Welcome, journalists, producers, podcasters, reviewers, librarians, booksellers, event coordinators, and conference hosts.

Reed Pederson brings a rare combination of real-world business experience, technological insight, and creative storytelling to conversations about artificial intelligence. An entrepreneur and investor who has implemented emerging technologies in business, Reed began writing Rise of the AInimals after wondering whether technology might soon move from being a tool people use to a force that increasingly shapes—and uses—them.

His debut novel turns that concern into an accessible, imaginative story. A legendary family circus is failing. Its heir replaces live animal acts with advanced robotic animals powered by AI. The innovation saves the show, but it also creates legal, political, corporate, ethical, and personal consequences no one knows how to contain.

Suggested Interview Topics

  • When a business tool becomes a social force: what implementing AI taught Reed about unintended consequences.
  • Why a family circus became the perfect setting for a novel about artificial intelligence and disruption.
  • Innovation versus legacy: what family businesses can teach us about technological change.
  • Artificial intelligence, robotic animals, and the changing ethics of entertainment.
  • Who is responsible when AI fails—the creator, owner, user, government, hacker, or machine?
  • Writing across disciplines: how literature, economics, business, music, editorials, and computer code shaped Reed’s fiction.
  • Why truth may become harder to verify as intelligent systems grow more persuasive and autonomous.