The AGI Chronicles [MAICON 2026]

Kevin Roose is an award-winning technology columnist for The New York Times and the best-selling author of three books, “Futureproof,” “Young Money,” and “The Unlikely Disciple.” His column, The Shift, examines the intersection of tech, business, and culture.

He is a recurring guest on The Daily podcast and appears regularly on leading TV and radio shows. He writes and speaks frequently on topics including automation and artificial intelligence, social media, disinformation and cybersecurity, and digital wellness. And we couldn’t be more excited to welcome him to MAICON 2026.

How to Survive the Future of Tech

Worried that he was not ready for a world dominated by AI, automation, and mind-morphing algorithms, Roose decided to do what reporters do: He went in search of answers. He interviewed experts and read a ton of books and papers. The result was his book, “Futureproof,” a guide to surviving the technological future. Originally published in 2021, “Futureproof” was re-released in September 2023 to address the more recent trends in AI and technology and how to work with them rather than against them.

A Career at the Intersection of Tech, Business, and Culture

Roose’s first job in journalism was unique: as a sophomore in college, he took a semester off and went undercover at Liberty University, Jerry Falwell’s evangelical Christian school in Lynchburg, Va. His goal was to figure out what life was like among people whom he considered his polar opposite. From his experience came his first book, “The Unlikely Disciple,” a memoir of a strange and enlightening semester “abroad.”

After college, he joined The New York Times, followed by New York magazine, and wrote a second book: “Young Money,” which chronicled the lives of eight junior Wall Street investment bankers right after the 2008 financial crisis. Before rejoining The Times in 2017, Roose produced and co-hosted a TV documentary series about technology, called “Real Future.”

At The Times, Roose writes about technology and its effects on society. Recently, that has meant a lot of coverage of companies such as Facebook and YouTube, as well as profiles of internet personalities, including PewDiePie, a Swedish YouTuber and internet comedian known for his gaming videos. He also covers social phenomena, including online radicalization and workplace automation.

Roose is the host of two New York Times podcasts: Hard Fork, a weekly chat show with Casey Newton about the wild frontier of technology, and Rabbit Hole, an eight-part series released in 2020 about how the internet is influencing our beliefs and behavior.

What Kevin Will Explore at MAICON

Roose’s keynote, The AGI Chronicles, will be one you won’t want to miss. In his keynote, Roose will share the inside story of the race to build superhuman AI. He believes that we are living through one of the most consequential technological projects in history. Every week, Roose hears stories about crazy technical breakthroughs and world-changing policy debates. Yet in an industry run on auto-deleting Signal chats, house parties, and Twitter anons, nobody seems to be writing anything down. That’s why he’s writing a new book about it, to capture it all.

“Imagine if we had no contemporaneous records of the Apollo program, or the Manhattan Project,” Roose says. “Think of how impoverished our collective understanding would be if, when we’re living in the fully-automated post-AGI utopia, no record of how it happened, when and how the key decisions were made, or who saw it coming first.”

Join Us at MAICON 2026

Kevin Roose headlines MAICON 2026 alongside 50 other AI and business leaders navigating the shift.

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Ready to really understand AI, adapt to it, and thrive? This keynote is for you. Roose will give you his honest take on how to navigate what comes next with AI. Join us at MAICON 2026.