speaking

I speak about AI where the stakes are highest and where it becomes most personal: in the clinic, at the end of life, and in communities that never asked to be an algorithm’s subject. Two decades of building AI systems at scale, and studying their consequences, gives me something to say that goes beyond the hype in both directions. The talks come from real deployments, real failures, and real people.

Talk Topics

When Your Grandpa Is a Bot: AI, Death, and Digital Doppelgangers

The most requested talk, delivered dozens of times to audiences ranging from libraries and hospitals to universities and cultural institutions. What happens when we use AI to simulate the deceased: their voice, their personality, their memories? This talk explores the technology of grief, its psychological implications, and the ethical questions we haven’t answered yet. Drawing on my own experience building a chatbot of my late father, it is personal, technical, and deeply human.

Audiences: general public, libraries, faith communities, hospitals, universities

AI in Healthcare: Promise, Peril, and the Patient in the Middle

AI is transforming healthcare: from disease prediction to clinical decision support to algorithmic nudging. This talk examines what AI can and cannot do in medicine, where the evidence is strong, where it is not, and what patients and clinicians should know.

Audiences: healthcare professionals, hospital systems, medical schools, policy audiences

Responsible AI: Why Artificial Intelligence Is Broken and How We Fix It

A frank assessment of the failures of AI systems (bias, opacity, fragility, and misuse) and what responsible AI development looks like in practice. Built from 15+ years of research on explainability, fairness, and robustness.

Audiences: universities, technology companies, policy makers, general public

AI Readiness: What Health Leaders Need to Know Before They Sign the Contract

A practical talk for clinical and operational leaders navigating AI vendor claims, governance gaps, and deployment risk. Draws on hands-on experience building AI systems inside health systems. No hype, no theory: just what actually breaks and how to catch it before it does.

Audiences: hospital leadership, health system boards, payers, digital health investors

AI and Islam: Faith, Ethics, and Intelligent Machines

How do Islamic traditions of ethics, jurisprudence, and human dignity shape the way we should build and govern AI? This talk explores the intersection of Islamic thought and artificial intelligence, a conversation largely absent from the mainstream AI ethics discourse.

Audiences: academic, interfaith, Muslim community organizations, policy forums

Formats

• Keynote: 45–60 minutes with Q&A
• Panel: moderated or participant
• Workshop: interactive, 90 minutes to half-day
• Media interview: print, broadcast, podcast

Selected Venues

• United Nations: Panel on The Ethical Challenges of AI: Humanistic and Religious Responses, New York City, 2025
• World Government Summit, Dubai, 2019
• Aspen Digital, Washington, D.C., 2025
• NeurIPS: Various workshops, 2023–2025
• Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Redwood City, CA, 2019
• Qatar Computing Research Institute, Doha, 2019
• UC Davis: Center for Artificial Intelligence and Imagined Futures, 2026
• Air Force Institute of Technology, Dayton, Ohio, 2024
• Rochester Institute of Technology: Stan McKenzie Salon Invited Talk, 2021
• Washington State History Museum, Seattle, 2019

Book a Talk

For speaking inquiries, email vonaurum@gmail.com with the event date, format, and audience.