Using driverless cars, artificial intelligence, cochlear implants, nuclear power and other examples, this talk will walk through various hurdles to the successful legal analysis and governance of emerging technology. The talk will identify law’s unique role in channeling technology toward human flourishing, argue that law and technology constitutes a distinct field of study, and suggest a step-by-step methodology for this field going forward.

Bio:

Ryan Calo is the Lane Powell and D. Wayne Gittinger Professor at the University of Washington School of Law. Calo is a visiting fellow at CITP for the spring 2024 semester. He is a founding co-director (with Batya Friedman and Tadayoshi Kohno) of the interdisciplinary UW Tech Policy Lab and a co-founder (with Chris Coward, Emma Spiro, Kate Starbird, and Jevin West) of the UW Center for an Informed Public. He holds a joint appointment at the Information School and an adjunct appointment at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering.

Calo’s research on law and emerging technology appears in leading law reviews (California Law Review, Columbia Law Review, Duke Law Journal, UCLA Law Review, and University of Chicago Law Review) and technical publications (MIT Press, Nature, Artificial Intelligence) and is frequently referenced by the national media. His work has been translated into at least four languages. Calo has testified three times before the United States Senate and organized events on behalf of the National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Obama White House. He has been a speaker at President Obama’s Frontiers Conference, the Aspen Ideas Festival, and NPR‘s Weekend in Washington.