WESTPORT–On Saturday, October 11, the implication of adopting AI across law, business, healthcare, education, technology, and civic life will be explored in depth at AI & Us: A Civic Symposium. The Westport Library will host the event, which is presented by Verso University, the library’s lifelong learning and education initiative.
The program will run from noon to 5:30 pm in the Library’s Trefz Forum, spanning three respective sessions (12-1:30 pm, 2-3:30 pm, and 4-5:30 pm). Tickets are $10 per session or $25 for all sessions. A student rate of $15 for all sessions is also available and will be honored with a valid student ID upon entry. Tickets are available here.
From questions of ethics, medicine, and cybersecurity to the everyday impact of AI in Connecticut, this symposium invites attendees to examine how AI is shaping the future — and what it means for our communities. The event will offer multiple perspectives — from policymakers and technologists to journalists and academics. Each session will include an audience Q&A, fostering open dialogue and public insight.
From noon to 1:30 pm, Scott J. Shapiro, Yale Law School professor and author of “Fancy Bear Goes Phishing,” will discuss AI’s role in legal reasoning, government ethics, and cybersecurity alongside Kevin Nguyen, features editor at The Verge.
From 2 to 3:30 pm, a cross-sector conversation moderated by Connecticut Mirror AI journalist Angela Eichhorst will examine the ways in which AI is shaping the state’s innovation landscape, higher education, healthcare, workforce, and legislation.
Eichhorst will be joined by
- Vahid Behzadan, co-founder of the Connecticut AI Alliance
- Dr. Suzanne J. Rose, executive director of research for Stamford Health
- Dr. Barry Stein, chief clinical innovation officer and chief medical informatics officer at Hartford HealthCare
- James Maroney, Connecticut State Senator
- Jessica M. Dodge, director of innovation and entrepreneurship of Connecticut Economic & Community Development at the Connecticut Office of Innovation.
The final session of the day will kick off at 4 pm with closing reflections from Kate Crawford, one of the leading scholars on AI’s material impacts. Crawford is a research professor at the University of Southern California, senior principal researcher at Microsoft Research New York, and author of Atlas of AI. She was named one of the world’s most influential people in AI by TIME100.
Nguyen will join Crawford in conversation, broadening the lens and connecting the day’s conversations to urgent global and ethical contexts.
AI & Us: A Civic Symposium
Saturday, October 11
12–5:30 pm
Trefz Forum, Westport Library
20 Jesup Green
Westport
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