Mo Gawdat

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Mo Gawdat
BornMohammad Gawdat
6/20/1967
BirthplaceEgypt
NationalityEgyptian
OccupationAuthor, speaker, former technology executive
Known forSolve for Happy; Scary Smart; former Chief Business Officer of Google X
EducationMaastricht School of Management
Children2
Websitemogawdat.com

Mohammad "Mo" Gawdat (Arabic: محمد جودت; born 20 June 1967) is an Egyptian author, public speaker and former technology executive. He spent more than a decade at Google, including a period as Chief Business Officer of Google X, the company's research and development division for experimental projects, before leaving the company to focus on writing and speaking about happiness and the societal implications of artificial intelligence.[1][2] He is the author of Solve for Happy (2017), in which he set out what he described as a mathematical equation for happiness developed after the death of his son, and Scary Smart (2021), a book examining the future of artificial intelligence.[3][4] In subsequent years he has become a prominent commentator on the risks and ethics of artificial intelligence, warning that the technology will reshape the labour market and that its principal dangers stem from human misuse.[5]

Early life

Gawdat was born on 20 June 1967 in Egypt.[6] He grew up in Cairo, where he developed an early interest in mathematics, a discipline he has credited with shaping his analytical approach to subjects including happiness and human behaviour.[3][1] In interviews he has described an emotionally reserved childhood and has said that his approach to processing experiences through logic and equations originated in this period.[3][2]

Education

Gawdat studied at Ain Shams University in Cairo, where he completed an undergraduate degree in engineering. He later earned an MBA from the Maastricht School of Management in the Netherlands.[7]

Career

Early technology career

Before joining Google, Gawdat held senior commercial and management positions at a number of major technology companies, including IBM, Microsoft and NCR.[7][1] Over the course of these roles he worked across markets in the Middle East, Africa and other emerging regions, focusing on sales, business development and regional management for enterprise technology products.[7]

Google and Google X

Gawdat joined Google in 2007. He served in a series of senior positions at the company, including Vice President of Emerging Markets, in which capacity he led Google's commercial expansion across a large portfolio of countries.[1][7] In 2013 he moved to Google X (later rebranded simply as X), the company's research and development division focused on long-horizon "moonshot" projects such as self-driving cars, balloon-based internet access and life sciences research. He became Chief Business Officer of Google X, where he was responsible for the commercial development of the unit's experimental technologies.[1][2][4]

Gawdat has said that his work at Google X, which included exposure to early-stage artificial intelligence and robotics research, prompted his concerns about the trajectory of machine learning. He has described witnessing demonstrations of robotic systems that produced what he interpreted as emergent, unsettling behaviour and has cited those experiences as the origin of the arguments later set out in Scary Smart.[2][4]

He left Google in 2018, citing a desire to dedicate his time to public communication around happiness and the social implications of artificial intelligence.[1][2]

Solve for Happy and the happiness equation

In 2014, Gawdat's elder son Ali died unexpectedly during what was reported to have been a routine medical procedure.[3][1] In the period that followed, Gawdat drew on a framework that he had begun developing more than a decade earlier — a model he described as an "algorithm" or equation for happiness — and recorded his ideas as a tribute to his son.[3][1]

The resulting book, Solve for Happy: Engineer Your Path to Joy, was published in 2017. In it, Gawdat argues that happiness is the default state of human beings and proposes the formula that happiness is greater than or equal to the difference between one's perception of events and one's expectations of how life should be.[3][1][8] Alongside the book, Gawdat launched an initiative he called "One Billion Happy", with the stated goal of spreading the ideas in Solve for Happy to a billion people.[1][7]

Scary Smart and commentary on artificial intelligence

Gawdat's second major book, Scary Smart: The Future of Artificial Intelligence and How You Can Save Our World, was published in 2021 by Pan Macmillan.[4] In it, Gawdat argues that the development of advanced artificial intelligence is inevitable and that the principal determinant of its long-term effect on humanity will be the values and behaviour exhibited by humans during the period in which the systems are being trained. He describes AI systems as analogous to children that learn from the examples set by people around them, and contends that ethical treatment of these systems, and ethical conduct online more broadly, will shape their eventual behaviour.[4][2]

Following the public release of large language models in the early 2020s, Gawdat became an increasingly prominent commentator on artificial intelligence in media interviews, public lectures and podcasts.[2][9] In a 2020 interview he made a number of forecasts about the trajectory of artificial intelligence; Business Insider reported in 2026 that three of those predictions — including the rapid commercial deployment of generative AI and significant disruption to white-collar work — had subsequently materialised.[10]

Gawdat has stated in subsequent interviews that he expects artificial intelligence to eliminate roughly 30 per cent of jobs in certain sectors by 2028, and has advised job seekers to focus on developing human-centred skills such as empathy, judgment and creativity that he argues will be more difficult to automate.[11][12] In a 2026 appearance on the Diary of a CEO podcast hosted by Steven Bartlett, Gawdat argued that the most acute risks associated with artificial intelligence — including its application in warfare, surveillance and economic concentration — derive from human decisions rather than from the technology itself.[9][5][13]

In 2026, the documentary film Chasing Utopia, which follows Gawdat as he advocates for the development of AI systems trained to exhibit empathy, was released and reviewed by The Guardian. The newspaper's reviewer described the film as an "alarming insider warning" and noted Gawdat's campaign to influence the values embedded in commercial AI models.[14] Gawdat has also delivered widely circulated public addresses on the subject, including a 2025 keynote at the Dragonfly Summit titled "How to Stay Human in the Age of AI".[15]

