Call for Submissions: Global AI & Regulation Emerging Scholars Workshop and Paper Award

We invite emerging scholars in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and regulation to participate in a workshop where they will be granted the opportunity to present their draft paper to leading scholars in the field of AI and the law. Each participating emerging scholar will receive feedback from at least one designated experienced reviewer, as well as from the other participants of the workshop, such that feedback could be incorporated before the paper is submitted for publication. In addition, a Scotiabank Global AI + Regulation Emerging Scholar prize of C$1,500 will be awarded to the best paper.

The workshop will be held virtually in Fall 2021.
Should public health guidelines allow it and the Canadian border reopen, a hybrid workshop may take place. In such a case, we will aim at providing some travel support to selected candidates that would require it.

The workshop is open to emerging scholars in law or public policy (e.g. graduate students at the master or PhD level, postdoctoral fellows as well visiting or acting professors that are not yet in tenure-track or permanent positions).

Since the goal of the workshop is to provide feedback, only unpublished papers are eligible (however publication in scholarship networks such as SSRN is allowed). Participants will be free to publish their work on any platform or publication channel after the workshop.

Papers must be written in English, and their topics should address the regulation of AI from a comparative or global perspective. Different countries are engaged in shaping the appropriate legal frameworks to account for the unique characteristics of AI. Be it in areas of liability, explainability, accountability, privacy, fairness, or others, different jurisdictions have come up with diverse proposals for the desired legal regime and regulatory measures to promote the beneficial and safe usage of AI. Eligible papers for the workshop are those that focus on the regulation of AI. Papers offering a comparative or international aspect will be preferred (either as the paper’s main characteristic or as part of it).

Eligible topics may relate to each of the principles mentioned above (fairness, accountability, etc.) and how they are regulated or ought to be regulated, as well as  insights from relevant global experience. For example, topics may include:

• Regulatory approaches taken by different jurisdictions with respect to AI, including AI development, design, deployment, usage, or oversight.
• Analysis of current or proposed regulatory frameworks to govern AI.
• Analysis of incentives, disincentives, and other considerations to be taken into account when shaping the appropriate AI-regulation policy.

The Global AI + Regulation Emerging Scholars Workshop, and the Scotiabank Global AI + Regulation Emerging Scholar Award are made possible thanks to the support of the Scotiabank Fund for the AI + Society Initiative at the University of Ottawa.

An abstract of up to 2,500 characters (~400 words), in English, is to be submitted by July 15, 2021, on the submission form

Selected authors will then be asked to submit their full paper, of up to 7,000 words (inclusive of footnotes) by September 15, 2021.

The workshop will take place in Fall 2021 (exact dates to be determined according to the participants' and reviewers' availability). The recipient(s) of the best paper(s) award will be announced during the workshop. (In the case of co-authored papers, the prize will be equally split among all co-authors).

Any questions (notably should you want to verify eligibility) should be directed to aisociety@uottawa.ca.

Led by Dr. Florian Martin-Bariteau and Dr. Karni Chagal-Feferkorn, the paper competition and workshop selection committee will include renowned scholars in the field of AI from across the globe.

The AI + Society Initiative aims at defining problems and identifying solutions to essential issues related to ethical AI and technology development. The research leverages a transdisciplinary approach to advance AI methods and tools, with a focus on their responsible applications.

The Initiative promotes an inclusive research agenda with a specific focus on avoiding the amplification of global digital injustices through AI for affected communities. The research will include many important voices such as women, youth, seniors, Indigenous People, LGBTQIA2S+, visible minorities, people with disabilities, and linguistic minorities – and those at the intersection of these identities.

The Initiative offers students new opportunities to gain experience, locally and abroad, in an emerging field that will have profound implications on Canadian society in the years to come. The Initiative’s outreach includes lectures, conferences and workshops, training, tools, frameworks, and white papers that will help develop global thought leadership on AI and society. While being grounded in rigorous evidence-based academic research, most outreach (public lectures, training, tools, white papers, reports) will be developed with the general public in mind, so non-academic stakeholders can take ownership, and implement them, to have a transformative impact within their communities.