Newsletter - Insights and News - LaCross Institute

Key Insights from the Third Annual Conference

As generative AI’s capabilities and pitfalls continue to accelerate the LaCross Institute convened faculty, technologists, economists and even fiction writers at The Forum Hotel on the Darden School of Business Grounds to explore “minding the gap” between AI’s promise and shortcomings for the third annual UVA Conference on Ethical AI in Business held on 5 December 2025 at The Forum hotel. 

Although a snowy morning led to a delayed start, the majority of the planned sessions were held and attended by more than 200 participants.

The conference theme was introduced by LaCross Institute Director Marc Ruggiano and LaCross Institute Academic Co-Director, Raj Venkatesan. “Whenever we talk about the opportunities [in AI], there are also the challenges” of bias, misinformation, access and inequality, said Venkatesan. “We built this conference around the question: how do we build the bridges between the possibilities and the challenges?”

The agenda explored both academic insights and industry expertise through two simulcast keynote speeches and four rounds of concurrent sessions, including interactive breakout discussions. Morning keynote speaker Peter McCrory, Head of Economics at Anthropic delivered a compelling talk on what AI technology like Anthropic’s Claude might mean for the economy and how these models are actually being used in the real world.

Morning sessions featured breakout sessions with subject matter experts exploring variations on the “minding the gap” theme, such as issues surrounding AI and privacy, investing, and operations. 

A lunchtime conversation with Bruce Holsinger, a professor of English at UVA and the author of the novel Culpability, was moderated by Darden professor Bobby Parmar. 

Afternoon panels featured leaders from startups, technology, and venture capital, offering real-world views on the opportunities and risks of integrating AI in business. Speakers shared practical approaches to innovation grounded in transparency, collaboration and institutional accountability.

The final keynote came from economist and Darden professor Anton Korinek, who has become one of the leading voices on AI-driven macroeconomic disruption.

“From an economic perspective…the resulting shift is going to be fundamental. I believe it’s going to be as fundamental as the industrial revolution,” Korinek said.

LaCross Institute Academic Co-Director Yael Grushka-Cockayne closed out the conference, thanking all for participating and summing up the day.

“Existing AI capabilities are already transforming the world around us,” she said. “We know that…but early AI adoption is uneven. The world is fascinated by what the appropriate use of AI is, and what the long-term implications will be. It’s still an open question.”

The conference was sponsored by Darden's Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Institute for Business in Society and its Richard A. Mayo Center for Asset Management.

Click below to explore highlights from the 2025 UVA Conference on Ethical AI in Business.

Salon Series: Perspectives on Human ↔ AI Performance

The LaCross Institute hosted a half-day Salon in October on the topic of understanding and enhancing human performance using AI and machine learning, and evaluating and advancing AI performance using insights from the study of human performance. The opening talk, "Swimming in Data," was presented by Ken Ono, formerly the STEM Advisor to the Provost and on leave from his position of Marvin Rosenblum Professor of Mathematics at UVA (now the founding mathematician at Axiom Math). Two professors from the UVA School of Data Science, Tom Hartvigsen and Natalie Kupperman were joined by Darden professor Roshni Rahveendhran for an ensuing panel discussion. An open discussion followed as well as a networking lunch. 

2026 Fellowships in AI Research Program

The Fellowships in AI Research (FAIR) Program is a key initiative of the LaCross AI Institute, supporting interdisciplinary research that advances the responsible use of AI in business. It provides seed funding for UVA faculty, staff, students, and practitioners pursuing work with practical impact and strong potential for future development, fostering collaboration across disciplines within the University of Virginia. On 30 January the Institute brought this work to life at its FAIR Symposium, where past recipients shared updates on their ongoing research, and three new teams were announced as part of this year’s cohort, further expanding the program’s impact across the UVA community and beyond. 

 UVA's MSBA: A Business Analytics Program for the Age of AI

In UVA’s MSBA program, presented jointly by the McIntire School of Commerce and Darden School of Business, a holistic approach to AI learning has been embedded throughout the 12-month degree program for working professionals uses a business lens to focus AI skill development across two areas: technical mastery and leadership training. Students gain technical mastery by developing critical skills in SQL, Spark, large language models (LLMs), survival analysis, deep learning, time series analyses and more so they can build and assess AI models responsibly. Leadership training is achieved through the program’s capstone projects, strategy and ethics courses, global immersions and business sponsor engagement, all of which help students assess how AI can create business value, implement AI responsibly and ethically, and manage AI projects and teams.

 LaCross Institute White Paper Series Launches

In November the institute published the first white paper in a new series. "The Value Chain of Ethical AI" series explores the ecosystem of businesses and technologies that enable the ethical development, deployment and management of artificial intelligence in the modern business environment. The first paper, "Navigating the Future of Business: The Interplay of Privacy, Trust and Human Interaction in Artificial Intelligence," is co-authored by Darden professor Raj Venkatesan, academic co-director of the LaCross Institute, and Shannon McGarrell (MBA '25).