Join Us for the 2026 AI and Race Speaker Series
We are pleased to invite you to the AI and Race Speaker Series in Commemoration of Black History Month with Renée Cummings.
Judged by Data: The Future of Fairness, Governing AI When Freedom Is at Stake, and What the Public Needs to Know About Justice in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
As artificial intelligence becomes embedded across the justice system, decisions about liberty, punishment, and public safety are increasingly shaped by data-driven tools that few fully understand and even fewer are equipped to challenge.
This keynote examines how algorithmic systems are influencing policing, courts, sentencing, and supervision, and why fairness cannot be assumed simply because technology is involved. Moving beyond technical explanations, the talk reveals how historical inequities, racial bias, and governance gaps can be encoded into automated decision-making, often with profound consequences for due process and public trust.
Designed for both legal professionals and the general public, the keynote clarifies what is at stake when machines inform human judgment and outlines the responsibilities of institutions, leaders, and communities to ensure that justice in the age of artificial intelligence remains transparent, accountable, and anchored in fundamental rights.
Thursday, February 5, 2026
12:00 - 2:00 p.m.
Online
Registration closes at 12:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 29th.
Speaker bio:
Professor Renée Cummings is a global intelligence innovator, AI governance leader, AI and data ethicist, and Professor of Practice at the University of Virginia’s School of Data Science. As UVA’s inaugural Data Activist-in-Residence and Co-Director of the AI Equity Lab at Brookings, she brings the perspective of a criminologist and criminal psychologist to advancing justice-oriented, trauma-informed, and responsible AI.
A fearless futurist and sought-after keynote speaker, Professor Cummings advises governments, industry, and academia worldwide to ensure AI empowers rather than exploits. Her work focuses on aligning human insight with machine intelligence, guiding emerging technologies toward ethical purpose alongside technical power.
She explores the future of superintelligence and decision-making systems, developing frameworks where creativity, justice, and human dignity remain central. Professor Cummings redefines innovation not as speed alone, but as the deliberate integration of values into every algorithm, shaping intelligent systems that expand possibility without erasing humanity.
Hosted by Dr. Gideon Christian, Associate Professor of AI and Law and the University Research Chair in AI and Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Calgary.
Questions? Contact Peter Dawe at [email protected].