Rise of the Machines?:  

Legal, Ethical, and Practical Implications

of the Artificial Intelligence Boom

Recent leaps in artificial intelligence—including generative AI—have taken the tech, legal, and consumer world by storm, and raise a host of challenging legal issues. For example, are generative AI platforms that create visual or video outputs merely 21^st-century collage tools, or is the “diffusion” process that underlies the current technology fundamentally transformative? How are companies likely to implement AI tools in their day-to-day operations and products? What ethical issues should platforms, content owners, and creators consider when using AI processes? And what will the courts and regulators do about it all, including with multiple major lawsuits already filed? Our all-star panel will dig into these timely and fast-moving issues and provide thoughts for stakeholders on all sides to consider. (*this blurb was written by a human, we promise)

Mark McKenna

Mark McKenna is a co-founder of and of counsel to Lex Lumina, as well as Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Institute for Technology, Law & Policy at the UCLA School of Law, where he teaches a variety of courses in intellectual property law, privacy, and torts. Mark is the author of many articles and book chapters on a wide range of intellectual property topics. His core area of expertise is in trademark law, where he is extensively published and heavily cited, but he has also written broadly on topics in copyright, design, and the right of publicity. His research has often focused on the boundaries of various forms of intellectual property and how the doctrinal rules reflect the normative priorities of different systems. He is a co-author of the leading casebook on design, The Law of Design: Design Patent, Trademark, and Copyright (with Edward Lee and David L. Schwartz), and a co-author of several editions of The Law of Intellectual Property (with Michael Madison and Craig Nard).

Wesley Kerr

Wesley Kerr is the Head of Technology Research at Riot Games. He holds a PhD from the University of Arizona in Computer Science, where he performed research at the intersection of game development and artificial intelligence. His first tour at Riot Games began in 2013, working as part of the initial Big Data team to build the foundations for all future data products.  He took a detour to Google where he worked for Google Research on improving search and discovery for games in the Google Play Store. After returning to Riot in 2016, he's worked on League of Legends, building products like Your Shop, and helping to curb disruptive behavior on the player dynamics team.  Over the last two years, he has served as tech lead for data and helped steer updates to support another ten years of Riot Games. 

Nathanael Fast

Nathanael Fast studies the psychological underpinnings of power, leadership, and technology adoption. His research examines how power and status hierarchies shape decision making, how people’s identities shape their professional networks, and how AI is shaping the future. Fast is Director of the Neely Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision Making and Co-Director of the Psychology of Technology Institute. He received his PhD in Organizational Behavior from Stanford University and has been recognized for both teaching and research, including USC’s Golden Apple Teaching Award, the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research, and Poets & Quants "best 40 B-school profs under the age of 40.”

Reading Materials

The CLE portion of this event will take place from 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. PST.  The Los Angeles Copyright Society certifies that this activity has been approved for MCLE credit by the State Bar of California in the amount of 1.0 credit hour, of which 1.0 credit hour may be applied toward the General Practice requirement.

NBCUniversal

Nathaniel Bach
Manatt

Elaine Kim

Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp