Across cultures
I have lived and worked in eleven countries and speak multiple languages. Everywhere I went, people wanted the same things we do: security, connection, dignity and purpose.
About Vernon Pipkin
An engineer’s mind.
A life shaped by people.
Engineering, travel, music and the people I have loved have shaped the way I approach my work, and the world.
A foundation
in engineering.
I studied engineering at UC Berkeley, and for more than 25 years I have worked with architects, contractors, governments and owners on some of the most demanding buildings there are: as value engineer on Visa’s headquarters in Foster City, and today as risk manager on Skywaters Residences in Singapore. That work taught me rigorous standards, technical precision and how individual decisions affect a larger whole.
The experiences that changed my perspective.
Through care and loss
I have lost my wife, my father, my mother and my sister, and I was with each of them at the end. I have come to see every event in life as a teaching lesson, one you can meet with fear or learn from to move forward.
Through music and art
I minored in the history of music, and as a student reporter at Berkeley I interviewed Carlos Santana. What he told me, and what every musician since has confirmed, is that they play for the joy on the faces in front of them. Music is connection.
The more I learned about the world, the more I came back to people.
Bringing that perspective to technology.
Today my focus is the people building AI and the leaders supporting them. I have consulted with engineers at Google and OpenAI, helping them build a bridge between intelligence and the human needs of health, spirituality and family happiness. I have been working with the California Teachers Association, enlightening them about the positive side of AI for their institution, and I am advising Caltrain and VTA. Human ethical values of privacy, fairness, transparency and trust must become integral parts of AI.
Member, Center for Humane Technology · Member, CORE Response
Explore My Approach
A book in progress
The Human Algorithm
The people and experiences that shape a life.
In my forthcoming nonfiction book I follow my own journey, and the people I have met along the way, to show how everyone in the world is connected, and why, with science and with art, we can move the dial toward a caring and human future.
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