Atul Jalan

Cofounder, Manthan

Search every verified Atul Jalan interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Atul Jalan, cofounder of Manthan, spoke at the Cypher 2017 conference about the trajectory of human evolution and artificial intelligence. He said that AI is at a "tipping point" that is both promising and threatening to take humanity into "hitherto unknown territory." Jalan argued that technology now allows humans to "weed out disease, pain, old age and death from our lives," and that the next evolutionary step for humanity could be an "upgrade to God." He described three possible paths to this: machines becoming more human-like, genetic engineering of humans, or humans becoming half-machine hybrids. Jalan also discussed the ethical implications of such advancements, stating that if humanity is moving toward "God-like capabilities," new codes of ethics and a "math of morality" must be developed. He noted that humans are already "part cyborgs" through smartphone use, and that services like 23andMe have made genetic readouts accessible. Jalan raised questions about the future of work, comparing the displacement of jobs by driverless cars to the displacement of horses in the first Industrial Revolution.