Biography
Rizwan Virk is a visiting student at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence. His research is investigating the representation in media of, nature of, and governance of AI personalities and virtual characters inside the metaverse, sometimes known as SmartNPCs or embodied AI or virtual humans.
He is currently a PhD candidate at Arizona State University's College of Global Futures, and a research associate at ASU's Center for Science and the Imagination. His research includes the application of futures practices and narrative science fiction on technological innovation, particularly when it involves video games and the metaverse. He is also a faculty associate at ASU's Fulton Schools of Engineering, teaching interdisciplinary classes on virtual characters, virtual environments, and the intersection of consciousness, philosophy and religion with AI.
He is the bestselling author of The Simulation Hypothesis: An MIT Computer Scientist Shows Why AI, Quantum Physics and Eastern Mystics Agree We are in a Computer Game, and Startup Myths & Models:What You Won't Learn in Business School (from Columbia Business School Press). His writings, books and interviews have appeared everywhere from TechCrunch to NBC News to CNN to BBC Science Focus and Scientific American.
Prior to his academic career, Rizwan was a successful entrepreneur in the video game industry, having co-created the #1 game int he app store. He was also a venture capitalist / investor in Silicon Valley, and ran the Play Labs @ MIT startup accelerator at the MIT Game Lab. He is also a venture partner at one of the largest video game venture capital funds in the world, Griffin Gaming Partners.
His prior degrees include an M.S. from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, and B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from MIT, and he did his undergraduate research at the MIT Media Lab.