ARVO+Genentech Keynote Series

2025 Opening Keynote Speaker

Sunday, May 4
Salt Palace Convention Center
Salt Lake City, Utah

Keeping an Eye on AI

Mutale Nkonde
CEO, AI for the People

Mutale Nkonde is pursuing a PhD at Cambridge University where she is a Harding Distinguished Postgraduate Scholar studying how large language models become encoded with of meanings of race. She is also CEO of AI for the People — a public sector Responsible AI Team that focuses on product policy — and a much sought after media commentator and speaker.

Nkonde started advising Congress in 2019 when AI for the People led the advocacy for the introduction of the Algorithmic Accountability Act to the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2023, she took part in one of Senator Chuck Schumer's AI Insight Panels, and in 2024 is one of the civil society leaders helping the Congressional Black Caucus develop their AI Policy platform.

Nkonde has a BSc (Hons) in sociology from Leeds Metropolitan University and a masters degree in American studies from Columbia University. She is also a Visiting Policy fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute.

Her keynote will examine the role vision scientists can play in raising questions about the ethical concerns around data collection and how and when AI systems should be used in the research process.

Sponsor

The ARVO+Genentech Keynote Session is sponsored by the ARVO Foundation through the generous support of Genentech.