UW News

October 12, 2016

UW law professor Ryan Calo to join experts at White House conference

News and Information

Ryan Calo, an assistant professor in the University of Washington School of Law, will be among national experts at a White House event tomorrow on innovations in science and technology.

Ryan Calo

Ryan Calo

A nationally known expert on robotics and privacy law, Calo will speak at the White House Frontiers Conference at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University on Oct. 13. He will be part of a panel moderated by President Obama’s chief of staff, Denis McDonough, and will discuss the role of regulation in helping ensure the safety of artificial intelligence.

“I’m delighted to be a resource for the White House and others as they think through the benefits and societal impacts of artificial intelligence and robotics,” Calo said. “It’s wonderful that our government is engaged around this issue at the highest levels.”

The conference will focus on five “frontiers” of innovation:

  • Personal frontiers in health care innovation and precision medicine
  • Local frontiers in building smart, inclusive communities, including investments in open data and the Internet of Things
  • National frontiers in harnessing the potential of artificial intelligence, data science, machine learning, automation and robotics
  • Global frontiers in clean energy and advanced climate information, tools, services and collaborations
  • Interplanetary frontiers in space exploration, including the NASA mission to Mars

Obama will host the event and participate in a discussion about future health breakthroughs with innovators in medicine and health care. The conference will include other topics inspired by the November issue of Wired magazine, which Obama is guest-editing — a first for a U.S. magazine, according to Wired.

The day’s plenary session will include a talk by Tim O’Reilly, a web pioneer and the founder of O’Reilly media; a live podcast with Roman Mars, host of the radio show “99% Invisible,” and Raj Chetty, an economist and professor at Stanford University; comments from University of Georgia student Charles Orgbon III on climate challenges and a discussion on increasing access to space with panelists including NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman, Erika Wagner from BlueOrigin and Anousheh Ansari, the first female private space explorer.

The conference starts at 1:45 p.m. EST and will be livestreamed on the event website.

For more information, contact Calo at rcalo@uw.edu or 206-543-1580.

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