Atlanta Tech Community Invited to Help Shape the Future of AI at Upcoming Summit
Two A.M. Turing Award Laureates are among global computing experts traveling to Atlanta this summer for the inaugural ACM AI Leadership Summit. The summit is the first event of its kind organized by ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery.
Registration is open for the inaugural ACM AI Leadership Summit, taking place Aug. 31 through Sept. 2 at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta Hotel.
Georgia Tech and Atlanta-area college students, faculty, and others from the tech community interested in AI are invited to attend the summit to explore:
- Emerging AI technologies and agentic systems
- Governance and ethics
- Workforce transformation
- Creative collaboration
In addition to welcoming a wide range of perspectives on AI and society, the summit will serve as a venue for knowledge exchange, cross-sector dialogue, and community building among academia, industry, government, and other AI stakeholders.
“Artificial intelligence is transforming every dimension of human knowledge, creativity, and collaboration,” said ACM President-Elect Elisa Bertino, co-chair of the summit’s organizing committee.
“The ACM AI Leadership Summit will be a milestone event where the global computing community taps into the excitement of the moment while exploring the AI era from a whole range of perspectives.”
GT Computing Helps Lead the Effort
Georgia Tech’s College of Computing plays a key role in the summit. Several faculty members serve on the organizing committee.
GT Computing faculty organizers include Neha Kumar, general organizing co-chair; Mark Riedl, program co-chair; and Naveena Karusala, communications co-chair. Dean of Computing Vivek Sarkar serves as the event’s sponsorship chair.
All are ACM members. Kumar, Riedl, and Karusala are faculty members in the School of Interactive Computing.
“Atlanta is home to one of the nation's most dynamic technology communities, making this summit an unprecedented opportunity for our students, researchers, academics, and technology leaders to help shape the future of AI,” said Kumar.
“By bringing together experts from academic, industry, and governance backgrounds, we're creating a space for exchanging ideas, forming partnerships, and engaging the next generation of AI leaders with the challenges and opportunities that will define the field for years to come.”
In addition to helping organize the summit, the College is hosting a reception on Aug. 30, following a daylong doctoral consortium titled Nurturing Future AI Leaders.
“The summit reflects the growing need for cross-sector collaboration as AI technologies become increasingly influential across every aspect of society,” said Sarkar.
“It is designed to foster dialogue, interdisciplinary collaboration, and practical action that advances AI for the public good.”
Turing Award Laureates and AI Visionaries Take the Stage
ACM A.M. Turing Award Laureates Andrew Barto and Yann LeCun are scheduled to participate in the summit. They’re joined by Regents’ Professor Ellen Zegura and several other distinguished speakers on the summit’s three-day main program.
The program also includes keynotes, panels, and interactive sessions examining frontier AI technologies, governance and ethics, and workforce transformation.
Scheduled sessions include:
- Rethinking the Future: Frontier Models and Technologies for a New Era of AI
- AI and Scientific Discovery
- Responsible and Ethical AI: Governance, Policy, Accountability, and Trust
- AI and the Creative Arts: Human–AI Co-Creation and Cultural Transformation
- AI and the Workforce: Augmentation, Reskilling, and the Future of Work
- AI in the Real World
- Agentic AI: Autonomous Systems that Plan, Reason, and Act
Additional programming will feature special-interest-group (SIG) tracks focusing on AI for infrastructure and systems, software development, societal impact, and education.
Showcasing Georgia Tech’s Expanding AI Leadership
The event coincides with the rapid expansion of AI research at Georgia Tech. College of Computing faculty and students are advancing work in trustworthy and responsible AI, robotics, computer vision, natural language processing, cybersecurity, healthcare applications, scientific discovery, and AI-driven education.
Researchers are also helping shape conversations about the societal implications of AI, including governance, ethics, transparency, and workforce development.
That breadth of expertise aligns with the summit’s mission to connect a spectrum of perspectives on the opportunities and challenges posed by AI.
“By convening experts from multiple disciplines and sectors, the summit aims to build a shared understanding of how AI can be developed and deployed responsibly while expanding human capability and strengthening society,” said Kumar.
