Time |
Session Type and Description |
Speaker(s) |
Wednesday 26 November |
5:00-7:00pm |
Public Lecture |
Professor Simon Chesterman (talk for 20-30 mins) , followed by a discussion Chair Jeannie Marie Paterson |
Thursday 27 November |
08:30am |
Registration begins |
Green Room |
09:00-09:30am |
Opening Ceremony Group Photograph |
Jean Todt, United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety Tshilidzi MARWALA, Rector of the United Nations University and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Bin Yang, Vice Chairperson of Tsinghua University Council |
09:30-10:30am |
Plenary Session Keynote and Moderated Discussion |
Speakers Short address: Stuart Russell, Professor of Computer Science at the University of California at Berkeley Moderator: Xue Lan, Dean of Institute for AI International Governance of Tsinghua University (I-AIIG) Jeannie Marie Paterson, Director of the Centre for Al and Digital Ethics,University of Melbourne Simon Chesterman, Vice Provost, National University of Singapore Gong Ke, Director of Haihe Laboratory of Information Technology Application Innovation Celine Yunya Song, Associate Head and Professor and Director of Media Intelligence Research Center, HKUST Group Photo |
Short break |
10:45-11:45am |
Panel 1: The University Disrupted AI’s Impact on Knowledge Work & Tertiary Education Artificial intelligence is reshaping how we learn, work, and live, forcing universities to confront an existential challenge. If machines can perform the tasks of knowledge workers more cheaply and efficiently, what is the value of a university education — and who will continue to pay for it? At the same time, as expertise itself is questioned and public trust in institutions erodes, can universities sustain their legitimacy as bastions of knowledge and civic authority? This panel will explore these twin questions of the enduring (?) value and legitimacy of universities. |
Moderator: Simon Chesterman (NUS & AISG) Loy Hui Chieh, Vice Dean (Academic Affairs), NUS College, National University of Singapore Jungpil Hahn, Deputy Director (AI Governance), AI Singapore Liz Johnson, Emeritus Professor, Deakin University Natasha Ziebell, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Education, Melbourne Gregor Kennedy, University of Melbourne (Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic) |
11:45am-12:45pm |
Panel 2: AI Literacy for Whom and for What? Many governments and organisations have committed to improving AI literacy. This panel explores what that concept means, why it is important and who should benefit from literacy initiatives, considered in terms of those already in the work force and those approaching it. It also considers the challenges of ensuring the benefits of AI literacy are equitably shared as between SMEs, regional enterprises and workers in the Asia Pacific region, and beyond. |
Moderator: Professor Jeannie Marie Paterson Stef Lovett, Director of Government Affairs & Public Policy for Australia and New Zealand (Google) Evelyn Wong (AVPN) Brett Szmajda, Strategy and Growth Lead(National AI Centre) Greg Nyilasy, Associate Professor, Faculty of Business and Economics Fei Wu, Microsoft |
12:45-1:30pm |
Lunch |
|
1:30-2:30pm |
Public Talk: AI and Indigenous languages |
Dr Steven Bird Dr Marc Cheong (Chair) |
2:30-3:30pm |
Panel 3: From Risks to Responses: Collective Action for AI Safety This roundtable will move from real-world AI safety risks to co-created solutions. Speakers will share technical insights and perspectives on pressing AI safety challenges, drawing on real-world cases and sector-specific experiences. Then the discussion will turn into collaboratively exploring mitigation strategies. The outcome of the session will be a shared map of priority AI safety risks along with a set of proposed actions and recommendations to advance global AI safety. |
Moderator: Paola Galvez Callirgros, AI Ethics Manager, Globethics Ratna Malar Selvaratnam, Manager, Learning Technologies & Innovation, Edith Cowan University Tianhao Chen, Associate Professor, School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University Kate Seward, Director, Corporate, External and Legal Affairs, Microsoft Zena Assaad, Lecturer, The Australian National University |
3.30-4:00pm |
Break |
4:00-5:00pm |
Seminar Session on AI, explanations, counterfactuals and causation, explainable AI |
Chair: Dr Simon Coghlan Presentor: Sam Baron |
5:00-6:00pm |
