Dentons and Startup Edmonton invite you to attend "Artificial Intelligence: a discussion of social and legal challenges, opportunities, and the practical adoption of AI in business"

Agenda

2:45 p.m. - Doors open
3 p.m. - Opening remarks
3:05–5:15 p.m. - Presentations
5:15–6:15 - Networking, hors d'ouevres and cocktails

Welcome and opening remarks will be provided by Tom Sides, Partner, Dentons.

Presentations

AI building blocks – demystifying terminology and a brief grounding in AI basics

Cameron Schuler, Executive Director, Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute

AI is one of the hottest topics on the planet, but all the talk can be confusing. Understanding the concepts will set the context for the discussion.

Rise of the machines…again: (re)evaluating social and legal responses, and challenges

Tom Sides, Partner, Dentons

A similar era of rapid technological development created economic opportunity and societal benefits, but it also hastened significant social changes that were often met with skepticism and fear. Artificial intelligence has moved out of the realm of science fiction. This session will review the reaction from technology luminaries, government and business leaders to the impact that AI will have on our society, and how existing ethical and legal frameworks will be stretched to respond to the use of AI in business and in the provision of public sector services, and how they may have to change.

Lifesciences – Industry case study

Marlon Rajakaruna, Partner, Dentons

Marlon will review some of the proposed uses of AI in the life sciences industry and assess the social and legal implications in that industry.

How AI research at Universities translates to industry

Cameron Schuler, Executive Director, Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute

Universities undertake all kinds of curiosity-driven research, but how does this lead to practical applications? More importantly, how can opportunities be identified to use AI?

Intellectual property created by non-humans – who owns the IP rights?

Rob McDonald, Partner, Dentons

Machines using artificial intelligence can create music, art, sculpture and other unique works that would be protected by intellectual property if created by a human. But can a machine be a creator of IP? Can a machine be an owner of IP? Rob will discuss the current state of the law, review some real life examples of cases involving animal and other non-human creations, and examine whether our IP laws are capable of dealing with these unique situations.

Application of AI in business - supercharging collective action online

Farhaan Ladhani, CEO, Perennial

We have witnessed an explosion of social and political activism around the world in the past few years, enabled in part by the unprecedented connectivity the internet provides. Mass movements have seemingly come out of nowhere and shaken the politics of countries as diverse as Iran (2009), Egypt (2011), Brazil (2013), Hong Kong (2014), and now the United States. The ubiquity of the internet and smartphones have made collective action on a massive scale easier than ever before. But too much of this new capacity for collective action vanishes after a few weeks. The Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street are but just two examples where explosive participation fizzled after only a short time. Existing internet platforms can clearly mobilize millions to disrupt the status quo, but they have so far failed at keeping people interested long enough build a new one. How do we motivate people online, to take positive civic action again and again, and in so doing, capture and reuse the incredible social capital that these online campaigns generate? Six years of experimentation by Perennial’s co-founders in the use of technology to mobilize millions to undertake civic action have led to the development of a platform that is intended to solve this problem.

Closing remarks will be provided by Carman McNary, Edmonton Managing Partner, Dentons.

Speakers

Cameron Schuler, Executive Director, Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute

Cameron's multi-faceted career, with roles as COO, CFO, President & CEO, has spanned industries including alternative energy, consumer goods, information technology, investment sales & trading, life sciences, manufacturing, medical devices and oil and gas.

Previously, Cameron was the Executive-in-Residence at TEC Edmonton, and he is Co-Founder & CEO of VibeDx Diagnostic Corp. He is also a member of the A100, a community of technology entrepreneurs working to support Alberta’s next generation of start-ups.

Farhaan Ladhaani, Co-Founder and CEO, Perennial

Farhaan Ladhani is the CEO of Perennial, a new Canadian start-up dedicated to understanding the world with data, and making it better with digital tools. For over a decade, Farhaan has been leading efforts on the use of digital tools to connect people. Most recently he served as the Senior Advisor for Digital Outreach in the Office of the Prime Minister. Prior to this, Farhaan was the Deputy Director for Direct Diplomacy at Global Affairs Canada – an initiative focused on engaging with non-state political actors seeking to increase the openness, inclusiveness and responsiveness of their political systems.

Tom Sides, Partner, Dentons

Tom is the Chair of Dentons Canada Technology Transactions group and co-Chair of Dentons Global Technology Transactions group and his practice focuses extensively on technology, intellectual property, privacy and related commercial legal issues for clients in the energy, financial institution, health, forestry, information technology and telecommunications industry sectors.

Tom has significant experience acting for both developers and owners of technology and licensees and users of that technology in all aspects of their business from startup companies through to global companies. His practical and business-focused approach has been honed from his experience as associate general counsel of one of Canada’s largest telecommunications companies and as general counsel of the Canadian subsidiary of a global software entity, and as a member of their executive leadership teams. His experience extends to leading or advising on merger and acquisition transactions involving technology, IP, privacy and commercial legal issues.

Marlon Rajakaruna, Partner, Dentons

Marlon is a partner and co-chair of Dentons' Global Life Sciences and Healthcare groups, and has extensive experience in the life sciences, healthcare and technology areas. He acts for Canadian and foreign pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies, diagnostics companies, natural and non-prescription health product companies, dental practice management companies, hearing aid manufacturers, medical services companies, clinical research organizations, academic research organizations, academic health regions, universities, site management organizations, medical clinics, physicians, dentists and chiropractors. Marlon is regularly involved in the negotiation of a variety of agreements, advising on risk management issues, regulatory matters, federal research funding requirements, contract enforcement and interpretation, developing various template agreements, guidelines and contract review procedures, drafting operating policies and procedures, providing strategic advice and helping develop organizational efficiencies, advising on the structuring of clinical trials, including multi-centre national and international clinical trials, and conducting training sessions on contract and risk management issues. He is a thought leader and highly sought-after speaker in the area of clinical research, and regularly speaks at national and international clinical research conferences.

Rob McDonald, Partner, Dentons

Rob is a partner, and chair of Dentons' National Intellectual Property group and member of Dentons' National Technology Transactions group, Franchising group, and Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) sector group.

He practices primarily in the areas of intellectual property protection, licensing and litigation, with a focus on copyright, trademark, patent and confidential information issues. Rob has litigated copyright, trademark, and patent infringement actions at various court levels and advises clients with respect to all aspects of the protection, licensing, exploitation and enforcement of their intellectual property and technology. He also has litigation experience in the areas of domain name disputes, franchise disputes, counterfeit goods and misappropriation of confidential information and trade secrets. Rob provides IP support with respect to mergers and acquisitions, cross border and international business, financing and other commercial transactions, including conducting due diligence on IP portfolios, analysing ownership and validity issues, and assessing the strength and breadth of trademark and patent registrations.

Please confirm your attendance by Wednesday October 18, 2017.