From Risk to Responsibility: What Funders Can Do | Montreal

From Risk to Responsibility: What Funders Can Do | Montreal

Building on our last “Why AI Safety is Everyone’s Issue” session, Forward Global and Philanthropic Foundations Canada, in partnership with
Claire Trottier, will be holding an exclusive in-person conversation with Professor Yoshua Bengio, a pioneer of deep learning and leader of AI Safety. Professor Yoshua Bengio, who launched the Montreal-based nonprofit LawZero in 2025, has warned that the pace of AI’s advance is outrunning our ability to manage its risks.

Professor Yoshua Bengio Bio

Professor Yoshua Bengio is Full Professor of Computer Science at Université de Montreal, Co-President and Scientific Director of LawZero, as well as the Founder and Scientific Advisor of Mila. He also holds a Canada CIFAR AI Chair. Considered one of the world’s leaders in Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning, he is the recipient of the 2018 A.M. Turing Award, considered to be the “Nobel Prize of computing.” He is the most cited computer scientist worldwide, and the most-cited living scientist across all fields (by total citations).

Professor Bengio is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of London and Canada, an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Knight of the Legion of Honor of France, a member of the UN’s Scientific Advisory Board for Independent Advice on Breakthroughs in Science and Technology, and chairs the International AI Safety Report.

Together, we will go deeper into the specific ways AI risk intersects with the causes our Community funds, and explore the following questions:

• How is AI accelerating climate misinformation, enabling harm at scale, and hollowing out democratic institutions?
• Where is AI encoding gender and racial inequity into the infrastructure of daily life?
• Where is civil society under-resourced, and where can philanthropic capital make the difference that government and industry will not?

Join us to leave with a clearer map of where philanthropic capital can move the needle.

What to expect:

• An in-person afternoon conversation with Professor Yoshua Bengio
• Discussion connecting AI risk to specific Community fund priorities
• Peer exchange with funders, civil society leaders, and policy voices
• A clearer map of where philanthropic capital can act

Who it’s for:

• Forward Global members, PFC members, partners, civil society leaders, and policy voices working across climate, democracy, and social and gender justice.

Questions? Contact Donna Lee, donna@forward-global.org