Profs & Pints San Francisco: How to Govern AI?

Profs and Pints San Francisco presents: “How to Govern AI?” an exploration of current debates over Artificial Intelligence’s regulation and dangers with David Evan Harris Chancellor’s Public Scholar at the University of California Berkeley leading expert on AI policy and teacher of courses on AI ethics.

The rapid emergence and widespread adoption of Artificial Intelligence has given rise to a host of thorny questions. Should AI technologies be regulated? Who should be held accountable when such technologies cause harm? Should AI companies be held liable if people intentionally misuse their products?

Gain insights into how state and federal officials and other nations’ leaders are thinking about such matters with David Evan Harris of the UC Berkeley who has extensively researched and written about AI technology and teaches courses dealing with AI ethics social media civic technology and scenario planning.

Along with previously helping to oversee Meta’s research dealing with AI fairness inclusion governance and accountability Harris has advised the California Legislature the White House Congress the European Union and the United Nations about technology policy. His thoughts on it have been published in leading media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post and he promises to give a talk enabling his audience to think about AI in much broader and smarter ways.

Among the topic we’ll cover is the role of AI deepfakes and chatbots in elections and how much we should be concerned about their use and abuse. We'll also look at the specific risks posed by “open-source” AI when deliberately abused by bad actors to carry out scams to interfere in elections or to generate imagery of a sexual nature depicting nonconsenting children or adults.

In addition Harris will discuss how AI regulation is approached in Europe versus the United States (and California in particular). He'll talk about emerging laws requiring the use of provenance technologies such as AI watermarking and emerging legal frameworks for dealing with liability for AI-related harms.

It’s a talk that will be of value to both technology workers and people concerned about AI’s potential impact on their lives. (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus processing fees. Doors: $17 or $15 with a student ID. Doors open at 5:30 and the talk begins at 6:30. Parking available nearby at the Mason O'Farrell garage.)

Image: From “Pandora” an 1896 painting by John William Waterhouse.

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