SPEAKERS
explore our line-up of 2025 speakers.
David Duvenaud
Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto; Schwartz Reisman Chair in Technology and Society
David Duvenaud is a leading researcher in AI safety and associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto. His research has had a major impact in the field of probabilistic deep learning, through which he now focuses on artificial general intelligence governance and dangerous capabilities evaluation. Duvenaud is serving a five-year appointment as Schwartz Reisman Chair in Technology and Society until 2029, and currently works on the alignment science team at Anthropic.
➦Afternoon Keynote: Gradual disempowerment: Systemic existential risks from incremental AI development
Moderator: Sheila McIlraith
Roger GrossE
Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto; Canada CIFAR AI Chair; Schwartz Reisman Chair in Technology and Society
Roger Grosse is a renowned expert in AI safety and associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto. His research applies understandings of deep learning to the safety and alignment of AI systems in order to understand and mitigate the risks posed by them and to determine how they can be safely and ethically integrated for the long-term benefit of humanity. Grosse is serving a five-year appointment as Schwartz Reisman Chair in Technology and Society until 2029, and is currently a member of technical staff on the alignment team at Anthropic through the summer of 2024.
➦ Moderating Session: Morning keynote
Sara Hooker (Virtual)
Head of Cohere For AI, VP Research, Cohere
Sara Hooker is a leading expert in machine learning (ML) research who specializes in developing more efficient, safe, and grounded AI models, with a strong focus on fundamental research, trustworthy AI, and real-world applications. With experience spanning industry, open research initiatives, and AI ethics, Hooker brings a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities shaping the field and will deliver a keynote lecture on her recent work. Hooker leads Cohere For AI, a non-profit research lab that seeks to solve complex ML problems and creating more points of entry into ML research.
➦ Morning Keynote: Title TBC
David Lie
Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto; Director, Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society
David Lie is a world-leading computer security expert who is known for his seminal work that led to modern trusted execution processor architectures. As professor at the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Toronto, Lie’s research goal is to ensure that the computing infrastructure our societies rely on heavily be secure, reliable, and trustworthy—especially at a crucial time when computer systems increasingly permeate our lives. Currently leading as director, Lie was one of the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society’s inaugural research leads when the institute was established in 2019, and has worked on a number of interdisciplinary research projects at the intersection of computing, policy, law, and the use, stewardship, and governance of data.
➦ Session: Opening remarks and director’s address
Event MC
Atoosa Kaziradeh
Assistant Professor, AI Governance, Ethics, and Safety, Carnegie Mellon University
➦ Session: New frontiers in AI governance
Moderator: Karina Vold
Megan Ma (Virtual)
Associate Director, Stanford Center for Legal Informatics (CodeX); Associate Director, Stanford Program in Law, Science, and Technology
➦ Session: Navigating autonomy and accountability in AI agents
Moderator: Anna Su
Sheila McIlraith
Professor in the Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto; Canada CIFAR AI Chair, Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence; Associate Director, Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society
Sheila McIlraith is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto, Canada CIFAR AI Chair (Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence), and Associate Director and Research Lead of the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society. Prior to joining U of T, McIlraith spent six years as a Research Scientist at Stanford University, and one year at Xerox PARC. McIlraith is the author of over 100 scholarly publications in the area of knowledge representation, automated reasoning and machine learning. Her work focuses on AI sequential decision making broadly construed, through the lens of human-compatible AI. McIlraith is a fellow of the ACM, a fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) and a past President of KR Inc., the international scientific foundation concerned with fostering research and communication on knowledge representation and reasoning. She is currently serving on the Standing Committee of the Stanford One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence (AI100). McIlraith is an associate editor of the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research (JAIR), a past associate editor of the journal Artificial Intelligence (AIJ), and a past board member of Artificial Intelligence Magazine. In 2018, McIlraith served as program co-chair of the 32nd AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-18). She also served as program co-chair of the International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR2012), and the International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC2004). McIlraith’s early work on Semantic Web Services has had notable impact. In 2011 she and her co-authors were honoured with the SWSA 10-year Award, a test of time award recognizing the highest impact paper from the International Semantic Web Conference, 10 years prior; in 2022 McIlraith and co-authors were honoured with the 2022 ICAPS Influential Paper Award, recognizing a significant and influential paper published 10 years prior at the International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling; and in 2023 McIlraith and co-authors were honoured with the IJCAI-JAIR Best Paper Prize, awarded annually to an outstanding paper published in JAIR in the preceding five years.
Moderating Keynote: Gradual disempowerment: Systemic existential risks from incremental AI development
Atrisha Sarkar
Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Western University; Faculty Affiliate, Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society.
Atrisha Sarkar is an Assistant Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Western University. Her research spans multiagent systems, behavioral game theory, and computational methods for ensuring the safety of human-centric AI at both individual and societal levels. Her interdisciplinary work has addressed challenges in autonomous vehicle safety, online polarization, and human-AI interaction. She was part of the team behind one of the first self-driving cars on Canadian roads. Atrisha’s research is published across AI, robotics, software engineering, and institutional economics. She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, University of Toronto. Prior to academia, she spent eight years in industry, primarily at IBM software labs.
➦ Session: Navigating autonomy and accountability in AI agents
Moderator: Anna Su
Anna SU
Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto; Research Lead, Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society
Anna Su's primary areas of research include the law and history of international human rights law, comparative constitutional law, technology and international law, and law and religion. She is currently a research lead at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society. She is also a Nootbaar Institute Fellow on Law and Religion at Pepperdine University School of Law. Anna holds an SJD from Harvard Law School where her dissertation was awarded the John Laylin Prize for best paper in international law. She received her JD and AB degrees from the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. Prior to coming to Toronto, she held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy based in SUNY Buffalo Law School, and a graduate fellowship in ethics with the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. She worked as a law clerk for the Philippine Supreme Court and was a consultant to the Philippine government negotiating panel with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. She holds a cross-appointment at U of T’s Department of History (by courtesy).
➦ Moderating Session: Navigating autonomy and accountability in AI agents
Karina Vold
Assistant Professor, Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, University of Toronto; Research Lead, Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society
Karina Vold works at the intersection of the philosophy of cognitive science, the philosophy of technology, artificial intelligence (AI), and applied ethics. She is cross-appointed in the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (IHPST) and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. Before joining the IHPST, she worked as a postdoctoral research associate at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge.
In her recent work, Vold has written on the implications of theories of extended cognition, on responsible innovation in online therapy, and on the capabilities and risks of AI. Her current projects include researching the effects of AI on human cognition and autonomy, understanding the harms arising from targeted online “nudging,” evaluating arguments for existential threats from AI, and building frameworks for the ethical design of AI systems.
➦ Moderating Session: New frontiers in AI governance