and generous to the new arrivals, in the best
Canadian tradition. Can we do that? I hope so.
Thank you for your attention today.