Panel 4: AI for Industry, AI for Society As AI reshapes global industries, from mobility to resource extraction, the question for today’s leaders is how to accelerate innovation while ensuring long-term societal benefit. This panel brings together voices from technology development, entrepreneurship, and investment to explore how AI can contribute not just to industrial efficiency, but also to social good. What does it take to build an ecosystem that supports responsible deployment and shared value? How can public and private sectors collaborate in creating new opportunities—for example, by planning for workforce transformation alongside the rollout of autonomous systems? This discussion will map out strategies to align AI industry growth with broader human-centered development goals. |
Report Release Lan Xue, Dean, I-AIIG, Tsinghua Moderator: Zheng Liang, Vice Dean, I-AIIG, Tsinghua Michael Witbrock, Professor of Computer Science, The University of Auckland Xuan Liu, Cofounder, DeepRoute.ai Ruoyue Luo, Vice President, QAX Cyrus Hodes, Venture Partner, Lionheart Ventures |
6:00-8:00pm |
Speakers’ Dinner |
Di Stasio Carlton 224 Faraday Street Carlton, Victoria, Carlton, VIC, 3053 |
Friday 28 November |
9:00 am |
Registration |
|
9:30-10:30 am |
Panel 5: People, Economy, Governance and Human Development As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in social and economic systems, its implications for governance, equity, and human well-being are profound. UNDP global Human Development Report and a forthcoming Asia-Pacific analysis on AI impact on human development and between-country inequality highlight that while AI can empower human and enable more responsive public services, it also risks deepening inequalities, possibly creating a new divergence, aggravating country divides if not governed inclusively. Moderated by UNDP China’s Assistant Resident Representative, this panel brings together leading scholars from Tsinghua University and the University of Science and Technology of China to explore how AI is reshaping governance models, public policy, and human development in the Asia-Pacific region. The discussion will examine how policy innovation, data governance, and institutional reform can ensure AI advances people wellbeing, expands their choices and opportunities —reducing rather than reinforcing inequality, strengthening accountability, and safeguarding human security in the digital age. |
Moderator: Wei Zhang, Assistant Resident, Representative for the United Nations Development Programme in China (moderator) Weixing Shen, Director, Institute for Studies on Artificial Intelligence and Law, Tsinghua University Xufeng Zhu, Professor and Dean, School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University Liang Zheng, Vice Dean, The Institute for AI International Governance of Tsinghua University (I-AIIG) Shen Zhou, Associate Researcher, Department of Communication of Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China |
10:30-11:30am |
Panel 6: Cultural Alignment & Low-Resource Languages: Adapting LLMs for diverse cultures How do we measure and mitigate cultural bias in large language models, especially when benchmarks often fail to capture nuance? What are the most effective ways to support low-resource languages while balancing global performance against cultural sensitivity? Who should own and govern the data and models for underrepresented communities, and how can local voices be brought into the development process? Looking forward, should we aim for universal multilingual systems or a federation of culturally aligned models? |
Moderator: Simon Chesterman, NUS Lea Frermann, School of Computing and Information Systems, Melbourne Chunhua Liu, School of Computing and Information Systems, Melbourne Zhuang Li, RMIT Eric Orlowski, AI Singapore Hakim Norhashim, AI Singapore |
11.45am-12.45pm |
Panel 7: Technical Approaches for Responsible AI How do we ensure that the results of AI processing are responsible and trustworthy? This panel addresses the principal existing approaches today: explaining processing and results to users, validating processing across visual and textual modalities, experimenting with small AI systems, and a variety of process assurance techniques. The panelists, all faculty members in the School of Computing and Information Science at the University of Melbourne, are recognised experts in these various approaches. |
The University of Melbourne Prof Eduard Hovy - Explanation in AI A/Prof Sarah Erfani - AI Assurance A/Prof Caren Han - Cross-modal AI Prof Tom Drummond - Validation with small LLMs |
Conference concludes |
12:45-15:00 |
Lunch and Roundtable Discussion |
|
