Moderated by Christian Williams of J.P. Morgan’s Startup Banking division, this session explores how AI startups are transforming industries—featuring founders and investors discussing responsible AI, funding dynamics, success factors, and emerging disruptors shaping the future of innovation.

Accompany co-founders Robert Krim and Scott Kirsner on a walking tour through Boston and Cambridge highlighting groundbreaking inventions and discoveries that shaped the world, celebrating the region’s enduring legacy as a global hub of AI innovation.

Rethinking Smart Cities: From Sensors to Solutions

When we hear “smart cities,” we often imagine sensors, data dashboards, and AI algorithms. But what if the smartest cities aren’t the ones with the most technology, but the ones that know how to experiment, learn, and adapt?

Join Nigel Jacob, co-founder of Boston’s groundbreaking Office of New Urban Mechanics, for a conversation about what it really means to build intelligent cities in the age of AI. Drawing from years of civic innovation work, Nigel will explore how cities can leverage digital tools to tackle urgent urban challenges: driving down housing costs, shaping climate futures, catalyzing thriving public spaces, reimagining mobility, centering youth voices, and cultivating a culture of innovation.

This isn’t about technology for technology’s sake. It’s about who gets to shape urban futures and who benefits from them. Cities can become learning organizations that test ideas quickly, learn from each experiment, and put residents at the center of every solution. You’ll discover how AI can help cities ask better questions, surface hidden patterns, and respond more dynamically to community needs.

Whether you’re curious about urban innovation, skeptical about smart city hype, or ready to reimagine how technology shapes our shared spaces, this conversation will challenge you to think differently about the future of where we live.

Nigel Jacob Emeritus Co-Chair, Boston Mayor’s Office of Urban Mechanics

Bio:
Nigel Jacob is a civic innovation leader, urban systems strategist, and human-centered technologist who has spent the last decade and a half reimagining how cities work—and who they should work for. As the co-founder and longtime co-chair of the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics in Boston, he helped pioneer the idea of a “civic imagination lab” inside City Hall, building teams and projects that treated residents not as end users but as co-designers. His work there spa fellowships and leadership roles with institutions such as MIT’s Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism, Harvard Kennedy School, Northeastern University,nned digital services, public space, mobility, and community engagement, always with a bias toward experimentation, care, and equity. Along the way, he’s held and the Boston Society for Architecture, where he has pushed the fields of planning, design, and public policy to take democracy—and community power—seriously.

Today, Nigel is building Neighborhood.AI, a network of hyperlocal, community-governed AI agents designed to help communities track development, surface community knowledge, and negotiate more just futures. His work blends political economy, design justice, and generative AI into what he calls “liberation pragmatism”: using advanced tools not to optimize extraction, but to strengthen civic muscle, collective memory, and democratic control over land, data, and finance. A trained software engineer turned guerrilla political economist, Nigel moves easily between community meetings, foundation boardrooms, and speculative futures workshops—translating across worlds while staying accountable to the neighborhoods that raised the questions in the first place.

AI Ethical Futures Rountable: Who Shapes AI’s Unknowable Future?

Artificial intelligence is advancing at an unprecedented pace, raising urgent questions about ethics, equity, and accountability. From bias in algorithms to transparency in decision-making, the responsible use of AI is now a defining challenge for innovators, policymakers, and communities alike.

AMI hosts a roundtable that brings together thought leaders from academia, industry, and public service to explore how we can balance innovation with responsibility. Discussion will center on timely issues such as ensuring fairness and inclusivity in AI systems, protecting privacy in an era of pervasive data, addressing the environmental footprint of AI, and defining the role of regulation versus self-governance. Designed to be interactive, this session invites participants to grapple with the real-world tradeoffs of building ethical AI—and to consider how human-centered values must guide technology’s future.

JoAnn Stonier, MasterCard Fellow of Data & AI
Jason Mohaghegh, Babson Professor of Comparative Literature & Philosopy

Bios:
JoAnn Stonier was a Fellow of Data & Artificial Intelligence for Mastercard serving as a leading expert to assist the organization’s innovation, policy and risk efforts. Prior to being appointed as a Fellow, JoAnn served as Mastercard’s first Chief Data Officer for Mastercard. JoAnn is a global data expert and strategist with extensive experience overseeing the curation, quality, ethical use, governance, and management of Mastercard’s global data assets. She is also an expert in artificial intelligence with a keen interest in the areas of ethics, data equity, minimization of bias and ensuring fair outcomes as especially as the use of generative artificial intelligence increases. JoAnn is a recognized and highly sought-after thought leader and speaker in emergent data, AI and privacy issues. She has advised industry executives, governments, intergovernmental organizations, and NGOs. Currently, she serves as the Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Data Policy, the chair of the USCIB’s Digital Policy Council and the co-chair of the Policy Committee for the Data and Trust Alliance. In addition to this service, JoAnn is an adjunct professor at Pratt Institute, where she teaches business strategy and international business in the Design Management Master’s Program and a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon in their Chief Data Officer program.

Jason Mohaghegh is a philosopher, cultural theorist, and Professor of Comparative Literature at Babson College. He has published ten books to date tracking movements of cutting-edge and futuristic thought across the globe, with particular attention to concepts of chaos, violence, illusion, silence, madness, disappearance, night, evil, secrecy, technology, and apocalypse. His current work focuses on how the rising futuristic influences of virtual reality, megacities, and artificial intelligence are radically transforming society, culture, and human experience. Jason Mohaghegh is also the founder of the Future Studies Program, Editor of the Future’s Theory book series with Bloomsbury Press, and Faculty Lead of the Babson Generator’s AI Ethics and Society Lab.

AI Startups Shaping the Future of Innovation Panel Discussion

Artificial intelligence is transforming industries at an unprecedented pace, and startups are leading this wave of innovation. This panel, moderated by Christian Williams of J.P. Morgan’s Startup Banking division, will feature founders and investors who are building and scaling AI ventures. The discussion will provide an overview of the AI startup landscape and explore the opportunities and challenges from the standpoints of both founders and funders. Gain an understanding of topics like how responsible AI development plays out in practice, AI startup success criteria, near and long-term emerging AI industry disruptors, and funding requirements— Draw on lessons learned that can be applied to your organization.

Christian Williams, VP of Startup Banking, J.P. Morgan

Bio:
Christian leads a dedicated team in providing comprehensive financial solutions tailored to the unique needs of pre-Series A tech startups, with particular expertise in supporting Boston’s emerging AI ecosystem.

Prior to JP Morgan, Christian founded a successful algorithm-based Fintech startup at the prestigious Harvard Innovation Lab, where he developed technology matching borrowers with lenders. This firsthand experience as an entrepreneur gave him a unique perspective on the challenges faced by startups, as well as the passion and drive required to turn innovative ideas into thriving businesses.

Christian brings this entrepreneurial spirit and is committed to providing startups with more than just banking services. He is a trusted advisor and partner, offering guidance and support throughout their growth journey. His deep involvement in the AI community—including serving as a judge for Harvard’s President Innovation Challenge with a focus on AI companies, and hosting panels on “AI in Fintech and Banking” and “AI in Biotech”—enables him to provide specialized insights to founders navigating this rapidly evolving space. By leveraging his extensive network, he connects startups with relevant resources, advisors, and industry experts, enabling them to thrive in the highly competitive tech ecosystem.