Silicon Valley Reminds Harvard: America Is Land of Opportunity

At Inaugural AI Summit at Harvard University, techno-optimism abounds

From left, Harry Archerman; Arvind Jain, cofounder and CEO of Glean, an AI-powered enterprise search platform recently valued at $7.2 billion; and Francesca Dominici, at the October 21 inaugural AI Summit at Harvard University.

One consequence of President Trump’s clash with Harvard may be that it pushes the university closer to industry as academic researchers pursue corporate funding to replace federal research grant money whose future is uncertain.

If today’s Inaugural AI Summit at Harvard University is any indication, that could be constructive. And not only financially. It could also help to communicate a more hopeful story to balance the gloomy narrative—“Things are looking pretty bad right now”—widely on offer elsewhere at the university.

The America on stage at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Harvard-adjacent spot where the summit took place, was almost an entirely different one from the one you read about in the headlines or see Harvard students and professors protesting against. Instead of the racist, sexist, imperialist, authoritarian and divided America slouching toward dictatorship amid environmental degradation and inequality, speakers depicted an America of astounding technological progress and unlimited potential.

“In the U.S., it doesn’t matter what your background is, you’re gonna work hard, you’re gonna have the opportunities,” said Arvind Jain, cofounder and CEO of Glean, an AI-powered enterprise search platform recently valued at $7.2 billion. A bit later, he said, “every problem, if there’s a problem, you should go and solve it.”

Another speaker at the event, Jim Keller, the CEO of Tenstorrent, spoke of joining Apple in 2008. Steve Jobs had the concept that to build the best product, you needed the best technology, and for the best technology, you needed the best talents.