About

Kay Firth-Butterfield is Executive Director of the Centre for Trustworthy Technology which is a World Economic Forum Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. She is one of the foremost experts in the world on the governance of AI. A Barrister, former Judge and Professor, technologist and entrepreneur she has an abiding interest in how humanity can equitably benefit from new technologies, especially AI. Kay is an Associate Barrister, Master of the Inner Temple, London and served on the Lord Chief Justice’s Advisory Panel on AI and Law. She co-founded the Responsible AI Institute and was the world’s first Chief AI Ethics officer in 2014. Kay is Vice-Chair of The IEEE Global Initiative for Ethical Considerations in Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems and was part of the group which met at Asilomar to create the Asilomar AI Ethical Principles. She is on the Polaris Council for the Government Accountability Office (USA), the Advisory Boards for UNESCO International Research Centre on AI, EarthSpecies and AI4All. Kay has advanced degrees in Law and International Relations and regularly speaks to international audiences addressing many aspects of the beneficial and challenging technical, economic and social changes arising from the use of AI. She has been consistently recognized as a leading woman in AI since 2018 and was featured in the New York Times as one of 10 Women Changing the Landscape of Leadership.