On November 5th, 2025, Co-Founder and Chairman of Recursive, Katsutoshi Yamada, gave a special lecture at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. The lecture and subsequent workshop, focused on "Shaping the Future of Human-AI Coexistence". The primary goal was to engage with students who will become the next generation of leaders, in a discussion about how to define and create human value while navigating a world fundamentally transformed by AI.
The lecture began with an analysis of how accelerating technological evolution is reshaping society and individual careers. Yamada contrasted the current pace of AI development with the industrial shift from horse-drawn carriages to automobiles that occurred between 1900 and 1913, noting AI's advancements is occurring at an even faster rate. He stressed that AI is moving beyond a mere tool to become a core social infrastructure, emphasizing the further expansion of AI.
As a result, Yamada noted that there will be an imminent shift in future career structure and highlighted three areas of human value that AI cannot fully replace, or whose importance can be further amplified by it: Evaluation, Creativity, and Human Relations. He challenged the students to consider where they can invest in order to build their own core values. Furthermore, he addressed critical ethical considerations stemming from AI's rapid adoption, such as biases, privacy, transparency, and fairness, emphasizing the imperative for students to champion responsible AI development.
Yamada also touched on the persistent societal issues in Japan, including labor shortages, regional revitalization, disaster management, and education, while also touching upon AI's capability to provide tangible solutions. He shared specific case studies from Recursive's portfolio, such as automated grading for elementary school practice drills and predicting groundwater levels to prevent forest fires—both of which showcase how advanced AI is successfully applied to complex, real-world problems.
The second half of the special lecture was a student-led, hackathon-style workshop. Students were tasked with analyzing and adapting Recursive's solutions to tackle the theme, "developing services to enhance human roles in collaboration with AI". Even when addressing intricate topics related to complex AI solutions, the students demonstrated remarkable flexibility and originality, successfully proposing innovative services and systems.
To conclude the workshop, Yamada provided feedback on the presentations, commending the students' high level of engagement and creative output. He remarked, "Although the examples involving AI, especially environmental forecasting are complex, I saw many students diligently putting pen to paper. I was genuinely impressed by their unique ideas, many of which could realistically be considered for real-world applications".
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This special lecture successfully deepened Recursive's engagement with students, aligning with our ongoing commitment to empower the future AI community. We remain dedicated to leveragig AI for problem solving and fostering a sustainable future.
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies' article is available here.
Founded by a former senior research engineer at Google DeepMind, Recursive brings together world-class talent from across disciplines to engineer results where others can't.
