Panel 1: AI + Chips and Cloud Infrastructure

Alex Gaynor (Moderator) is a Deputy CTO at the FTC, with a background in software resilience engineering. Prior to his role at the FTC, Alex held software engineering and leadership roles elsewhere in government and in the private sector, as well as in open-source software. Alex lives in Washington, DC and enjoys bagels and delis.

Tania Van den Brande is a Director of Economics at Ofcom, where she works on competition and online safety issues in digital markets. She led the analysis on Ofcom’s recent market study into the nature and extent of competition in cloud infrastructure services in the UK. 

Before joining Ofcom, Tania worked as an economic consultant. She advised clients in front of European and national competition authorities in relation to a wide range of competition matters covering FMCGs, mining, petrol retailing, healthcare and telecommunications. Tania has expertise in the use of estimation and simulation methods to analyse competition issues.

Daven Rauchwerk is a technologist and entrepreneur. Daven has been involved in open-source software and hardware for over 20 years. For the last 10 years, he has been an active member of the startup scene as a founder, systems engineer and advisor.  He is a frequent speaker on emerging technologies and has lectured at UC Berkeley, Stanford, SXSW, Design Automation Conference and O'Reilly OSCON. His work has been featured in major print, television and online media including: CNBC, BBC, Fortune, Wired, Time, Popular Mechanics, EEtimes and NPR.

Ganesh Sitaraman holds the New York Alumni Chancellors Chair in Law at Vanderbilt University and is the director of the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator. He is the author or co-author of numerous books, including Networks, Platforms, and Utilities: Law and Policy.

Corey Quinn is the Chief Cloud Economist at The Duckbill Group, where he specializes in helping companies improve their Amazon Web Services (AWS) bills by making them smaller and less horrifying. He also hosts the "Screaming in the Cloud" and "AWS Morning Brief" podcasts; and curates "Last Week in AWS," a weekly newsletter summarizing the latest in AWS news, blogs, and tools, sprinkled with snark and thoughtful analysis in roughly equal measure. Corey has paid relationships with AWS and Google for “voice-of-the-customer” feedback. A full list of financial relationships and disclosures can be found here.

Panel 2: AI + Data and Models

Krisha Cerilli (moderator) is the Deputy Assistant Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Technology Enforcement Division.  The Division investigates and litigates potential antitrust violations by technology companies.  Prior to her role with the Technology Enforcement Division, Krisha served as Counsel to the Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition and as an attorney in the Mergers IV Division.  She has a J.D. and M.P.P. from Georgetown.  

Cory Doctorow (craphound.com) is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of many books, most recently THE LOST CAUSE, a solarpunk science fiction novel of hope amidst the climate emergency. His most recent nonfiction book is THE INTERNET CON: HOW TO SEIZE THE MEANS OF COMPUTATION, a Big Tech disassembly manual. Other recent books include RED TEAM BLUES, a science fiction crime thriller; CHOKEPOINT CAPITALISM, nonfiction about monopoly and creative labor markets; the LITTLE BROTHER series for young adults; IN REAL LIFE, a graphic novel; and the picture book POESY THE MONSTER SLAYER. In 2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. Cory is also a paid special advisor to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a 501(c)3 that campaigns on these issues.

Jonathan Frankle is Chief Scientist (Neural Networks) at Databricks, where he leads the research team toward the goal of developing more efficient strategies for training neural networks. He arrived via Databricks’ $1.3B acquisition of MosaicML, where he was part of the founding team. He recently completed his PhD at MIT, during which he empirically studied deep learning with Prof. Michael Carbin, specifically the properties of sparse networks that allow them to train effectively (his "Lottery Ticket Hypothesis" - ICLR 2019 Best Paper). In addition to his technical work, he is actively involved in policymaking around challenges related to artificial intelligence. Jonathan has previously worked at Google (3x intern, part time during school year), Microsoft (intern), and Meta (intern, part time during school year) in addition to his current employment at MosaicML/Databricks. He earned his BSE and MSE in computer science at Princeton and has previously spent time at Google Brain and Facebook AI Research as an intern and at Georgetown Law as an Adjunct Professor of Law.

