Fireside Chat on Business & Human Rights: A Comparative Perspective on AI Regulation and Ethics

This fireside chat challenged a common Silicon Valley assumption that innovation is synonymous with technology. Instead, it reframes innovation as a question of design choices, safeguards, incentives, and responsibility, especially when AI systems are deployed at scale.

Held at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco during the workshop Business & Human Rights: A Comparative Perspective on AI Regulation and Ethics, the discussion took place in the presence of Her Royal Highness Princess Astrid of Belgium, alongside Belgian ministers and senior leaders from both the Belgian and Californian innovation ecosystems.

Moderated by Mathilde Cerioli, the conversation with Gérard de Graaf, EU Senior Envoy for Digital, explored what responsible innovation demands when markets, regulation, and human development intersect. The exchange addressed how AI can be designed to empower people rather than simply scale efficiency, and why children must be considered from the outset rather than treated as a downstream risk.

Anchored in the work of everyone.AI and the iRAISE Alliance, the discussion reinforced a central message: innovation is not only about what we can build, but about how intentionally we choose to build it, for whom, and with what long-term consequences.