Nathan C. Walker
Keynote Speaker
  • Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Resident researching AI and human rights.
  • Former visiting researcher at the University of Oxford and Harvard University.
Trending Topics
  • AI Ethics
  • Responsible Technology
  • Democracy
Categories
  • AI - Emerging Tech
  • Diversity, Inclusion & Gender Equality
  • Education, Policy & Practice
  • Government & Politics
  • Health & Wellbeing
  • Human Rights
  • Government & Global Affairs
  • Law, First Amendment, Civil Rights
  • Resilience, Well-being, Happiness
  • Society, Culture, & Education
  • Technology, Innovation & Science
  • Technology Ethics - Regulation
Dr. Nathan C. Walker is an award-winning First Amendment and human rights educator and founder of the AI Ethics Lab at Rutgers University.
He has held research appointments at Harvard, Oxford, and Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
The Rockefeller Foundation awarded him a Bellagio Center Residency to advance his research on AI ethics and human rights.
A certified AI Ethics Officer, Dr. Walker has worked with industry as an Expert AI Trainer for OpenAI and Handshake AI, provided ethics training to Adobe employees, and facilitated a working group at Google’s ethics-to-industry summit.
He has published five books on law, education, and religion, and presented his research at the UN Human Rights Council, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the U.S. Senate.
He earned his doctorate in First Amendment law and two master’s degrees from Columbia University. An ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, he holds a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary.
He is the president of 1791 Delegates, a public charity named after the year the Bill of Rights was ratified. In this capacity he founded the social learning community ReligionAndPublicLife.org.
He lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA with his husband, Vikram Paralkar.
Speaking Topics
Moral Imagination: From Smart to Wise AI
Is “smart” the best we can imagine for the century’s technological advancements, or can we build something wiser? This keynote explores how moral imagination can spark an ethical odyssey toward a wiser future.
Bounded Freedom: Human Expression in the Age of Co-Intelligence
What does free expression mean when seemingly conscious machines can generate and mimic our thoughts, language, and identities?
Training AI Models with Rights
A practical framework for embedding human rights into the design, training, and governance of AI systems, from Dr. Nathan C. Walker, the founding editor of the AI & Human Rights Index.
Responsible Tech in the Throes of Innovation
What leaders can do when innovation outpaces ethical reflection, and what practical protocols can help inventors create sustained ethical ecosystems?
Why Book Dr. Walker as a Speaker?
Industry
Dr. Walker has served as an expert AI trainer at OpenAI and a research fellow at Handshake AI, facilitated the governance working group at an AI ethics-to-industry symposium at Google, and led a workshop on training AI models with rights for Adobe employees. He has given talks at leading industry conferences, including Ai4 in Las Vegas, Utah Tech Week, and the Futures AI Summit in London.
Research
Dr. Walker founded the AI Ethics Lab at Rutgers and built research collaborations with scholars from the Institute for Ethics in AI at the Technical University of Munich and Stellenbosch University in South Africa, where Dr. Walker serves as a non-resident research associate.
Dr. Walker has served as a visiting academic at the University of Oxford‘s Institute for Ethics in AI, a resident research fellow at Harvard University, and has given invited talks at Columbia University, the University of Kansas, Virginia Tech, and Utah Valley University.
Democracy & Global Affairs
Dr. Walker’s AI Ethics Lab co-published a human rights report presented at the Human Rights Council, and Dr. Walker helped moderate a North-South policy dialogue on the proposed UN Convention on AI, Data and Human Rights.
He has also served as a contributing researcher to the Aspen Institute’s “Defining Technologies of Our Time” initiative, and Dr. Walker’s research on AI Principles & U.S. Presidents maps the ethical implications in federal executive orders.
Human Flourishing
Dr. Walker teaches a course on Happiness at Rutgers University, which explores evidence-based approaches to human flourishing. In November 2016, Publishers Weekly listed his book Cultivating Empathy as one of “six books for a post-election spiritual detox.”
