Rubén Lozano-Aguilera, from Allen Institute for AI, is this year’s Ken Kennedy Distinguished Lecture at the 2025 Tapia Conference. Rubén’s topic is You Belong in AI: Why the Field Needs New Perspectives Now.
AI is moving faster than our ability to govern it, explain it, or fully understand it. We’re optimizing for technical excellence—faster, cheaper, more precise—without first agreeing on what this technology is for, or who it truly serves. What if we stopped thinking of AI as just code and compute, and started seeing it as culture? Not just a system to engineer, but a reflection of values, power, and intent.
In this keynote, I’ll share lessons from building products used by billions at Google and Amazon, and now shaping truly open-source AI at Ai2 (Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence). I’ll explore how open systems, ethical defaults, and community-led governance can help close the wisdom gap—alongside what it felt like to enter this field—part luck, part relentless effort—as a queer, first-gen immigrant in tech. Whether you’re deep in AI or just figuring out where you fit, this is an invitation to build differently—and to build something that includes you. Register now for Tapia 2025!