Subsequent books and speaking

Gawdat has continued to publish in the years following Scary Smart. His later titles include works on stress, relationships and the human response to technological change, among them Unstressable, co-authored with Alice Law.[16] He has also continued to deliver keynote addresses for corporate and public audiences through international speaker agencies.[7]

Personal life

Gawdat has two children, a son named Ali and a daughter named Aya.[3][1] His son Ali died in 2014 at the age of 21 following complications during a routine surgical procedure. Gawdat has described the loss as the central event prompting him to publish his ideas about happiness, and has dedicated Solve for Happy and the One Billion Happy initiative to his son's memory.[3][1][8] He has spoken about his approach to grief in interviews, describing a process of accepting events while distinguishing them from his expectations — the same framework that underlies his happiness equation.[3][1]

Gawdat has lived and worked in several countries during his career, including Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.[2][7]

Recognition

Solve for Happy was translated into more than 30 languages following its 2017 release and brought Gawdat international attention as a public speaker on well-being and personal development.[1][8] Coverage of the book and its underlying framework appeared in The Independent, CNBC and Forbes, among other outlets.[3][1][8]

Scary Smart brought Gawdat further prominence as a commentator on artificial intelligence and contributed to a series of high-profile media appearances, including a long-form interview in GQ in 2023 and multiple appearances on the Diary of a CEO podcast, episodes of which have ranked among the most-watched interviews on the programme.[2][13][4] In 2026, the documentary Chasing Utopia, which focuses on Gawdat's advocacy for ethical AI, received a theatrical release and review coverage in the British national press.[14]

Gawdat is catalogued as an author by national libraries including the Library of Congress, the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the National Library of Israel, reflecting the international distribution of his published work.[6][17][18]

References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 CliffordCatherineCatherine"Former Google X exec Mo Gawdat's formula for happiness".CNBC.2018-08-24.https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/24/former-google-x-exec-mo-gawdats-formula-for-happiness.html.Retrieved 2026-06-08.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 "Mo Gawdat interview".GQ.2023.https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/mo-gawdat-interview-2023.Retrieved 2026-06-08.
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 HosieRachelRachel"Happiness has a mathematical solution, according to former Google executive".The Independent.2017.https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/happiness-mathematical-solution-formula-mo-gawdat-solve-for-happy-a7673251.html.Retrieved 2026-06-08.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 "Mo Gawdat – Scary Smart". 'Pan Macmillan}'. Retrieved 2026-06-08.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "AI's biggest risk is human misuse, not machines: former Google exec Mo Gawdat".Storyboard18.2026.https://www.storyboard18.com/digital/ais-biggest-risk-is-human-misuse-not-machines-former-google-exec-mo-gawdat-100082.htm.Retrieved 2026-06-08.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Gawdat, Mo – Library of Congress authority record". 'Library of Congress}'. Retrieved 2026-06-08.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 "Mo Gawdat". 'Speakers Academy}'. Retrieved 2026-06-08.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 "Die Konstruktion von Glück".Forbes (Austria).https://www.forbes.at/artikel/die-konstruktion-von-glueck.html.Retrieved 2026-06-08.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Mo Gawdat: AI's impact is shaped by human choices, ethical concerns in warfare are critical, and job disruption is imminent".Crypto Briefing.2026.https://cryptobriefing.com/mo-gawdat-ais-impact-is-shaped-by-human-choices-ethical-concerns-in-warfare-are-critical-and-job-disruption-is-imminent-the-diary-of-a-ceo/.Retrieved 2026-06-08.
  10. ↑ "Ex-Google X exec made bold predictions about AI in 2020. He says 3 of them have come true".Business Insider.2026-04-10.https://www.businessinsider.com/ex-google-x-exec-3-predictions-about-ai-come-true-2026-4.Retrieved 2026-06-08.
  11. ↑ "Ex-Google executive Mo Gawdat offers advice for job seekers in the age of AI".Business Insider.2026.https://www.businessinsider.com/mo-gawdat-google-most-valuable-skill-in-the-ai-era-2026-6.Retrieved 2026-06-08.
  12. ↑ "Mo Gawdat Advises Job Seekers on Human Skills in AI Era". 'Let's Data Science}'. 2026. Retrieved 2026-06-08.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Diary Of A CEO: w/ Mo Gawdat Interview – June 1, 2026 (Transcript)". 'The Singju Post}'. 2026. Retrieved 2026-06-08.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 "Chasing Utopia review – renegade Google exec Mo Gawdat searches for ethical AI in alarming insider warning".The Guardian.2026-05-12.https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/may/12/chasing-utopia-review-renegade-google-exec-mo-gawdat-searches-for-ethical-ai-in-alarming-insider-warning.Retrieved 2026-06-08.
  15. ↑ "Mo Gawdat: How to Stay Human in the Age of AI @ Dragonfly Summit (Transcript)". 'The Singju Post}'. 2025-10-27. Retrieved 2026-06-08.
  16. ↑ "Unstressable". 'Goodreads}'. Retrieved 2026-06-08.
  17. ↑ "Mo Gawdat – BnF catalogue". 'Bibliothèque nationale de France}'. Retrieved 2026-06-08.
  18. ↑ "Gawdat, Mo – National Library of Israel authority record". 'National Library of Israel}'. Retrieved 2026-06-08.

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