Obama to guest-edit issue of Wired magazine

Obama will leave the White House on Jan 20, 2017, at age 55, after eight years in power. PHOTO: AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Is President Barack Obama already thinking about his next job? In the coming months, he will guest-edit an issue of tech-focused Wired magazine.

It is the first time a sitting president has guest-edited a magazine, the publication said on Tuesday (Aug 30), announcing that Obama's November issue would be centred around the theme of frontiers.

"Like Wired, our 44th president is a relentless optimist. For this completely bespoke issue, he wants to focus on the future - on the next hurdles that humanity will need to overcome to move forward," it said.

"We want to wrestle with the idea of how today's technology can influence political leadership. And who better to help us explore these ideas than President Obama?" editor-in-chief Scott Dadich said.

At the same time, the White House announced a "Frontiers conference" inspired by the issue, to take place in Pittsburgh on Oct 13.

Health care, telecommunications, artificial intelligence, space exploration and clean energy are some of the themes to be addressed at the event.

Obama will leave the White House on Jan 20, 2017 at age 55, after eight years in power.

The Wired gig is not his first foray into the magazine world. He wrote an essay on feminism for the September issue of Glamour magazine.

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