Tabitha Goldstaub

Why organisations work with Tabitha Goldstaub

• She chaired the UK Government’s AI Council for five years – a formal, operational appointment made by two Secretaries of State – which means she understands AI governance from the inside of the policy process, not from commentary on it.
• Her book How to Talk to Robots (HarperCollins, 2020) made a specific and publicly documented argument: that AI systems inherit the biases of those who build them, and that who governs AI is a governance question, not a diversity exercise. The argument travels directly into boardroom and leadership settings.
• As co-founder and Festival Director of CogX – which grew to 6,500 delegates and over 370 speakers at its peak – she has an unusually accurate read on how organisations across sectors are actually navigating AI adoption, rather than how they say they are.
• She sits on the board of Luminate, the international organisation focused on ensuring Big Tech and AI platforms respect human rights – giving her live insight into how civil society and regulators are evaluating the conduct of AI companies.

Biography highlights

• Former Chair, UK Government’s AI Council (2018–2023); appointed AI Business Champion by the Secretary of State for DCMS
• MBE in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to the artificial intelligence sector
• Author of How to Talk to Robots (HarperCollins, 2020); reviewed in the Financial Times
• Co-founder and Festival Director of CogX, which grew to 6,500 delegates and 370+ speakers
• Co-founder of Rightster (now Brave Bison), which floated for £20.4 million in 2013
• Amy Johnson Inspiration Award, Women’s Engineering Society, 2018
• Named in Computer Weekly’s Most Influential Women in Technology (2023) and London Evening Standard Progress 1000
• Board member, Luminate; Non-Executive Director, Innovate Cambridge

Biography

Boards are being asked to sign off on significant AI investment while carrying little of the institutional knowledge needed to govern it responsibly. Tabitha Goldstaub MBE chaired the UK Government’s AI Council from 2018 to 2023 – the expert body that advised government on national AI strategy, responsible adoption, and societal impact. That appointment, made by two Secretaries of State, put her at the operational centre of the UK’s AI policy architecture at the moment it was being built.

Her book How to Talk to Robots (HarperCollins, 2020), reviewed in the Financial Times, made a specific argument: that AI systems inherit the biases of those who design and govern them, and that widening who holds those roles is not a diversity initiative but a governance imperative. The Women’s Engineering Society gave her its Amy Johnson Inspiration Award in 2018 for advancing that case through her public roles.

As co-founder and Festival Director of CogX, she built one of Europe’s largest annual AI leadership summits – growing it from 1,500 delegates at its founding in 2017 to over 6,500 in 2018, with more than 370 speakers on programme. That scale gave her a consistently clear view of where organisations across sectors are actually struggling with AI adoption, as distinct from the positions they present publicly.

She now serves on the board of Luminate – the international organisation working to ensure that Big Tech and AI platforms respect human rights – and as Non-Executive Director of Innovate Cambridge. Named in Computer Weekly’s Most Influential Women in Technology in 2023, she is one of the few speakers in this space who has operated across government policy, commercial technology, and civil society governance at the same time.

Key speaking topics

• AI governance and organisational accountability
• Responsible AI and ethics in practice
• AI policy and the regulatory landscape
• AI bias, inclusion, and structural risk
• Leadership decision-making in the age of AI
• Building AI literacy at board and executive level
• Technology entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems

Ideal for

• Boards and audit or risk committees developing AI governance frameworks
• C-suite and senior leadership teams setting or reviewing AI strategy
• Public sector and regulated industry leaders navigating emerging AI policy
• Technology and digital transformation leads in organisations deploying AI at scale

Audience outcomes

• A clearer framework for understanding what responsible AI adoption requires at leadership and governance level
• Greater confidence discussing AI accountability with technical teams, regulators, and boards
• Practical understanding of the policy and regulatory environment shaping AI deployment in the UK and Europe
• Sharper awareness of where AI bias risks arise and what governance mechanisms are available to address them
• Context for evaluating AI proposals, investments, or vendor relationships with more informed scrutiny