Matthew Tokson.
Matthew Tokson, assistant dean and professor of law at the University of Utah, will speak at HPU on Nov. 10 about how the law can address the risks posed by artificial intelligence.
A leading voice among legal scholars on AI, privacy and AI safety, Tokson examines how the law can respond to AI's society-wide risks, from threats to privacy and security to concerns about catastrophic and existential harm.
His article "Systemic Regulation of Artificial Intelligence," written with Yonathan Arbel and Albert Lin and published in the Arizona State Law Journal in 2024, lays out a theoretical foundation for regulating AI as a technology.
In "Artificial Intelligence and the Anti-Authoritarian Fourth Amendment," published in the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law in 2025, he explored how the law could keep AI surveillance technology from entrenching authoritarianism and eroding privacy. His earlier article, "Knowledge and Fourth Amendment Privacy," was discussed at oral argument in the U.S. Supreme Court case Carpenter v. United States.
Tokson served as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David H. Souter, and he teaches a seminar titled the Law of Artificial Intelligence.
He will bring that expertise to HPU for the next HPU Talks event:
REGULATING AI: RISKS, RIGHTS, AND RESPONSIBILITY
Date: Tuesday, Nov. 10
Time: 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.
Location: Sunset Ballroom at Aloha Tower Marketplace (second floor, makai)
Free and open to the public
Tokson plans to discuss the rapid growth of AI capabilities and the role of law in addressing AI's broader risks. Those risks range from harms to vulnerable communities to threats to economic, political and physical security. Drawing on that range of risks, he will outline a foundation for regulating AI not only in its uses, but as a technology.
HPU Talks is HPU's signature event series featuring dynamic speakers from a wide range of professions, experiences, and backgrounds. To learn more about the series, go to www.hpu.edu/hputalks.
The event will be hosted by HPU Professor of Communication John P. Hart, Ph.D., and is free and open to the public. Sponsored by HPU's College of Liberal Arts and SAFAC.
