Special Edition: Honouring the Legacy of Abhishek Gupta (1992–2024)
A memorial gathering in Montreal to celebrate Abhishek’s life and work (April 10, 2025)
Dear Reader,
Welcome to this special edition of The AI Ethics Brief. Whether you've been with us for years or recently joined our community, we’re grateful to have you here as we honour the life and legacy of Abhishek Gupta.
Abhishek was my co-founder and the visionary behind the Montreal AI Ethics Institute (MAIEI). A global leader in AI Ethics, his work inspired countless individuals and continues to shape a more responsible and human-centred approach to AI around the world.
On April 10, 2025, we will gather in Montreal, alongside Abhishek’s family and friends, to honour his extraordinary contributions. This event will be a time for reflection, remembrance, and celebration of the profound impact he had on our field and beyond.
If you knew Abhishek, worked with him, or were inspired by his work, we invite you to join us—either in person or virtually—for an evening of remembrance and reflection:
We’re grateful to Planned, a Montreal-based startup, for generously hosting this event. Both Abhishek and the team at Planned are proud alumni of McGill University and the McGill Dobson Centre for Entrepreneurship, where MAIEI was first envisioned.
Whether you are a new or long-standing member of our community, we hope this evening offers a meaningful opportunity to reflect on Abhishek’s legacy and look ahead to the important work we will continue together.
Sincerely,
Renjie Butalid
Co-founder & Director
Montreal AI Ethics Institute (MAIEI)
Advancing AI Ethics: A Curated Selection of Abhishek’s Published Works and Talks
How CHROs Can Be the Drivers of Ethical AI Adoption and Empowerment (Published posthumously Oct 2024) - People + Technology
AI Missteps Could Unravel Global Peace and Security. To mitigate risks, developers need more training (Jul 2024) - IEEE Spectrum
[Video] AI Connect II webinar: Sustainable development and inclusive growth of AI (Jul 2024) - Atlantic Council
Three Strategies for Responsible AI Practitioners to Avoid Zombie Policies (Jun 2024) - Tech Policy Press
Bring Human Values to AI (Mar-Apr 2024) - Harvard Business Review
Open-Sourcing Highly Capable Foundation Models: An evaluation of risks, benefits, and alternative methods for pursuing open-source objectives (Sep 2023) - Centre for the Governance of AI
AI Art and its Impact on Artists (Aug 2023) - AIES '23: Proceedings of the 2023 AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society
RESPECT AI: Governance for growth with Abhishek Gupta of Montreal AI Ethics Institute (Aug 2023) - RBC Borealis
[Video] Addressing the challenges of AI Ethics: Abhishek Gupta (Jun 2023) - University of Waterloo
Bridging the civilian-military divide in responsible AI principles and practices (Apr 2023) - Ethics and Information Technology
What ChatGPT Reveals About the Urgent Need for Responsible AI (Jan 2023) - BCG Henderson Institute
Software Carbon Intensity (SCI) Specification Project (Apr 2022) - Green Software Foundation
The Imperative for Sustainable AI Systems (Sep 2021) - Winner of the inaugural Gradient Prize.
How data governance technologies can democratize data
sharing for community well-being (Jul 2021) - Cambridge University Press
Why civic competence in AI ethics is needed in 2021? (Jan 2021) - LinkedIn
AI ethics groups are repeating one of society’s classic mistakes (Sep 2020) - MIT Technology Review
[Video] The State of AI Ethics Panel (Dec 2020) - Montreal AI Ethics Institute
The Co-Designed Post-Pandemic University: A Participatory and Continual Learning Approach for the Future of Work (Sep 2020) - The Post-Pandemic University
Canada protocol: An ethical checklist for the use of artificial Intelligence in suicide prevention and mental health (Aug 2020) - Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
SECure: A Social and Environmental Certificate for AI Systems (Jul 2020) - arXiv Pre-print
[Video] Civic Competence Against the Invisible Hand of AI (Mar 2020) - TEDxChamplainCollegeStLambert
[Video] Northern Frontier: In conversation with Abhishek Gupta (Nov 2018) - Borealis AI
Artificial Intelligence as a Force for Good (Jun 2018) - Stanford Social Innovation Review
[Video] Cross-Cutting Challenges of AI Ethics (May 2018) - Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship
How Canada can be a global leader in ethical AI (Feb 2018) - World Economic Forum
The Evolution Of Fraud: Ethical Implications In The Age Of Large-Scale Data Breaches And Widespread Artificial Intelligence Solutions Deployment (Feb 2018) - International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Journal
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To learn more about Abhishek Gupta and the future of MAIEI, please visit:
If you’d like to share a memory, message, or photo, we invite you to visit Abhishek’s digital memorial page: forevermissed.com/abhishekgupta