Carolina to host inaugural AI for Public Good Conference
The conference will spotlight how cutting-edge AI research and interdisciplinary collaboration can connect in ways that truly serve the public good.
UNC-Chapel Hill will convene leaders from academia, industry innovators, government and the arts for its inaugural AI for Public Good Conference on Monday, April 13. The full-day event will delve into one central question: How can artificial intelligence be developed and applied in ways that truly serve the public good?
The conference will spotlight how cutting‑edge AI research and interdisciplinary collaboration can be translated into scalable solutions that strengthen public health, environmental resilience, civic institutions and the creative economy.
The agenda features keynote addresses from industry leaders, plenary conversations, immersive breakout sessions and a live student hackathon that positions Carolina as a national convener at the intersection of technology, responsibility and real-world impact.
The conference is co-chaired by Jeffrey Bardzell, vice provost for artificial intelligence and chief AI officer, Penny Gordon-Larsen, vice chancellor for research, and Founder of Galleon Strategies and AI industry leader Marina Carreker. The conference will highlight Carolina leadership and featured speakers.
Event details
- Date: Monday, April 13, 2026
- Time: 8 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.
- Location: The Friday Center, 100 Friday Center Dr., Chapel Hill, NC 27599
- Registration: Now open on the AI for Public Good webpage
- Agenda: Available on the AI for Public Good website
Featured speakers
- Ronnie Chatterji, chief economist, OpenAI
- Thompson Paine, head of geopolitics, Anthropic
- DJ Sampath, senior vice president for AI software & platform, Cisco
- Gina Loften, Fortune 100 Board Director, former chief technology officer, Microsoft
- Dan Folliard, former chief digital and AI officer for U.S. Special Operations Command
- Lee H. Roberts, chancellor, UNC‑Chapel Hill
- Magnus Egerstedt, provost, UNC‑Chapel Hill
- I-Sah Hsieh, deputy secretary for AI & policy, N.C. Department of Information Technology
- Brad Briner, treasurer of North Carolina
Carolina faculty and expert speakers will present research and lead conversations on AI in health, discovery and resilience, governance, national security, the arts and implementation at scale. Speakers include:
- Penny Gordon‑Larsen (Health, Discovery & Resilience)
- Jeffrey A. Bardzell (Responsible AI & Governance)
- Ashok Krishnamurthy (Cancer)
- Alexander Tropsha (Drug Discovery)
- Melissa Haendel (Molecular Informatics)
- Greg Characklis (Insurance & Extreme Weather Risk)
- Emily Pfaff and Melissa Troester (EHR‑Based Clinical Research)
- Angel Hsu (EnviroLab)
- Rick Luettich (Storm Surge Modeling)
- Mohit Bansal (Natural Language Processing)
- Ron Alterovitz (Robotics)
- Susan Cohen (Drones)
- Saba Eskandarian (Cryptography)
- Michael Kosorok (Precision Medicine Modeling)
As AI rapidly reshapes research, healthcare, public policy and creative fields, this conference seeks to move beyond abstract debate and toward high-impact models, yielding accountable, effective and equitable AI systems from academic advances and scientific innovations, especially those happening at Carolina.
