About This Series
IEN's Responsible AI Initiative aims to equip endowments and foundations with the knowledge and tools to evaluate AI in their portfolios through the lens of governance, climate risk, human capital impacts, and fiduciary duty. Artificial intelligence presents complex challenges — from algorithmic bias, privacy concerns, and threats to democracy, to the environmental costs of energy-intensive data infrastructure — while also representing a significant investment opportunity with potential for both strong returns and mission-aligned impact.
This series of The Future of Finance podcast episodes brings together leading voices at the intersection of responsible AI and institutional investing, exploring how endowments and foundations can navigate AI's risks and opportunities with intention.
Episodes are listed in a suggested listening order designed to build understanding progressively — from big-picture framing to practical tools to early-stage action. The date each episode was released appears next to its guest name.
The Investor’s Role in the Age of AI: Balancing Innovation and Accountability
Guest: Mike Kubzansky, CEO Omidyar Network (Nov 2025)
Focus: Whole Portfolio
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Mike Kubzansky draws on parallels with past technological revolutions to argue that regulation and governance aren't barriers to innovation — they're what make sustainable progress possible. He unpacks how AI is accelerating job displacement, economic inequality, monopoly concentration, and threats to democracy. He also offers five concrete actions investors can take right now: cutting through the hype, adapting climate engagement strategies, integrating responsible AI into investment decision-making, funding AI safety technologies, and building collective investor standards.
Guardrails for the Digital Age: Investors and the Future of Responsible AI
Guest: Michael Connor, Executive Director of Open MIC (Oct 2025)
Focus: Public Markets
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Michael Connor speaks about nearly two decades of using shareholder engagement to hold major tech companies accountable on AI governance, privacy, misinformation, and workers' rights. He explores how institutional investors and early-stage venture capital can embed responsible tech principles across the investment lifecycle, and why corporate governance tools like proxy voting matter more than ever as AI reshapes labor markets, democracy, and the climate.
Privacy, Power, and Performance: How Investors Can Evaluate Responsible Tech
Guest: Meredith Benton, Founder of Whistlestop Capital and the TechForward Investors Initiative (Jan 2026)
Focus: Public Markets
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Meredith Benton speaks about what responsible AI and tech accountability really mean for long-term investors. She unpacks TechForward's multi-year research evaluating governance and privacy practices across 50 major U.S. public companies with significant technology exposure. Meredith explores why traditional ESG frameworks often fall short on tech-related risks, how privacy serves as a critical test case for effective governance, and why executive-level expertise in human rights is emerging as one of the strongest indicators of both accountability and financial performance.
From Venture Capital to Values: Building AI That Survives, Scales, and Serves Society
Guest: Gaurab Bansal, Executive Director of Responsible Innovation Labs (Feb 2026)
Focus: Private Markets
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Gaurab Bansal shares how Responsible Innovation Labs works with early-stage founders to integrate governance, risk awareness, and values into company culture without sacrificing growth or commercial viability. His argues that responsible innovation isn't a constraint on business strategy, it is a business strategy. He also makes the case that early-stage capital may be the single greatest leverage point for ensuring AI advances human flourishing rather than undermining it, and offers practical guidance for investors who want to incorporate downside risk and responsibility into their diligence process.
Bending the Arc of the Digital Revolution: The Investor Guide to AI | Guest: Mike Kubzansky (Feb 2026)
Guest: Mike Kubzansky, CEO Omidyar Network (Feb 2026)
Focus: Whole Portfolio
Listen On: Spotify
Apple Podcasts
Youtube
In this second conversation with Mike Kubzansky, he shares how Omidyar Network uses investments, grants, and advocacy in combination to shape the digital revolution toward shared prosperity rather than concentrated power. He offers practical guidance on working with external managers and portfolio companies to build trust, reduce harm, and create accountability around AI deployment. The show notes for this episode include a curated list of resources Mike references — recommended podcasts, Substacks, books, and reports on AI governance and responsible investment.
System-Level Risks, Proxy Power, and AI Governance with Whitney Shepard of Majority Action (April 2026)
Guest: Whitney Shepard, Co-CEO Majority Action (Apr 2026)
Focus: Whole Portfolio
Listen On: Spotify
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Institutional investors are increasingly exposed to AI-driven risks that operate at the system level — spanning climate commitments, labor markets, and democratic governance. Whitney Shepard, Co-Executive Director of Majority Action, lays out the research, frameworks, and stewardship strategies that investors need to navigate this moment responsibly. For fiduciaries managing public pensions, endowments, and foundations, understanding these dynamics is not optional; it is central to long-term value creation and duty of care.
Building the Architecture for Responsible AI with Paul Fehlinger of Project Liberty
Guest: Paul Fehlinger, Senior Director of Policy, Investment & Innovation, Project Liberty
Focus: Whole Portfolio
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Paul Fehlinger of Project Liberty, a 500 million initiative building an AI and data economy that advances voice, choice and stakes, unpacks what responsible AI actually means for institutional capital markets. Drawing on his decade leading the Internet and Jurisdiction Policy Network and his current work convening LPs, GPs, policymakers, and entrepreneurs globally, Fehlinger brings a rare cross-sector perspective to one of the most consequential questions in finance today. This conversation examines the governance gap that institutional investors must close before AI risk compounds across portfolios, and makes the case that safety and trust are not ESG overlays but core competitive variables in sourcing, due diligence, and long-term returns.