Incoming President Speech

Let me take you back 2,500 years…To the Pillars of Hercules at the Strait of Gibraltar. Ancient mariners believed this was the edge of the known world. Hercules himself inscribed “Non Plus Ultra” on these pillars: Nothing Further Beyond. It was a warning. Beyond here, there be  monsters. For centuries, humanity stayed back. Safe. Comfortable. Unchallenged. And then, one day, someone got in a boat.

When the Spanish Empire expanded beyond those boundaries, they didn’t just cross the line…They erased it. They removed “Non.” Their motto became “Plus Ultra”…More Beyond. What was once a warning became a declaration. What was once a boundary became a beginning.

Today, we stand at our own Pillars of Hercules. And inscribed on them are the fears: “AI will replace physicians.” “We’re moving too fast.” “We’re losing the art of medicine.” But I’m here to tell you: There is more beyond. And we’re the ones brave enough to sail there.

When Jordan Phillips founded AAGL in 1971, he didn’t create a society… He created a rebellion. A rebellion against “good enough.” Against “that’s how we’ve always done it.” For over fifty years, AAGL has been where dreamers gather… Where “it can’t be done” ends with “watch this.” Plus Ultra isn’t just a motto for us. It’s in our DNA.

Think about Kurt Semm in Germany…Perfecting laparoscopic techniques while colleagues called him reckless. They didn’t just doubt him. They had him examined by psychiatrists because anyone doing laparoscopic surgery must be mentally unstable. During one lecture, a colleague walked up and pulled the plug on his slide projector. Declared it unethical to perform adnexal surgery laparoscopically. Someone literally pulled the plug on progress. But Semm kept going.

And Dr. Javier Magrina, this year’s honorary chair…Decades of shattering barriers. He pioneered robotic surgery when skeptics dismissed it as a toy. Pushed for laparoscopic cancer surgery when the establishment said it was dangerous. Today’s heretic is tomorrow’s legend. That’s how this works.

These pioneers heard “Non Plus Ultra” every single day. And every single day, they kept sailing forward. Because they understood something fundamental: The edge of the known world is not where we stop. It’s where we BEGIN.

Right now, today, AI is in the OR with us… Analyzing surgical videos in real-time… Predicting complications before they happen…AI is not here to replace us. It’s here to make us superhuman.

The next generation of surgical robots will have haptic feedback so precise you’ll feel tissue density differences you never could before. Augmented reality showing you anatomy beneath what you can see. Imagine never having another ureteral injury. That’s not science fiction. That’s five years away…Maybe three.

But here’s what AI will never have: AI doesn’t have empathy…But we do. AI doesn’t understand holding a scared patient’s hand at 6 AM before surgery…But we do. AI doesn’t know what it means to be trusted with someone’s body, their life, their future…But we do. That’s what makes us irreplaceable. That’s what makes us human.

Every major advance in medicine was met with resistance. Laparoscopy was called dangerous experimentation. The surgical robot was called an expensive gimmick. And yet here we are…And our patients are infinitely better for it.

So here we are at our Pillars of Hercules. This is our moment. As a great philosopher once said: If you had one shot, one opportunity…Would you capture it, or just let it slip?

This IS our one shot. We’re living through the most transformative moment in surgical history. And we get to choose. Do we seize it? Or do we let it slip away?

Let’s embrace AI as the telescope that lets us see further than we ever could alone. Let’s be thoughtful, yes. Ethical, absolutely. But above all, let’s be BOLD. Because the future isn’t human versus machine. It’s human WITH machine.

Plus Ultra is a promise. It’s been AAGL’s promise since 1971. And today, we renew that promise.

So which will you choose? Will you stay at the shore…Watching others sail away? Or will you get in that boat? I know what Jordan Phillips would choose. I know what Kurt Semm would choose. I know what Javier Magrina chose… I was there with him.

And I know what we’re going to choose. Because we’re AAGL. We do Plus Ultra. We always have. We always will.

The monsters aren’t beyond the pillars. The monsters are here—among us, within us—playing it safe, staying comfortable, and letting fear dictate our future.

So let’s get in that boat. Let’s sail beyond. Let’s show the world what Plus Ultra really means.

Thank you. Now let’s go build the impossible.