CHICAGO, Nov. 7, 2023 – A panel of experts on artificial intelligence and how it will affect the legal landscape are featured in the next installment of the ABA Presidential Speaker Series. The program, titled “A.I. – The New Frontier,” will feature a panel of special advisers to the ABA Task Force on the Law and Artificial Intelligence.
The program will be available at 3 p.m. EST on Thursday, Nov. 9. No advance registration is required. The program can be viewed here.
In addition to exploring how AI has the potential to transform all aspects of society, including the practice of law, the panel will discuss the new AI Executive Order that President Biden announced on Oct. 30 -- one of the first in-depth discussions by national experts examining the executive order and its ramifications.
Panelists include:
- Daniel Ho, member of the National AI Advisory Committee, William Benjamin Scott and Luna M. Scott Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and associate director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. Ho serves on the National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Commission, advising the White House on AI policy; as senior advisor on Responsible AI at the U.S. Department of Labor; on the Committee on National Statistics of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine; as a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States; and as special advisor to the ABA Task Force on Law and Artificial Intelligence. He specializes in administrative law, regulatory policy and antidiscrimination law.
- Michelle Lee, former undersecretary of commerce for intellectual property and director, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and CEO and founder of Obsidian Strategies. Lee was vice president of AI at Amazon Web Services (AWS), where she led the Machine Learning Solutions Lab, a global team of business consultants and data scientists who helped companies identify and implement their highest-value machine learning opportunities, AWS’ computer vision business and its responsible AI efforts. She has testified multiple times before Congress on her various areas of expertise.
- Trooper Sanders, member of the National AI Advisory Committee and CEO of Benefits Data Trust. Sanders was a Rockefeller Foundation fellow and worked on the social and economic implications of the global rise of artificial intelligence. For eight years, he ran Wise Whisper, a strategic advisory practice to financial technology startups, philanthropic initiatives and business leaders. He has also held White House policy staff positions during two administrations.
- Miriam Vogel, chair of the National AI Advisory Committee and president and CEO of EqualAI. Vogel, as chair of the National AI Advisory Committee, is mandated by Congress to advise the president and White House on AI policy. She cohosts a podcast, “In AI we Trust,” with the World Economic Forum and has taught Technology Law and Policy at Georgetown University Law Center, where she currently serves as chair of the alumni board. Vogel has served in a variety of leadership positions across the U.S. government. Most recently, she served as associate deputy attorney general at the Department of Justice, where she advised the attorney general and the deputy attorney general on a broad range of legal, policy and operational issues and led the creation and development of the implicit bias training for federal law enforcement. She has served in the White House in two administrations, including as the acting director of justice and regulatory affairs and led the president’s Equal Pay Task Force to promote equality in the workplace.
- Seth Waxman, former U.S. solicitor general and partner at WilmerHale. Waxman was solicitor general of the United States from 1997 to 2001 and has argued 87 cases in the U. S. Supreme Court and hundreds in state and lower federal courts. He writes and lectures on constitutional law and history, civil rights, intellectual property and advocacy. Waxman has received numerous awards for scholarship, public service and advocacy, including the Thomas Jefferson Medal in Law and the ABA’s Pro Bono Publico award.
They will be interviewed by Lucy Thomson, chair of the ABA Task Force on the Law and Artificial Intelligence. Thomson is the founding principal of Livingston PLLC in Washington, D.C., where she focuses her practice on cybersecurity, global data privacy and compliance and risk management. A career attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, she managed and conducted complex litigation in the Criminal and Civil Rights Divisions. She subsequently worked as a senior principal engineer and privacy advocate at CSC, a global technology company.
The ABA Presidential Speaker Series, an initiative of ABA President Mary Smith, is a collection of diverse virtual conversations with globally recognized figures, spotlighting trailblazers and thinkers shaping our collective future. Under the theme “Lifting Our Voices, Charting the Future,” these fireside chats promote dialogue, civility and exposure to diverse viewpoints, innovative ideas and career insights.
Previous episodes featured Ivo H. Daalder, former U.S. ambassador to NATO and current chief executive officer of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs (view here), civil rights icon Dolores Huerta (view here) and Native American women “firsts” including Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (view here).
Future speakers in the series will include:
- Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese and Osage Nation Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear, Nov. 15
- Former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Charles Johnson and former federal judge J. Michael Luttig, Dec. 7
Additional programs will be announced. To introduce the series, this and other initial installments will be free to ABA members and the public. More information on the Presidential Speaker Series can be found at ambar.org/PresidentialSeries.
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