Author Archives: Lab Manager

Invited Speaker at the Post-AGI Workshop: Economics, Culture and Governance

In May, I gave a talk titled “Cultural Evolution and Alignment” at the Post-AGI Workshop: Economics, Culture and Governance hosted at Lighthaven in Berkeley, California.

In my presentation, I drew on the Cultural Brain Hypothesis and human evolutionary history to argue that we have already lived through a cognitive-outsourcing event: human brains shrank in volume over the Holocene as cognition moved into externalized stores, institutions, and distributed networks. I argued that AGI represents a phase transition because tools do not deliberate, but AGIs act as self-replicating agents subject to multi-agent evolutionary selection regimes.

Rather than focusing solely on aligning individual AI models, I emphasized that civilizational alignment is a property of the selection landscape itself. Preserving human flourishing requires either maintaining human utility within competing AGI lineages or engineering a new cultural-overlay equivalent for AI populations.

My sincere thanks to the organizers, David Duvenaud, Raymond Douglas, and Jan Kulveit, for putting together such an interdisciplinary and forward-looking workshop!

Panel Chair at the 2026 CES Conference

In May, I had the pleasure of attending the 2026 Cultural Evolution Society Conference (CES 2026) at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Rabat, Morocco.

I organized and chaired a special thematic session titled “From Theory to the World: Four Decades of Cultural Evolution”, celebrating the 40th anniversary of Robert Boyd and Peter Richerson’s seminal 1985 book, Culture and the Evolutionary Process. The panel brought together three of Rob Boyd’s former students, Joseph Henrich, Cristina Moya, and Sarah Mathew, alongside Rob Boyd himself to reflect on how the field has transformed from a provocative hypothesis into a unifying framework across the human sciences.

In my talk introducing and closing the session, I focused on the applied frontiers of cultural evolution. I discussed how these models are moving beyond academic theory to inform real-world policy and social design. They are also shaping decisions in domains ranging from education to global development, and demonstrating how cultural evolutionary frameworks can help design better futures.

My sincere thanks to Rob, Joe, Cristina, and Sarah for an incredible session, and to the Cultural Evolution Society, AIRESS, and UM6P for hosting a memorable conference!

Invited Speaker at WAMES 2026

I had the opportunity to speak at the inaugural Washington Area Meeting of Economic Scientists (WAMES), hosted by the Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science (ICES) at George Mason University’s Arlington Campus.

In my talk, “Introducing the Centre for Human Progress,” I discussed our work toward understanding and supporting human flourishing, institutional innovation, and societal progress.

My sincere thanks to ICES and George Mason University for hosting the event and bringing together researchers across behavioral and experimental economic sciences!

Invited Speaker at BX2025

I had the opportunity to speak at the 2025 Behavioral Exchange Conference hosted by the Behavioral Insights Team (BIT) and the Behavioral Science Group at NYU Abu Dhabi. This year, the conference focused on New Frontiers in Behavioral Science, bringing to life the latest developments in the field and hearing from the people behind them.

In my talk, I explored how AI can allow us to solve the current problem of the lack of generalizability and specificity in behavioral science. I also participated in a panel on the power of social connections and community with Michael Bailey from Meta and Wardah Malik from BEworks.

My deepest thanks to the Behavioural Insights Team and the the Behavioral Science Group for hosting the event and inviting me!

Invited talk at Brunel University

Earlier this month, I was invited to give a talk at Brunel University’s Centre for Culture and Evolution in London. In my talk, I discussed the cultural evolution of intelligence, including insights from my book A Theory of Everyone and from my previous work in these papers:

My thanks to the Centre for Culture and Evolution for inviting me and organizing the event!

Invited talk at Google

I was recently invited to give a talk at Google. During this talk I discussed cultural evolution and AI, as well as my work measuring and mapping scales of cultural and psychological distance.

More information about these topics can be found below:

  • White, C. J. M., Muthukrishna, M. (equal senior) & Norenzayan, A. (2021). Worldwide evidence of cultural similarity among co-religionists within and across countries using the World Values Survey. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118 (37) e2109650118. [Download] [Supplementary] [Publisher] [Twitter]
  • Muthukrishna, M., Henrich, J. & Slingerland, E. (2021). Psychology as a Historical Science. Annual Review ofPsychology, 72, 717-49. [Download] [Publisher] [Summary Post] [Twitter]
  • Muthukrishna, M., Bell, A. V., Henrich, J., Curtin, C., Gedranovich, A., McInerney, J. & Thue, B. (2020). Beyond Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) Psychology: Measuring and Mapping Scales of Cultural and Psychological Distance. Psychological Science, 31(6), 678-701. [Download] [Supplementary] [Code] [Summary Post] [Publisher] [Twitter]
  • Uchiyama, R., Spicer, R. & Muthukrishna, M. (2021). Cultural Evolution of Genetic Heritability. [Target article]. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1-147. [Download] [Summary Post] [Publisher] [Twitter]

My deepest thanks to Google for having me!

Invited speaker at the 2024 Wallace Wurth Lecture

Last month I was invited to speak at the 2024 Wallace Wurth Lecture at the University of New South Whales in Sydney, Australia. In conversation with UNSW Scientia Professor Rob Brooks, I discussed my book, A Theory of Everyone, and how cultural evolution and social learning shape everything from our daily decisions to the fate of entire civilizations.

Thank you to UNSW for having me!