Invited Speakers

Field Notes: Organizational Models for Responsible AI

Monday, May 18, 2020

Susan Etlinger

Senior Analyst, Altimeter, a Prophet CompanySenior Fellow, Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract: During the past year, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in public conversation about the ethics of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Concerns about the impact of biased algorithms, lack of transparency, and how AI technologies are being and should be used have consistently garnered headlines in major news outlets around the world. But while news coverage has raised awareness of ethical issues of AI, it generally hasn’t addressed the implications for the organizations that buy, build, and implement these technologies.
This talk, based on interviews with leaders from business, academia, and non-governmental organizations, defines issues resulting from the development and deployment of AI, lays out the methodologies being tested and used, and proposes an approach to address them. While this is a highly complex field and no single strategy is appropriate for all industries or companies, this material may be used to better understand the unique implications of AI, begin to socialize them within your business, and build organizational capability to foster both trust and innovation among customers, employees, shareholders, partners, and the general public.
TAKEAWAYSWhy and how AI changes the relationship between people and organizationsThe biggest risks—and opportunities—for business in the age of AIOperating principles, recommendations and best practices for designing innovative, engaging and ethical products, services and brand experiences.
SOURCESThe content is based on a research report entitled “Innovation + Trust: The Foundation of Responsible Artificial Intelligence,” which is based on interviews with leaders in academia, industry and the non-profit community.

Bio: Susan Etlinger is a globally recognized expert in digital strategy, with a focus on artificial intelligence, AI ethics and big data. In addition to her work at Altimeter, Susan is a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, an independent, non-partisan think tank based in Canada.
Susan’s TED talk, “What Do We Do With All This Big Data?" has been translated into 25 languages and has been viewed more than 1.3 million times. Her research is used in university curricula around the world, and she has been quoted in numerous media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, The New York Times and the BBC. Susan holds a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric from the University of California at Berkeley.

Combatting Human Trafficking on the Internet and Dark Web Using Artificial Intelligence

Tuesday, May 19, 2020

Dr. Joseph P. Campbell

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lincoln Laboratory
Abstract: Human trafficking is modern-day slavery, extremely lucrative, ubiquitous, and fueled by the Internet. Illicit economic activity is increasingly transacted through illegal online marketplaces on the Internet, including the Dark Web. Unfortunately, the scale and scope of these illicit marketplaces are greatly outpacing the traditional capabilities of law enforcement agencies and victim rescue organizations to counter these threats. To address this challenge, the US government made significant investments to develop data-driven artificial intelligence tools to counter human trafficking and illegal drugs and weapons trafficking. These technologies enable understanding and disrupting illegal marketplaces by exposing the illegal activities that perpetrators conduct on the Internet and Dark Web. Several technologies are described and their significant impact is demonstrated in law-enforcement missions.
Bio: Dr. Joseph P. Campbell is the leader of the Artificial Intelligence Technology and Systems Group. His group creates algorithms, technologies, and systems for extracting information from multimedia data in adverse conditions and has a rich heritage of world-leading speech, speaker, and language recognition technologies. Dr. Campbell develops human-network AI technologies that extract information automatically from speech, text, image, and video data combined with network communications and activities to help the Department of Defense and law enforcement identify threatening or illicit activity on the surface and dark webs. He specializes in developing and transferring AI technologies for government applications and operationally relevant evaluation. Dr. Campbell has authored more than 100 refereed publications that have been cited over 6,900 times. Before joining MIT LL, he taught at The Johns Hopkins University and worked for the government, where his team developed U.S. Federal and NATO Standards for voice coding that are the foundation of digital cellular telephony systems. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and earned BS, MS, and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, The Johns Hopkins University, and Oklahoma State University, respectively.

Applications and Challenges in Artificial Intelligence for National Defense

Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Dr. Michael Van Lent

CEO SoarTech Inc.
Abstract: While there’s been recent explosion of commercial interest in artificial intelligence (AI), the Department of Defense (DoD) has been steadily exploring AI and its application to national defense for decades. However, recent changes in the international investment in AI, recent technological advances, and the opportunity to leverage the explosion of commercial research efforts has made AI a high priority for both science & technology and acquisition organizations across the DoD. The problems and constraints posed by national defense applications present challenges for AI that demand technological innovations beyond the current state of the art and beyond what will be achieved by commercial research alone. In many cases, the current challenges encountered in applying AI to national defense will be future challenges for commercial applications. Drawing on almost 30 years of experience working on AI for national defense, Dr. Michael van Lent will discuss the motivations behind the increased emphasis on AI in the DoD and present examples of the challenges encountered in applying AI to national defense and the research innovations that are solving these challenges.
Bio: Dr. Michael van Lent leads research and development of artificial intelligence for training and serious games, transitioning research into engineered solutions. Dr. Van Lent received a PhD at the University of Michigan in 2000. Prior to receiving his PhD, he worked at the Navy Center for Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence (NCARAI) at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. He joined the Institute for Creative Technologies in 2001, where he became the Associate Director for Games Research and a Research Associate Professor in the Computer Science department at USC. Dr. Van Lent has participated in the design and development of many immersive training applications including Full Spectrum Warrior, Full Spectrum Command, the Joint Fires and Effects Trainer System (JFETS), and ELECT BiLAT. He serves on various editorial boards and edits IEEE Computer’s Entertainment Computing Column.