Walter Gordon Symposium — AI, Public Policy and Accountability

The Walter Gordon Symposium returns to Massey College in partnership with the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy on Saturday, September 24th from 8:30am-6:00pm.

The keynote speaker will be Rebecca Finlay from Partnership on AI.

Once considered to be confined to science fiction novels, artificial intelligence (AI) has now become part of our day-to-day. Now, policymakers around the world are racing to increase their AI competitiveness, as well as attempting to figure out ways of regulating this technology. With this backdrop, this year’s Walter Gordon Symposium, entitled “AI, Accountability, and Public Policy,” will explore the broad framing question: What does accountability mean to artificial intelligence? This question will be taken up across three levels of governance—international, national, and local—to dive into the vertical and horizontal layering of defining accountability for a cross-cutting technology that no single jurisdiction or authority can govern in its totality. The Symposium seeks to facilitate a comprehensive, well-rounded reflection of AI and accountability, a multifaceted issue, by dissecting each of these policy levels.  

The WGS is named after the Honourable Walter Gordon, who was Minister of Finance and President of the Privy Council under the government of Lester B. Pearson. The annual series, which began in 1990 under the leadership of then head of the College, Ann Saddlemeyer, was designed to present a topic of immediate Canadian significance to an interested audience drawn from academic, corporate and government worlds. 

Agenda

8:30 AM – 9:00 AM — Registration in foyer and breakfast in Common Room

9:00 AM – 9:15 AM — Opening Remarks in Upper Library

9:15 AM – 10:45 AM — Panel 1 (International)

• Valentine Goddard
• Julian Posada
• Catherine Regis
• Anna Su

10:45 AM – 11:00 AM — Coffee break in Common Room

11:00 AM – 12:30 PM — Panel 2 (National) in Upper Library

• Jack Cunningham
• Ann Fitz-Gerald
• Vijay Ganesh

12:30 PM – 2:00 PM — Lunch in Dining Hall

2:00 PM – 2:30 PM — Keynote in Upper Library

• Rebecca Finlay

2:30 PM – 2:45 PM — Break

2:45 PM – 4:15 PM — Panel 3 (Municipal)

• Nabeel Ahmed
• Ana Brandusescu
• Nathan Olmstead
• Renee Sieber

4:15 PM – 4:30 PM — Break

4:30 PM – 6:00 PM — Panel 4 (Critical Perspectives / Closing)

• Avery Slater
• Karina Vold

Find a digital copy of this agenda here.

Registration

FREE

Register here