CSP and Digimarc Present “Safeguarding the Development of Artificial Intelligence” on Monday, January 22nd, 2024

UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy and Digimarc

Safeguarding the Development of Artificial Intelligence

Monday, January 22 – Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall – 4:30pm-6:00pm, RSVP Here

While the advent of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) offers tremendous innovative opportunity and potential, the development of this revolutionary technology must be safeguarded to protect everything from the authenticity of the digital ecosystem to the integrity of American elections. The rapid pace with which GenAI has and will continue to develop means that the tools, solutions, and regulations needed to safeguard that growth are required immediately. To create and implement such solutions will require intense collaboration from the business, public, and academic sectors.

We invite you to join former UC President and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Digimarc CEO Riley McCormack, in conversation with New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, Congressional Representative Jay Obernolte, NBC News Correspondent Jake Ward, and UC Professor Dr. Hany Farid, as they discuss cross-sector solutions and the actions needed to safeguard the development of GenAI. Key topics include, but are not limited to, GenAI’s impact on election security, content provenance and authenticity, and copyright ownership.

Following the event there will be a reception with free food and wine for attendees.

About the Speakers

Secretary Janet Napolitano

Secretary Janet Napolitano is a Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Center for Security in Politics. She served as the twentieth President of the University of California, the nation’s largest public research university system with ten campuses, five medical centers, three affiliated national laboratories, and a statewide agriculture and natural resources program. Prior to joining the University of California, President Napolitano served as Secretary of Homeland Security from 2009 to 2013. She is a former two-term Governor of Arizona, a former Attorney General of Arizona, and a former U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona.

Riley McCormack

Riley McCormack is the president and CEO of Digimarc, the world’s leading product digitization company and the globally recognized pioneer in digital watermarking. Riley is passionate about harnessing the power of this world- changing technology to promote a prosperous, safer, and more sustainable planet. Prior to Digimarc, Riley’s talent for identifying and investing in transformational technology and media companies led him to launch Tracer Capital Management. Tracer grew into one of the world’s largest dedicated technology, media, and telecomm hedge funds.

U.S. Congressman Jay Obernolte

U.S. Congressman Jay Obernolte proudly represents California’s 23rd District in the U.S. House of Representatives. A video game developer and business owner, Rep. Obernolte is dedicated to ensuring the High Desert and Inland Empire have a strong voice fighting for their interests in Congress.

In the 117th Congress, Rep. Obernolte served on the committees on Natural Resources, Budget, and Science, Space, and Technology and in a leadership role as the freshman class representative to the House Republican Policy Committee. He passed 6 bills, of which three were signed into law, to help protect our nation’s supply chain and improve our defense against cyberterrorism. He also authored and cosponsored an additional 55 bills to tackle inflation, lower energy prices, crack down on drug trafficking across the southern border, and work to prevent wildfires.

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Previously, Rep. Obernolte served as a member of the California State Legislature representing the state’s 33rd Assembly District and as Mayor of the City of Big Bear Lake. He has also served on the boards of the Big Bear Lake Fire Protection District, the Mojave Desert and Mountain Integrated Waste Authority, the Mountain Regional Transit Authority, the League of California Cities Desert-Mountain Division, and the Big Bear City Airport District. In these positions he worked across partisan lines to pass legislation helping California’s hardworking families by lowering taxes, stopping government encroachment into privacy and personal liberties, and upholding law and order. He has also been a strong advocate for local veterans, defending funding for the Barstow Veterans Home and helping ensure California veterans receive the care and respect their service has earned.

Rep. Obernolte lives in Big Bear Lake with his wife, Heather. They have two sons, Hale and Troy. In addition to owning a videogame development studio, Rep. Obernolte is a certified flight instructor and a teacher of martial arts. He holds a B.S. in Engineering and Applied Science from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), an M.S. in Artificial Intelligence from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and a Doctorate in Public Administration from California Baptist University (CBU).

State Attorney General Raúl Torrez

State Attorney General Raúl Torrez is the current Attorney General of the State of New Mexico. Prior to his position as State Attorney General, he served as the District Attorney of Bernalillo County, New Mexico’s largest county. In addition, he served as a White House Fellow under the Obama administration and worked as a senior advisor to the administration’s Department of Justice. His experience also includes positions as Assistant Attorney General and Assistant District Attorney. In his many years of experience as a high ranking legal officer, he has pioneered the use of technology in the effectiveness of his office’s efforts.

Dr. Hany Farid

Dr. Hany Farid is a joint appointed professor in electrical engineering & computer science and the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley. He also serves as a member of the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Lab, the Berkeley Institute of Data Science, the Center for Innovation in Vision and Optics, Development Engineering, the Vision Science Program, and the Center for Long Term Cybersecurity as senior advisor. His extensive research focuses in digital forensics, forensic science, misinformation, image analysis, and human perception.

Jacob Ward

Jacob Ward is an on-air correspondent for NBC News, covering the intersection of technology, human behavior, and social change for Nightly News, The TODAY Show, and MSNBC. He is the former editor-in-chief of Popular Science magazine, and was Al Jazeera’s science and technology correspondent from 2013 to 2018. Ward is a lecturer at the Stanford d.school, and was a 2018-2019 Berggruen Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, where he began writing The Loop: How AI is Creating a World without Choices and How to Fight Back, out now from Hachette Book Group. The book explores how artificial intelligence and other decision-shaping technologies will amplify good and bad human instincts. Ward has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Wired, and many other publications. In addition to hosting documentaries for Nat Geo and Discovery, he’s the host of the landmark four-hour PBS television series, “Hacking Your Mind,” about human decision-making and manipulation.

About the Center for Security in Politics:

The Center for Security in Politics (CSP) supports research, curriculum, and convenings that bring students, academics, and leading political practitioners together to address critical global risks, to translate research and analysis into actionable solutions for policymakers, thought leaders and elected officials, and to train a diverse generation of security professionals for careers in public service.

About Digimarc:

Digimarc is a global leader in product digitization. A pioneer in digital watermarks, Digimarc connects every physical and digital item to a digital twin that enables the capture of product data, record events and interactions, and supports powerful new automations. Trusted to deter counterfeiting of global currency for more than 20 years, Digimarc is also recognized for ensuring product authenticity, improving plastics recycling, and more, with a commitment to promoting a prosperous, safer, and more sustainable world. In 2023, Digimarc was named to the Fortune 2023 Change the World list and honored as a 2023 Fast Company World Changing Ideas finalist.