IBM Leadership Team Visits NLSIU for a Session on AI and Ethics
July 16, 2024
On July 11, 2024, the IBM Leadership team visited NLSIU, Bengaluru and interacted with various members of the NLS community through a session on ‘AI and Ethics – The IBM Approach’ held at our campus. The team comprised Mr. Hans Vad Hansen (Chief Trust & Compliance Officer), Mr. Simon McDonald (APAC Trust & Compliance Officer), and Mr. Prakash Narayanan (Counsel & Trust and Compliance Officer for India/South Asia) who discussed in detail about AI and Ethics, and the specific initiatives taken by IBM in this regard.
Mr. Prakash Narayanan opened the discussion by highlighting the transformative potential of AI in modern business practices. He emphasized how AI can analyze vast volumes of data to uncover trends and patterns, aiding better decision-making. Mr. Hans Vad Hansen elaborated on IBM’s comprehensive approach to AI ethics and the importance of embedding ethical principles into AI systems in order to build trust and responsible use. He highlighted how IBM consciously follows an ethics by design approach. Mr. Simon McDonald complemented the discussions by discussing some of IBM’s global initiatives to promote ethical AI practices and the ongoing efforts in AI regulations and policies. Through thought provoking questions and discussions that followed the initial presentations, the session provided valuable insights into diverse ethical considerations surrounding AI and the extent to which technology can address those considerations. The discussion also provided valuable insights on the direction in which AI regulations and policies are moving at the global level.
About the Team
Hans Vad Hansen
Hans Vad Hansen is IBM’s Chief Trust & Compliance Officer. As such, he has the overall responsibility for integrity, and he leads the Trust & Compliance team overseeing IBM’s global compliance efforts, tools, and processes. In his IBM career, Hans has worked with most of IBM’s practice areas with a lot of focus on transactional matters. Hans also spent time on many other IBM business, regulatory and management tasks and had different IBM positions including the IBM Europe General Counsel role. As VP, Assistant General Counsel, Investigations & Regulatory Legal, Hans most recently managed IBM’s work with legal/privileged investigations around the world and regulatory work such as cyber and privacy. Hans joined IBM in Denmark in 1998. He came from private practice, one of the major law firms in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he had been employed since his LLM graduation from University of Exeter, UK that followed his master degree from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Simon McDonald
Simon spent a majority of his early career in private legal practice primarily working at a global law firm on technology and IT transactions for vendors and customers across various sectors including financial services, government, health, telecommunications. Having worked at IBM from 2011 to 2012, Simon returned to IBM in 2018 and was the Regional Counsel for Australia and New Zealand managing the provision of legal advice and services to the business in this region before taking on the same role in India and South Asia. Most recently, Simon has been appointed the Trust and Compliance Officer for Japan and APAC and is responsible for compliance activities and in particular IBM’s compliance with key laws like the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act as well as IBM’s internal policies and conduct guidelines in this region.
Prakash Narayanan
Prakash graduated from NLS in 2001, after which he moved to Canada to complete a Masters in International Trade law. He qualified to practice law in Ontario and joined one of Canada’s top law firms practising corporate law, international trade law and competition law for a number of years. Prakash then moved in-house to Bombardier, a Canadian-headquartered transportation multinational, managing a wide-range of legal, contractual, compliance and litigation issues dealing with customers around the world. About 4 years ago, Prakash joined IBM India as lead counsel for its largest business unit, as part of his and his family’s move back to Bangalore. Prakash is currently the Trust and Compliance Officer for IBM India and South Asia.
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