Flynn Coleman is a writer, international human rights attorney, public speaker, professor, Harvard fellow, and social innovator. She has worked with the United Nations, the United States federal government, and international corporations and human rights organizations around the world. Flynn has spoken and written extensively on issues of global citizenship, the future of work, purpose, democracy, and humanity, emerging technologies, political reconciliation, war crimes, genocide, human and civil rights, humanitarian issues, innovation and design for social impact, and improving access to justice and education.

She is the author of A Human Algorithm, a groundbreaking narrative on the urgency of ethically designed AI and a guidebook to reimagining life in the era of intelligent technology. Flynn is a Fernand Braudel Senior Fellow in the Department of Law at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, and is also a Visiting Researcher at the University of Copenhagen in the Law Faculty. She has been named a Technology & Human Rights Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. Flynn is also a Visiting ISP Fellow at Yale University’s Information Society Project at Yale Law School.

She holds a BSFS from Georgetown University, a JD from UC Berkeley School of Law, and an LLM from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She has also studied at La Sorbonne, the University of Cambridge, Trinity College Dublin, La Universidad de Chile, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, Senegal, and Université de Genève.

Originally from Los Angeles, Flynn has lived in France, Switzerland, England, Ireland, Italy, Hong Kong, Fiji, Cambodia, Senegal, the Netherlands, and Chile. She currently calls New York and Los Angeles home. She speaks five languages, and her wanderings have taken her from helping rebuild homes and schools in New Orleans and Fiji, to distributing gifts to children in Haiti and school supplies in Guatemala and Ethiopia, to teaching How to Make a Difference in a in the English countryside, to huffing up Mount Kilimanjaro with her dad, to zodiac boating in Alaska with her mom.


Photograph by Robert McClenahan

Topics:

  • The Age of Intelligent Machines is upon us, and Flynn examines the immense impact intelligent technology will have on humanity and how we can flourish as we move into our brave new world. The proliferation of fast-moving technologies have the potential to transform how we work, our health and well-being, alleviate poverty and suffering, and reveal the mysteries of intelligence and consciousness. In this talk based on her book, Flynn shares her insights on AI’s potential, inviting an inclusive group of voices to participate in designing our intelligent machines so we instill ethics, values, and compassion into our robots, algorithms, and other forms of AI. Audiences will understand the importance of building a more humane future and moving conscientiously into a new frontier of their own design.

  • Automation, computerization, and AI will be the biggest disruptors in the history of our labor economies, eclipsing the colossal societal shifts of the Industrial Revolution in a fraction of the time. AI may take over many of our jobs, but it can also free us up for more creative endeavors and imaginative pursuits. In this talk, Flynn will take a deep dive into the future of work and purpose, and examine how we can thrive and flourish amid accelerating technological change. She will share insights on how we can work in partnership with smart machines and learn to reconfigure how we work with each other, and ultimately imagine whole new occupations.

  • Our increasingly complex 21st century world, rattled by a pandemic, accelerating technologies, and intersecting global issues, feels ever more uncertain. In this talk, Flynn takes audiences on a deep dive into how to lead, how to adapt, and how to learn and unlearn with humanity, humility, and purpose amidst complexity and uncertainty. Present and future leaders across all sectors need new tools, ideas, and inspiration to envision and reimagine our workplaces, institutions, and systems. Delving into themes from literature and philosophy, to mindfulness and psychology, to behavioral economics, history, and ethics, we'll explore ways to tap into our innate creativity, curiosity, and imagination to transform careers, communities, and lives.

  • We are becoming irreversibly reliant on computers and algorithms, cognitively offloading tasks, problem-solving, and learning at a rapid rate. Automation, computerization, and AI will be the biggest disruptors in the history of our labor economies, eclipsing the colossal societal shifts of the Industrial Revolution in a fraction of the time. AI will change our working lives, and may take over many of our jobs and tasks, but it can also free us up for more creative endeavors, inventive adventures, and imaginative pursuits - expanding our sense of purpose. In this talk, Flynn will walk us through how we can thrive as teams, organizations, and as humans as we move into our brave new technological world. She will share insights on how we can work in partnership with smart machines, prosper in new occupations, and find meaning and purpose. We can reimagine our societies to leave a better world for the generations who will be.

Twitter: @FlynnColeman

Instagram: @flynncoleman

Flynn Coleman spoke at Plywood Presents 2017 at Atlanta Symphony Hall. In this talk, Flynn asks us to think about our role in shaping the technology and humanity of the future. As artificial intelligence increasingly becomes a part of human life, how will we interact with it? And are there ways to teach artificial intelligence the characteristics of social and moral good? Bio: Flynn Coleman is an international human rights attorney, an educator, an author, a public speaker, a social entrepreneur and innovator, an ethical fashion designer, a mindfulness, innovation, and creativity teacher, a social justice activist, a former competitive athlete, and a founder and CEO. Flynn is also the founding fellow at the Grunin Center for Law and Social Entrepreneurship at NYU School of Law. She has a background in innovative approaches to economic development, international trade law, war crimes, genocide, behavioral economics, political reconciliation, post-conflict justice, artificial intelligence, and improving access to justice through innovation. She has spoken, written, and taught extensively on issues of global justice, social enterprise, social impact, human rights, artificial intelligence, technology, storytelling, redefining success, and the future of work, purpose, technology, and humanity. Flynn speaks five languages, and has worked with the United Nations, the United States federal government, and with international corporations, universities, and human rights organizations around the world. She holds a BSFS from Georgetown University, a JD from UC Berkeley School of Law, and an LLM from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She has also studied at La Sorbonne, the University of Cambridge, Trinity College Dublin, La Universidad de Chile, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, Senegal, and Université de Genève. Learn more: www.flynncoleman.community Twitter: www.twitter.com/flynncoleman Instagram: www.instagram.com/flynncoleman Photography by: Luke Beard