Economic Security in the Age of AI
Economic Security in the Age of AI Conference
Tuesday 9 December 2025, 3.30pm to 8.00pm - Malaysia Auditorium (lower ground floor, Centre Building)
Hosted by the LSE Growth Lab, Accenture and Georgetown University, this event will explore how sovereign AI is shaping economic power, national security, and global collaboration. The event will bring together leaders from government, industry, and academia to discuss the opportunities and challenges of AI-driven economies.
Programme
3.30-4.45pm: Panel discussion 1
Economic Security in the Age of AI: examining the skill needs for AI-driven economies, the modernisation of infrastructure as a foundation for sovereign AI deployment, and the importance of educational reform to foster digital literacy and critical thinking.
Moderator: Dr Alexandra Cirone – Assistant Professor, School of Public Policy, LSE
Alexandra "Ali" Cirone is an assistant professor in the School of Public Policy (SPP), and has a joint appointment in the Department of Government. She also holds a research appointment at the BI Norwegian Business School, and she is a non-resident fellow in the Democratic Innovations Program at Yale University ISPS. She is one of the editors and co-founders of Broadstreet.blog, a blog on historical political economy.
Dr. Dewey Murdick - Former Executive Director of Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technologies
Dr. Dewey Murdick served as the Executive Director of Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technologies [Co1] from 2021 to 2025, where he provided policymakers and industry leaders with data-driven analysis on the security implications of emerging technologies. Prior to this role, he was Director of Data Science and Research, where he founded CSET’s data analytic capabilities.
Professor Oliver Hauser – Deputy Director of the Institute for Data Science and AI at the University of Exeter
Professor Oliver Hauser is Professor of Economics at the University of Exeter, where he is also Deputy Director (and formerly interim Co-Director) of the Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. In addition, he is a Faculty Affiliate at Harvard University and a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow. He is also a Senior Advisor to Cabinet Office’s and HM Treasury’s Evaluation Task Force, and serves on several advisory boards in the UK public sector.
Edward Teather – Global AI Policy Manager at Amazon Web Services
Edward Teather is External Relations Manager for Global AI Policy at Amazon Web Services (AWS).
5.00-6.15pm: Panel discussion 2
The New UK Ecosystem: discussing the need for resilient and sovereign digital infrastructure, challenges in securing national data and critical services, and the role of public-private partnerships in shaping the UK’s AI ecosystem.
Moderator: Bryan Rich – Senior Managing Director for Accenture's Global AI Practice
Bryan Rich is a former Nieman Fellow of Journalism, and currently the Senior Managing Director for Accenture's Global AI Practice for the Public Sector and Defence, managing the scaling of generative AI and advanced analytics for defence and public sector clients. He is also the executive director of Accenture’s Data and AI Lab located in Brussels dedicated to testing and evaluating AI solutions for public sector applications. He has over 25 years of experience in data and AI, specializing in national security with a focus on open source and geospatial intelligence.
Dr. Laura Gilbert – Senior Director of AI and Head of the AI for Government program at the Tony Blair Institute
Dr. Laura Gilbert is the Senior Director of AI and Head of the AI for Government program at the Tony Blair Institute, working to deliver a program of AI solutions to improve the ability of governments to plan and deliver resilient public services and generate better economic and wellbeing outcomes for their citizens.
Henry de Zoete – Senior Advisor and Visiting Fellow Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative
Henry de Zoete is an entrepreneur and alumnus of renowned Silicon Valley start-up accelerator Y Combinator. In 2014, he co-founded The Big Deal which uses tech to facilitate collective bargaining for consumers. In 2018, he went on to establish Look After My Bills, a tech start-up which became the largest auto-switching service in the UK, saving families money on their gas and electricity. On 9 June 2023 he was appointed Adviser to the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister on Artificial Intelligence, in addition to his existing role as a Cabinet Office Non-Executive Board Member.
Professor Sana Khareghani – Chief Strategy Officer at the data centre company Carbon3.ai
Sana Khareghani is also currently Professor of Practice in AI at King’s College London and AI Policy lead for Responsible AI UK, a £35 million grant seeding and connecting responsible AI research and innovation. She is the former Head of UK Gov Office for Artificial Intelligence.
Sana is a Trustee for the Institute for the Future of Work and Board member for Technovation, a non-profit organisation aiming to bring more women and girls from
Professor Anil Doshi – UCL, Lead on the Generative AI in Education transformation effort
Anil Doshi is an Associate Professor at the UCL School of Management. Anil researches generative AI, digitization, and strategy in contexts that include digital platforms and innovation settings. At the School of Management, Anil is the lead on the Generative AI in Education transformation effort. Anil has over ten years of industry experience in financial services and technology startups.
6.30-7.00pm: Keynote session
AI and Collective Economic Security: Exploring how sovereign AI shapes economic power, national security, and global collaboration, with insights from Craig Mundie on building trusted, transparent AI aligned with national interests.
Keynote speaker: Craig Mundie, Technology advisor to three U.S. Presidents, former Chief Research and Strategy Officer at Microsoft, and co-author of ‘Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit’. He brings decades of experience at the intersection of technology, policy, and global strategy, offering compelling insights on the ethical, economic, and security implications of next-generation AI.
Host: Andres Velasco, Dean of the School of Public Policy at LSE. Former Minister of Finance of Chile. Member of the G30 Eminent Persons Group. Co-chair of the Global Panel on the Future of the Multilateral Lending Institutions (2015–16) and member of the Global Oceans Commission (2013–16). He has held senior academic positions at Columbia University, Harvard University, and New York University. He is the author of numerous academic articles, several books, and two novels, and has advised international institutions, governments, and central banks worldwide.
This event is free and open to all
- To attend this event in-person register via this form
- To attend this event online register on Zoom
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