Exploring Today's Front-Page Technology Policy Issues
ACM’s US Technology Policy Committee (USTPC) is proud to present “HotTopics,” a bimonthly webinar series dedicated to exploring today’s most relevant and important computing-related technology issues. Every 90-minute HotTopics session will take attendees inside a pressing topic in the headlines, from artificial intelligence to quantum computing, with a focus on its implications for US law and policy. Expert ACM, USTPC, and guest panelists will provide their own insights and engage each other and attendees in extended discussion.
HotTopic Panel on Autonomous Weapons
Once considered science fiction, autonomous weapons systems long ago left the drawing board for the battlefield. Employed in conflicts today, such systems remain controversial and are ungoverned by any broad binding international agreement. The ACM US Technology Policy Committee hosted the HotTopics webinar: "Death by Algorithm: The Use, Control, and Legality of Lethal and Other Autonomous Weapons Systems" with Larry Medsker (Moderator), Ronald C. Arkin, Gary Corn, Jack Shanahan, and Jody Westby discussing this timely and critical subject.
HotTopic Panel on AI Regulation
To help make sense of the many and multiplying efforts to coordinate future "GenAI" policy and governance around the globe, ACM's Technology Policy Council hosted the latest in its HotTopics webinar series, "Artificial Intelligence, Real Regulation: International Perspectives and Prospects"—now available on demand. It is a fascinating discussion between moderator Michel Beaudouin-Lafon, panelists Dame Wendy Hall, Juha Heikkila, and Marc Rotenberg, and audience members about the growing concerns surrounding the growth and regulation of generative artificial intelligence both now and in the future.
HotTopic Panel on Generative AI
ACM's US Technology Policy Committee hosted a HotTopics webinar session, "For 'Botter' or Worse: Chat GPT, the Universe, and Everything ." Join a panel of ACM experts as they discuss the seemingly sudden explosion of OpenAI's breakthrough "generative AI" software onto the world stage, and computing's centrality to myriad spheres of daily life. But what really is generative AI and what's to be done with, to, and about it as its use—for better, worse, and other—accelerates around the globe? View the webinar and find out.
Panel on Algorithmic Responsibility in the New Machine Age
ACM's US Technology Policy Committee (USTPC) hosted a HotTopics webinar session, “Toward a fAIr Future: Algorithmic Responsibility in the New Machine Age,” on Thursday, December 1, 2022. TPC Chair Jim Hendler and ACM experts Ricardo Baeza-Yates, Lorena Jaume-Palasi, Jeanna Matthews, and Alejandro Saucedo took a transatlantic deep dive into the Council’s recent Statement on Principles for Responsible Algorithmic Systems and explored the legal, ethical, and scientific implications of life in the new machine age.
Panel on Reconsidering Law & Technology for Online Data Collection
ACM's US Technology Policy Committee (USTPC) hosted the HotTopics webinar session, “Scraping By: Reconsidering Law & Technology for Online Data Collection,” on May 19, 2022. USTPC Law Subcommittee Chair and appellate attorney Andy Grosso moderated a panel of legal and technical experts who discussed these issues and more. Panelists inlcuded Megan Iorio, Lorraine Kisselburgh, Mark Rasch and Jody Westby.
Panel on the Post-Pandemic Future of Remote Testing Technology
ACM's US Technology Policy Committee (USTPC) hosted a HotTopics webinar session, "Policy, Profit, Privacy, and Privilege: the Post-Pandemic Future of Remote Testing Technology," on Nov. 15, 2021. The webinar proved to be a timely, deep dive discussion into the accuracy, security, and fundamental fairness to less-advantaged students of remote testing administration (RTA) systems, and what their future will or should be.
Panel on the Supreme Court’s Van Buren Ruling on the CFAA
ACM's US Technology Policy Committee (USTPC) hosted a HotTopics webinar session, "Of Access, Excess, and Trespass: The Supreme Court’s Van Buren Ruling on the CFAA," on June 24, 2021. USTPC Law Subcommittee Chair and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andy Grosso moderated a 90-minute deep dive into the Court’s new and long-awaited Van Buren decision. Panelists included Alan Butler, Cindy Cohn, Mark Rasch and Eric Vandevelde.
HotTopic on Politics and Policy of Necessity: Mega-Hacks and the Future of US Cybersecurity
ACM's US Technology Policy Committee (USTPC) hosted a HotTopics webinar session on Politics and Policy of Necessity: Mega-Hacks and the Future of US Cybersecurity on June 9. Former USTPC Chair and renowned cybersecurity expert Gene Spafford moderated a panel that discussed cyberthreats and how multiple arms of the US government can respond. Panelists included Steven Bellovin, Edward Felten, Rebecca Herold and Mark Rasch.
HotTopic on Technology and Trust: Voting in the Electronic Age
ACM's US Technology Policy Committee (USTPC) hosted a HotTopics webinar session on Technology & Trust: Voting in the Electronic Age on February 11. The panel discussion was moderated by USTPC Chair Jim Hendler and included ACM technical experts Doug Jones and Barbara Simons, USTPC Law Subcommittee Chair Andy Grosso, and Brennan Center for Justice advisor Edgardo Cortés for a deep and audience-interactive discussion of voting in America and the technologies at its core.
HotTopic on Section 230 of Communications Decency Act
ACM's US Technology Policy Committee (USTPC) hosted a HotTopics panel discussion on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act on November 18, 2020, with Mark Rasch, founder of the US DOJ's Computer Crime Unit and Cyber-Forensics practice; ACM Fellow Pamela Samuelson, law professor at University of California, Berkeley; and Danny Weitzner, Chair of USTPC’s Digital Governance Subcommittee and Founding Director of the MIT Internet Policy Research Initiative. Andy Grosso, Chair of USTPC’s Law Subcommittee, moderated.
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