San Francisco – September 21, 2026 -- INSEAD launched its Future Council and detailed a five-year, €15 million gift funding a new Human and Machine Intelligence Institute (HUMII) during its two-day AI Forum Americas 2026, held in San Francisco this week.
INSEAD Future Council connects enterprises, investors and academics around five delivery pillars
The newly launched Council brings together enterprises, start-ups, investors, innovation corridors, think tanks and academics with INSEAD across five pillars: talent access through MBA and EMBA student projects, research grounded in real-world industry data, curriculum design tied to current priorities, a connected alumni network, and shared research and events. Victoria Woo, Senior Director of the INSEAD San Francisco Hub of Business Innovation, described it as a two-way partnership in which INSEAD contributes its faculty and alumni network while Council members bring the strategic AI challenges companies face at scale.
€15 million alumni gift funds five-year Human and Machine Intelligence Institute
Dean of Research & Innovation Lily Fang confirmed HUMII's five-year funding and outlined its mission to research how AI can expand human agency rather than center on the technology itself. The institute's five founding principles -- open and interdisciplinary, entrepreneurial, faculty-led, quality-focused, and externally connected -- are structured so HUMII must demonstrate measurable impact to secure further funding, similar to a startup meeting milestones.
Xaira Therapeutics CEO details AI compressing drug discovery timelines from a decade to a fraction of the time
Marc Tessier-Lavigne, co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Xaira Therapeutics, opened the forum's healthcare panel by explaining how AI is reshaping target identification and clinical trial design, cutting development cycles that historically took ten years down substantially.
Apple University's Josh Cohen proposes "4A" framework to guide AI integration decisions
Josh Cohen presented a framework of four options for deploying AI at work -- automation, augmentation, addition, and avoidance -- arguing that defaulting to automation risks eroding learning and human relationships inside organizations.
Google Research VP showcases MedGemma model downloaded millions of times
On day two, Yossi Matias, Vice President at Google and head of Google Research, cited concrete deployments including wildfire-detection satellites, teacher-support tools LearnLM and NotebookLM, and the open-source medical model MedGemma, which has been downloaded millions of times. Matias said his team also uses AI as a co-scientist to generate hypotheses across research disciplines.
Possibility Sciences' Vivienne Ming closes forum arguing AI's value lies in challenging human thinking
Vivienne Ming, Chief Scientist at Possibility Sciences and author of the new book "Robot Proof: When Machines Have All the Answers, Build Better People," delivered the closing keynote. "Challenging people makes them better. Invest in better people by investing in technology that challenges us to be better," she said.
Forum marks second stop in global 2026 series, with Singapore leg set for October 30-31
The San Francisco event followed the series' launch in Paris and Fontainebleau in June and precedes the next stop in Singapore on October 30-31. The forums operate under IN:AI, INSEAD's initiative on responsible AI leadership.