Mo Gawdat

With a career spanning 27 years at IBM, NCR, Microsoft, and Google, Mo Gawdat helped launch close to half of Google’s global operations and later led business strategy at Google [X], home of projects like self-driving cars, Project Loon, and Makani. Driven by a passion for solving humanity’s biggest challenges, Gawdat has cofounded more than 20 companies and mentored countless startups. After the loss of his son Ali in 2014, he developed the happiness model at the heart of his bestselling book "Solve for Happy," sparking his global mission to make one billion people happy.

He went on to launch Slo Mo: A Podcast with Mo Gawdat in 2020, a #1 mental health podcast globally during its run across 319 ad-free episodes. His book "Scary Smart" predicted the rise and implications of AI that we are living today, establishing him as one of the world’s most respected experts on artificial intelligence. It was named one of the 12 best business books of 2021 by The Times. He followed with "That Little Voice in Your Head" and "Unstressable," both international bestsellers focused on increasing human resilience against unhappiness and stress. His upcoming book, "Alive," a human's guide to living in the world of AI that unpicks how we got here, what’s coming next, and, crucially, what you can do to best weather the coming storm.

Gawdat's latest tech initiative is Emma.love, a revolutionary platform combining AI matchmaking with therapist-backed coaching for meaningful relationships. He is also the subject of the 2026 documentary film "Chasing Utopia," which asks: will AI be humanity's greatest achievement or its greatest downfall?