Toronto’s Most Inspiring Women of 2024: Gillian Hadfield, Canada Reviews

The AI leader | Gillian Hadfield

Artificial intelligence (AI) may have only recently become a buzzword, but some of the top minds in the fields of technology, law and ethics have made it their primary research focus for years — including Toronto’s own Gillian Hadfield. The professor of government and policy at John Hopkins University and research professor in computer science at the Whiting School of Engineering, former inaugural director of the Schwartz Reisman Institute of Technology and Society, Canadian CIFAR (Canadian Institute for Advanced Research) AI Chair at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Schmidt Futures AI2050 Senior Fellow has been and integral part of some of the biggest international discussions around the responsible use of AI, advising courts governments and technology companies on how to improve law and policy around AI and technology. At a time when AI is turning the world on its head and some companies are vying to use the tool at their leisure, unfettered, we’re glad to have Hadfield in our corner. 

By Beth Coleman — Associate professor at the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology and the Faculty of Information and AI & Society research lead at Schwartz Reisman Institute, University of Toronto 

 Gillian Hadfield wants to make the world better by advancing AI technologies that improve productivity and transformative insights without destroying life as we know it. Yes, it’s a bit hyperbolic, but that is the moment we are in in terms of the radically disruptive impact of generative AI and the new forms to come. I first met Gillian on a chilly morning several years ago in a conference room at the Munk School of Global Affairs — well before generative AI tools like ChatGPT existed. We were there to discuss responsible data governance, a topic that might seem dry at first glance but profoundly shapes our experiences on social media and our sense of safety and privacy. Witnessing Gillian’s passion for regulatory norms that champion the fair and responsible use of new technology has been exceptional. As a legal scholar and economist, Gillian holds an unusual and important place in the discussion around safe and trustworthy AI — she is making a difference. Gillian has been in the room for the most important global engagements on AI safety, from International Dialogues on AI Safety at Bletchley Park, UK, to Seoul, Korea. As a Canada CIFAR AI Chair, she collaborates with leading global AI scientists, including Canadians Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, tackling the complex challenges of AI governance in the face of rapidly advancing technologies being deployed at societal scale. Her research as a Schmidt Futures AI2050 Senior Fellow — run by Google co-founder Eric Schmidt — focuses on developing normative frameworks for AI. The aim is to create AI systems capable of understanding, respecting and operating within human rules, values and norms. In short, her goal is AI that aligns with human values. Her work serves as a beacon, inspiring the next generation of leaders to strive for a future where emerging technologies contribute to a better world.