2025-07-16 –, South Hall 2B
In this one-hour panel session, AI experts will explore the rapidly evolving impact of these technologies on our society. The discussion will address pressing questions across key domains being transformed by AI: privacy and regulation, environmental implications, economic and labor shifts, and the impact of AI on media and art.
Beyond hearing insightful perspectives from our panelists, you'll have the opportunity to submit your own questions throughout the session. You’ll also have the chance to walk away with prizes, through answering quiz questions based on topics discussed in the session. Whether you're an AI enthusiast, industry professional, or simply curious about how these technologies will shape our world, join us to find out more about this complex area and have your burning questions answered.
Intermediate
Laura is a very technical designer™️, working at Pydantic as Lead Design Engineer. Her side projects include Sweet Summer Child Score (summerchild.dev) and Ethics Litmus Tests (ethical-litmus.site). Laura is passionate about feminism, digital rights and designing for privacy. She speaks, writes and runs workshops at the intersection of design and technology.
Kayode Makinde is a data scientist and AI researcher at Lawyers Hub, Africa's leading AI policy organization. With a background in engineering, he has built a career at the intersection of AI research, policy, and real-world applications.
Kayode’s work spans reinforcement learning, computer vision, and AI-driven optimization, with award-winning contributions in AI research. He has developed cutting-edge solutions, including reinforcement learning agents for Ayo, an AI-powered ripe orange plucking robot, and optimization models for decision-making. His efforts have earned him multiple accolades, including the Best Poster award at the DSN AI Bootcamp, 3rd place at IndabaX Nigeria 2024, and victories at the Bluechip Data and AI Summit and DataFest hackathons.
Beyond his professional work, Kayode is passionate about mentorship and AI community growth. He actively fosters AI adoption in Africa by engaging with research communities and supporting initiatives that drive innovation. Whether leading groundbreaking projects, exploring AI’s ethical implications, or contributing to community development, he is always seeking new challenges and opportunities to make an impact.
Reyha Verma (she/her/hers)
Reyha Verma is an Applied Scientist at Amazon, specializing in Responsible AI. Before joining Amazon, she worked at Arintra, an early-stage startup focused on automating medical coding, where she developed AI/ML pipelines for 4+ major US healthcare systems. Reyha has also gained experience at Sprinklr and PayPal, and holds a Master's degree in NLP from NUS, where she worked on computational social science problems. She is passionate about building technology that drives real-world impact.
Software Engineer with 8+ years of experience. Currently working at Isomorphic Labs as ML Platform Engineer building scalable and safe solutions using large models. Interested in AI Safety and AI Governance.