The Opportunity of AI: presentation and panel discussion with Google's Vice President Government Affairs & Public Policy, Wilson White.

Wednesday 19th February, 10:00am-11:00am, Sydney Nano Institute foyer, University of Sydney, followed by morning tea.

Wilson will provide a short presentation to staff, students and partners at the University of Sydney's Policy Lab and Sydney Nano Institute, providing a behind-the-scenes insight into how Google is thinking about AI, its risks, and its potential. This presentation will focus on how Google, Wilson and his team work with academics, researchers and partners to navigate this complex, evolving and revolutionary technology, its deployment, and the opportunities for Australian society, health, environment and economy.

Wilson will be joined by University of Sydney experts, Professor Stephen Bartlett, Professor Kai Riemer and Professor Kimberlee Weatherall.

About the speakers:

Wilson White

Wilson L. White is Vice President, Government Affairs & Public Policy at Google, where he is the global head of government affairs and public policy for Google’s Platforms & Devices business unit as well as Google’s government affairs operations across the Asia Pacific region. With 20 years of experience as an engineer and technology attorney, Wilson has used his multidisciplinary background and expertise to provide policymakers, regulators and other stakeholders across the Americas, Europe and Asia with thought leadership on the rapidly growing and changing technology landscape and the societal implications of emerging technologies.

Before joining Google’s public policy team, Wilson was a patent litigation attorney at Google, where he not only defended Google in patent infringement lawsuits, but also helped push for patent reform legislation to curb rampant abuses of the US patent system. Prior to joining Google, Wilson was a litigator at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP in Atlanta, Georgia and before that a federal judicial law clerk to the Honorable Alexander Williams, Jr. on the US District Court for the District of Maryland.

In addition to serving on the corporate boards of Vector Group Ltd (NYSE: VGR) and Douglas Elliman (NYSE: DOUG), Wilson serves as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute, where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in the University’s technology entrepreneurship program. Wilson earned his Bachelor of Science degree, summa cum laude, in Computer Engineering from NC State University. He earned a Juris Doctor degree with honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law.

Wilson now lives in Singapore with his wife and 3 kids after 13 years in the Bay area.

Prof. Stephen Bartlett

Stephen Bartlett is an advocate and leader of the burgeoning quantum technology ecosystem, in Sydney and globally. A theoretical quantum physicist and Professor in the School of Physics at the University of Sydney, he leads a team pursuing both fundamental and applied research in the design of quantum computers. Stephen is Director of the University of Sydney Nano Institute, the Director of the Australian Research Council Training Centre for Future Leaders in Quantum Computing (FLiQC), and Foundation Director of the national growth centre for quantum industry, Quantum Australia. He is a Chief Investigator in the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Engineered Quantum Systems (EQUS), and is the inaugural Lead Editor of the premier international research journal PRX Quantum. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the Australian Institute of Physics, and the Royal Society of NSW.

Prof. Kai Riemer

Dr Kai Riemer is Professor of Information Technology and Organisation and the Co-Director of Sydney Executive Plus at the University of Sydney Business School. Kai's expertise spans the fields of artificial intelligence, phenomena of disruption, collaborative systems, the future of work, emerging technologies, and the philosophy of technology. He boasts an impressive track record of industry-funded research, high-impact projects, and publications in esteemed journals. He’s founded and led research groups and labs from disruption to digital humans. His latest research, The 2025 Skills Horizon is a new, annual, global initiative that focuses on the future of skills, tech, and work in this decade of disorientation. The research explores what leaders need to know next and features insights from conversations with numerous executives and leaders about our changing world. Kai is a public keynote speaker and board advisor; he consults, podcasts about, and is frequently asked to comment on nuanced matters of tech and the future.

Prof. Kimberlee Weatherall

Kimberlee is a Professor of Law at the University of Sydney with more than 20 years’ experience researching and advising on the regulation of technology and intellectual property. Her current research focus is on automated decision-making systems and artificial intelligence. She is a research leader within the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, a multi-university, multi-disciplinary research body with more than 80 active researchers focused on questions at the intersections between society and automated technologies, where she co-leads projects on the governance of AI, and synthetic data and generative agents for modelling multi-stakeholder decision-making. At the University of Sydney Professor Weatherall is also a co-director of a new research centre, the Centre for AI Trust and Governance, launching 2025. Professor Weatherall is also a Fellow of, and collaborator with the Gradient Institute, an independent data science research institute dedicated to developing ethical AI. In 2024, she was appointed to the Commonwealth Government's AI Expert Group. In 2023, Kimberlee led a major multidisciplinary research project into automated decision-making across NSW governments.

About the event:

This event is co-hosted by the Sydney Policy Lab's Innovation & Commercialisation Policy Node and the Sydney Nano Institute.