Katherine Newman, provost and executive vice president of Academic Affairs of the University of California, laid out the following considerations to guide us going forward:

1. Because this space is moving so fast and moving very fast in health care and other fields, if we want to be a leader, we will need to change how we do our business.
2. How can we think differently and organize ourselves differently? 
3. Can we collaborate across campuses and do things in new ways without stymieing innovation at the local campuses?
4. If we are going to be a world leader, much will be involved in the effort, including creating all the infrastructure and the public private partnerships, representing a significant investment. On the other hand,  if we don’t get it right, the cost of not getting it right is going to be so high, it will drive us all out of business.
5. How do we capture the strengths of the new technology and try to mitigate the challenges/downsides of the new technology?

Gene Block, chancellor of UCLA, shared one of his biggest hopes and dreams for AI: democratizing education. He said, “The dream is we can begin to overcome some of the deficiencies because of the inequities that we have in our educational system and begin to improve outcomes even at later stages, by using the power of AI”. 

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AI Council Update

Alex Bui, Co-Chair of the UC AI Council, provided an overview of the council’s efforts to institutionalize the UC Responsible AI Principles across the system. The council aims to establish a baseline set of principles for AI governance, coordinate with various stakeholders, harmonize definitions across campuses, and provide a central resource for AI-related information through its newly launched website.

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About the event and staying connected

This event, the first of its kind at the university, included leaders and experts from UC (UC regents, faculty, administrative leaders, students, alumni), as well as the government and the private sector. Its objective was to galvanize a community of stakeholders to identify opportunities to leverage AI across a wide range of use-cases, while understanding, and responding to, the ongoing  challenges of ensuring safe, ethical and equitable approaches to its uses. 

Nearly 500 distinguished guests from across the university attended this invitation only event, about 50% in person and 50% streaming online. UC Regents and C-suite executives included chief information officers, department chairs, and distinguished faculty across non-technical disciplines, among others. 

Learn more about the event, its organizers by visiting the UC AI Congress event landing page. To learn more, feel free to review this UC AI Resources list. To join our growing community, please visit the UC AI Council landing page, and share your contact information and area of interest by completing this UC AI interest form.

Conference organizers

Program Committe

• Camille Crittenden – Executive Director, CITRIS and the Banatao Institute
• Lucy Avetisyan – Chief Information Officer, UCLA
• Jenae Cohn – Executive Director, UC Berkeley Center for Teaching and Learning 
• Kristin Cordova – Chief of Staff, Information Technology Services, UC Office of the President
• David Danks – Professor, UC San Diego, data science & philosophy 
• Yvette Gullatt – Chief Diversity Officer, UC Office of the President, Graduate and Undergraduate Affairs
• Cora Han – Chief Health Data Officer, UC Office of the President, University of California Health
• Elizabeth Joh – Faculty Advisory Board, UC Davis Law 
• Jenny Lofthus – General Compliance Manager, UC Office of the President, Ethics and Compliance
• Rich Lyons – Chancellor Designate/Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Innovation & Entrepreneurship Officer, University of California, Berkeley
• Katherine S. Newman – Provost and Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs of the University of California
• Mark Nitzberg – Executive Director of the UC Berkeley Center for Human-Compatible AI, Head of Strategic Outreach at the Berkeley AI Research Lab, and Director of Technology Research at the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy (BRIE)
• Brandie Nonnecke – Director, CITRIS Policy Lab
• Van Williams – Vice President, Information Technology and Chief Information Officer, University of California

Contributing Staff

• Fatima Azam – Communications Coordinator for Graduate, Undergraduate and Equity Affairs
• Whit Bastian – Administrative Specialist, UC Office of the President
• Stephanie Beecham – Chief of Staff, Academic Affairs, University of California Office of the President
• Alissa Moe – Director, Outreach Events and Communications, Graduate, Undergraduate and Equity Affairs, UC Office of the President
• Laurel Skurko – Marketing & Communications Specialist, Information Technology Services, UC Office of the President
• Ghanya Thomas – Executive Assistant, Information Technology Services, UC Office of the President