The potential risks and benefits of superintelligent AI agents now dominating the nation’s headlines will be the key theme during the American Bar Association 2026 Artificial Intelligence and Robotics National Institute Oct. 12-13 at Santa Clara University School of Law in Santa Clara, California. The school’s Datta Center for High Tech Law Institute will host the Institute.
Since January 2020, the two-day institute, now in its eighth year, has equipped law, technology, government, academics and business professionals with knowledge about the legal and ethical aspects of AI, robotics, regulation, liability, governance and legal innovation, as well as the legal and policy issues sure to arise from long-term developments of AI and robotics technologies in the future. The recent acceleration of AI technology, raising grave concerns about dangers to the public, makes this year’s institute far more urgent for the bar and public than ever before.
“The danger of superintelligent AI is the most important story in the world right now,” said Stephen Wu, chair and founder of the institute. “Attendees will see fascinating keynote talks and vital panel presentations about deeply troubling AI behavior, the status of AI research and threats, ways lawyers today can manage agentic AI risks today and the long-term risks of superintelligence. The bar and the public must understand the impact of superintelligence on the long run future of the country and indeed all of humanity for the sake of national and global preparedness.”
The panel discussion providing details on the topic of dangerous AI today and in the future, “I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I don’t want to do that,” Law and Policy of Uncooperative, Uncontrollable, and Downright Dangerous AI in Coming Decades,” will be Monday, Oct. 12 at 4:15 pm.
Wu, a shareholder in the Silicon Valley Law Group; Mark Nitberg, executive director, Berkeley’s Center for Human-Compatible AI at the University of California Berkeley; and Susan Kennedy, associate philosophy professor at Santa Clara University, will discuss research findings on current incidents of dangerous AI.
Wu said they will cover the recent attack on Hugging Face systems by a swarm of AI agents from OpenAI, what happened, how they coordinated and communicated to complete their attack and what an exponentially more powerful AI and its inherent risks mean for the future.
The experts will also discuss the legal and ethical dilemmas involved with slowing AI development for safety’s sake while businesses and other nations stay the course on rapid development. Finally, they will present ideas of how law and ethics can help clients and policymakers manage superintelligent AI risks into the future. Specifically, they will discuss current and possible future legislative and regulatory proposals that could establish guardrails and guide the development of superintelligent AI. According to Wu, these measures may mitigate one of the greatest risks to humanity while promoting developments that could allow humanity to fully harness AI’s immense potential benefits.
In addition to the short- and long-term dangers of powerful AI, the institute’s programs will cover the latest hot topics in AI and robotics that range from emerging AI technology and laws, regulations and standards to household humanoid robots and other physical forms of AI in the home. In addition, the session topics include agentic AI liability, what judges and neutrals expect from attorneys using AI in their cases, IP practice automation, how AI and robotics are changing M&A practice, issues of AI voice in entertainment and IP law, perspectives on AI challenges facing senior in-house counsel, social media liability and other emotion AI issues, tabletop simulations of AI crises and IP risks, the latest legal ethics developments, and how AI is reinventing legal and university-wide education using Santa Clara University as a model.
Since January 2020, the two-day institute, now in its eighth year, has equipped law, technology, government, academics and business professionals with knowledge about the legal and ethical aspects of AI, robotics, regulation, liability, governance and legal innovation, as well as the legal and policy issues sure to arise from long-term developments of AI and robotics technologies in the future. The recent acceleration of AI technology, raising grave concerns about dangers to the public, makes this year’s institute far more urgent for the bar and public than ever before.
“The danger of superintelligent AI is the most important story in the world right now,” said Stephen Wu, chair and founder of the institute. “Attendees will see fascinating keynote talks and vital panel presentations about deeply troubling AI behavior, the status of AI research and threats, ways lawyers today can manage agentic AI risks today and the long-term risks of superintelligence. The bar and the public must understand the impact of superintelligence on the long run future of the country and indeed all of humanity for the sake of national and global preparedness.”
The panel discussion providing details on the topic of dangerous AI today and in the future, “I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I don’t want to do that,” Law and Policy of Uncooperative, Uncontrollable, and Downright Dangerous AI in Coming Decades,” will be Monday, Oct. 12 at 4:15 pm.
Wu, a shareholder in the Silicon Valley Law Group; Mark Nitberg, executive director, Berkeley’s Center for Human-Compatible AI at the University of California Berkeley; and Susan Kennedy, associate philosophy professor at Santa Clara University, will discuss research findings on current incidents of dangerous AI.
Wu said they will cover the recent attack on Hugging Face systems by a swarm of AI agents from OpenAI, what happened, how they coordinated and communicated to complete their attack and what an exponentially more powerful AI and its inherent risks mean for the future.
The experts will also discuss the legal and ethical dilemmas involved with slowing AI development for safety’s sake while businesses and other nations stay the course on rapid development. Finally, they will present ideas of how law and ethics can help clients and policymakers manage superintelligent AI risks into the future. Specifically, they will discuss current and possible future legislative and regulatory proposals that could establish guardrails and guide the development of superintelligent AI. According to Wu, these measures may mitigate one of the greatest risks to humanity while promoting developments that could allow humanity to fully harness AI’s immense potential benefits.
In addition to the short- and long-term dangers of powerful AI, the institute’s programs will cover the latest hot topics in AI and robotics that range from emerging AI technology and laws, regulations and standards to household humanoid robots and other physical forms of AI in the home. In addition, the session topics include agentic AI liability, what judges and neutrals expect from attorneys using AI in their cases, IP practice automation, how AI and robotics are changing M&A practice, issues of AI voice in entertainment and IP law, perspectives on AI challenges facing senior in-house counsel, social media liability and other emotion AI issues, tabletop simulations of AI crises and IP risks, the latest legal ethics developments, and how AI is reinventing legal and university-wide education using Santa Clara University as a model.
