The Institute of Law, Technology & Innovation hosts virtual Book Talks with leading policymakers, industry experts, and academics at the forefront of law and technology. These featured Book Talks provide a platform to explore cutting-edge ideas, research, and influential publications shaping the future of legal frameworks and technological innovation.
Future Events for 2024/2025
We will host the following events during the fall 2024 and spring 2025 semesters. Check back for more information.
October 29, 2024, 4 p.m.
Sayash Kapoor, Princeton University
Co-author, "AI Snake Oil”
Sayash Kapoor is a Ph.D. candidate at Princeton University's Center for Information Technology Policy. He is a coauthor of “AI Snake Oil,” a book that provides a critical analysis of artificial intelligence, separating the hype from the true advances. His research examines the societal impacts of AI, with a focus on reproducibility, transparency, and accountability in AI systems. He is especially interested in the interaction between AI and policy. He has previously worked on AI in various institutions in academia and the industry, including at Facebook, Columbia University, and EPFL Switzerland. Kapoor has been recognized with various awards, including a best paper award at ACM FAccT, an impact recognition award at ACM CSCW, and inclusion in TIME’s inaugural list of the 100 most influential people in AI.
November 25, 2024
Lowry Pressly, Stanford University
Author, "The Right to Oblivion: Privacy and the Good Life”
Lowry Pressly is a lecturer in the Department of Political Science, the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society, and the Stanford Civics Initiative.
Pressly’s book, The Right to Oblivion: Privacy and the Good Life (Harvard University Press 2024), offers a radically new defense of privacy and a philosophical account of the importance of oblivion to human life. He has recently published in Ethics, Political Theory, and Contemporary Political Theory, and has also contributed critical essays and interviews to The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Point, Public Books, and elsewhere. His works of fiction and translation also appear widely.
Pressly’s philosophical and literary work has been recognized with several awards, including the Leo Strauss Award, the Robert Noxon Toppan Prize, the Bowdoin Prize, and the Thomas Morton Memorial Award for Literary Excellence.
Past Events
September 10, 2024
Kashmir Hill, The New York Times
Author, "Your Face Belongs to US: The Secretive Startup Dismantling Your Privacy"
Kashmir Hill is a tech reporter at The New York Times and the author of "Your Face Belongs To US." She writes about the unexpected and sometimes ominous ways technology is changing our lives, particularly when it comes to our privacy. Hill joined The New York Times in 2019, after having worked at Gizmodo Media Group, Fusion, Forbes Magazine, and Above the Law. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker and The Washington Post. She has degrees from Duke University and New York University, where she studied journalism.
March 18, 2024
Mathias Risse, Harvard University
Author, “Political Theory of the Digital Age: Where Artificial Intelligence Might Take Us”
Mathias Risse is the Berthold Beitz professor in human rights, global affairs, and philosophy at Harvard University. He joined Harvard in 2002, after teaching at Yale University. At Harvard, Risse also serves as director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy and co-director of graduate studies at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics. Risse is the author of "On Global Justice" (2012), "On Justice" (2020), and "Global Political Philosophy" (2020), as well as the co-author of "On Trade Justice" (2019) and "Holding Together: The Hijacking of Rights in America and How to Reclaim Them For Everyone" (2022).
November 9, 2023
Ryan Abbott, Professor of Law and Health Sciences, University of Surrey
Author, "The Reasonable Robot: Artificial Intelligence and the Law"
Ryan Abbott, M.D., J.D., M.T.O.M., Ph.D., is professor of law and health sciences at the School of Law, University of Surrey, and adjunct assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. A physician and patent attorney, Abbott's research on law and technology has helped shape the international dialogue on these topics. He has served as an expert for the World Health Organization, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the European Commission, and the UK Parliament. Abbott also spearheaded the first patent applications to disclose inventions made autonomously by an AI. In 2019, he was named one of the top 50 in Intellectual Property by Managing IP magazine.