Amba Kak is a globally recognized technology policy expert with over a decade of experience in roles across government, academia, and the nonprofit sector. Amba is currently the Executive Director at the AI Now Institute, a research organization based in New York that focuses on policy responses for artificial intelligence She previously served as a Senior Advisor on AI at the Federal Trade Commission where she advised the US regulatory agency on emerging technologies. Prior to AI Now, Amba was Global Policy Advisor at Mozilla, where she steered Mozilla’s policy positions supported a multi-pronged global campaign for privacy laws, and has also advised multiple governments on net-neutrality policies.

Amba currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Signal Foundation and the AI Committee for the Board of Directors for the Mozilla Foundation. Trained as a lawyer, Amba received her BA LLB (Hons) from the National University of Juridical Sciences in India. She has a Masters in Law (BCL) and an MSc in the Social Science of the Internet at the University of Oxford, which she attended as a Rhodes Scholar.

Stephanie Palazzolo covers artificial intelligence at The Information, where she also writes the publication's daily newsletter on AI, AI Agenda. She's broken news about the OpenAI leadership crisis, the AI funding frenzy and the moves of big tech companies. Prior to The Information, she covered AI at Business Insider, and previously was a tech investment banker at Morgan Stanley, where she advised tech companies on a variety of transactions from IPOs to M&A. Based in New York, she can be reached at stephanie@theinformation.com, through Twitter DM at @steph_palazzolo, or on Signal or Telegram at 979-599-8091.

Panel 3: AI + Consumer Applications

Andy Hasty (moderator) is an attorney at the Federal Trade Commission, where he works on a range of privacy and data security law enforcement and policy matters in the FTC’s Division of Privacy and Identity Protection—including as the lead staff attorney behind the agency’s enforcement action against Epic Games, Inc.  Previously, Andy was a litigation associate at a law firm in Washington, DC, where his practice focused on antitrust and national security matters.  Before that, Andy served as a paralegal and mobile technology specialist in the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection during the day while studying law at night. He holds a J.D. from The George Washington University Law School and a B.A. from the University of Virginia.

Atur Desai has been with the CFPB since 2016. He is currently the Deputy Chief Technologist for Law & Strategy. Prior to this role, amongst others, he served as a Senior Litigation Counsel in the CFPB’s Office of Enforcement. He has a JD from NYU Law School, an MPP from the University of Michigan, and a BS from Cornell University.

Karen Hao is an award-winning journalist covering the impacts of artificial intelligence on society and a contributing writer for The Atlantic. She was formerly a foreign correspondent covering China’s technology industry for the Wall Street Journal and a senior editor for AI at MIT Technology Review. Her work is regularly taught in universities and cited by governments. She has received numerous accolades for her coverage, including an American National Magazine Award for Journalists Under 30. She received her B.S. from MIT.

Conrad Kramer is the Co-Founder and CTO of Software Applications Incorporated, a new startup building consumer software using AI. He sold his previous company, Workflow, to Apple in 2017. At Apple, he built the Shortcuts app, which people can use to customize their phone and get things done in a single tap. The app is now pre-installed on every iPhone. After leaving Apple in 2021, Conrad studied Technology and Public Purpose as a fellow at Harvard, where he focused on clean energy and solar deployment. The full list of 11 seed funders for Software Applications Incorporated, Conrad’s current startup, can be found here.

Ben Winters is EPIC Senior Counsel and leads EPIC’s AI and Human Rights Project. His work focuses on AI and automated decision-making applications that disproportionately affect marginalized communities, such as those surrounding the criminal legal cycle. Ben also teaches Technology Policy at the University of District Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law and is a Senior Policy Fellow at AI Now. Among other topics, Ben has published work on the harms of Generative AI, the discriminatory impact of carceral technologies, and the need for transparency regulation.

Ben is a graduate of Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where he was Editor-In-Chief of the Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights and Social Justice and the President of the Data Law Society. Ben holds a B.S. in Communication Studies from SUNY Oneonta. Ben is a member of the bar of D.C. and New York State.