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2026 Speaking Schedule
  1. Aug. 2026 – Solo Talk: AI Safety & Alignment. Ai4, Las Vegas, NV.
  1. Aug. 2026 – Moderator: Representation Matters: Building Inclusive Teams and Ethical Systems. Ai4, Las Vegas, NV.
  1. Apr. 2026 – Keynote: AI, Ethics, and Suicide Prevention. Riverside Trauma Center, Dedham, MA.
  1. Mar. 2026 – Keynote: Bounded Freedom: Human Expression in the Age of AI, Pennington Public Library, Pennington, NJ.
  1. Feb. 2026 – Talk & Poster: AI & Human Rights Index, International Association for Safe & Ethical AI, UNESCO House, Paris, France.
  1. Feb. 2026 – Moderator: AI & Human Rights. Envision Conference, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ.
  1. Jan. 2026 – Workshop Facilitator: Trustworthy Legal Practices in the Age of Co-Intelligence, New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, Newark, NJ.
  1. Jan. 2026 – Speaker: Ethical Use of AI in Psychiatry, Society for Liaison Psychiatry, New York, NY.
  1. Jan. 2026 – Daylong Workshop Facilitator: AI & Ethics, Madison & Lila Self Graduate Fellows, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS.
  1. Jan. 2026 – Keynote: Co-Intelligence: An Ethical Odyssey from Smart to Wise AI, Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS.
2025 Speaking Schedule
  1. Workshop Facilitator: Responsible AI in Nonprofit Management, New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, Newark, NJ.
  1. Guest Lecture: Ethical AI for Future Developers, South Brunswick High School, Monmouth Junction, NJ
  1. Featured Talk: AI Ethics: From Smart to Wise Technology, Future AI Summit, London, UK.
  1. Working Group Facilitator: AI Ethics-to-Industry: From Principles to Practice, Google, San Francisco, CA.
  1. Guest Lecture: Ethical Decision-Making for Communicators, Columbia University, NY, NY.
  1. Keynote: Moral Imagination: From Smart to Wise AI. Ethics Awareness Week. Utah Valley University, Orem, UT.
  1. Workshop Facilitator: AI Principles & U.S. Presidents. Utah Valley University, Orem, UT.
  1. Workshop Facilitator: Training AI Models with Rights, Civics at Work for Adobe Employees, Orem, UT.
  1. Moderator: North–South Policy Dialogue on a UN Convention on AI, Data and Human Rights. Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
  1. Panelist: Sectoral Impacts of AI on Human Rights. North–South Policy Dialogue on a UN Convention on AI, Data and Human Rights. Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
  1. Solo Talk: From Moral Distance to Moral Imagination. Ai4, Las Vegas, NV.
  1. Featured Expert: Ask Me Anything. Ai4, Las Vegas, NV.
  1. Fireside Chat: Fostering Diversity in AI: Building Inclusive Technologies and Teams. Ai4, Las Vegas, NV.
  1. Roundtable: AI Global Safety: Preventing Catastrophic Risks. Globethics, Geneva, Switzerland.
  1. Lecture: Driving the Future: Opportunities and Challenges of Autonomous Vehicles. Globethics, Geneva, Switzerland.
  1. Moderator: Scaling AI Ethics: Local Case Studies, Global Implications, National Liberty Museum, Philadelphia, PA.
  1. Keynote: Moral Imagination: From Smart to Wise Technology, International Rescue Committee, New York, NY.
  1. Panelist: Building Self-Sufficiency with AI. International Rescue Committee, New York, NY.
  1. Guest Lecture: From Smart to Wise Cities. Smart Cities for Good, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.
  1. Workshop: AI & Polling Research: Ethical Considerations. Public Religion Research Institute, Washington, DC.
  1. Panelist: Responsible Tech in the Throes of Innovation. Utah Tech Week, Salt Lake City, UT.
Contact
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