The debate brought together some of the most prominent voices on both sides of the AI debate. Jaron Lanier, renowned computer scientist, virtual reality pioneer and author of bestsellers Who Owns the Future? and You Are Not a Gadget highlighted the problems with AI, along with Andrew Keen, author of The Internet is Not the Answer.

Martine Rothblatt, founder of United Therapeutics and Sirius Radio, who is a proponent of technological immortality and the creator of BINA48, a "sentient humanoid" modeled after her wife, focused on the benefits of AI. As did James Hughes, executive director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. He is author of Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future.