BU Cyber Alliance Hosts 10/23 Brown Bag Lunch Series, Featuring Michael Meurer (LAW)

12:45 PM – 2:00 PM on Monday, October 23, 2017
Hariri Institute for Computing
111 Cummington Mall, Room 180

Training Data and Innovation in Markets for AI
Michael Meurer
Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law

Abstract: Big data is often an essential input needed by innovators seeking to develop AI technologies. In certain settings, access to data may create an entry barrier that limits who can participate in AI development. In other settings, firms may make redundant investments in building and curating similar datasets. For this event, Prof. Meurer will discuss social welfare issues concerning investment in databases that can be used to develop AI technologies, and access to those databases. Policymakers can influence investment incentives and ease of access via choices made within intellectual property law, antitrust law, privacy law, and other aspects of innovation policy.

Bio: The son of an economics professor, Michael Meurer knew by the time he was 13 that he, too, wanted to teach at the university level. An SB, JD and PhD later, he became an economics professor at Duke University and later a law professor at the University of Buffalo. He came to Boston University School of Law in 1999, where he has taught courses in patents, intellectual property and public policy toward the high-tech industry. “It’s a special privilege to be able to speak three times a week to an attentive and thoughtful audience,” he says.

Professor Meurer has received several grants and fellowships, including two grants from the Pew Charitable Trust, a Ford Foundation grant, an Olin Faculty Fellowship at Yale Law School and a postdoctoral fellowship at AT&T Bell Labs. He has served as an expert witness for the Federal Trade Commission on a merger case presenting issues related to patent licensing. He also has consulted with government officials from developing countries about antitrust law, and taught short courses in American intellectual property law at the law faculties of the University of Victoria and the National University of Singapore. “I’m excited by the prospect of having a positive influence on American technology law and policy,” Professor Meurer says. Outside of work, he enjoys playing and watching basketball.