Fathom

The Event
Speakers
Esteemed Guests
The Location
Testimonials
2025 Recap
FAQ

The Ashby
Workshops

February 2 - 4, 2026 | Middleburg, Virginia

Designing Our Collective AI Future

The
Event

The Ashby Workshops is an invite-only convening designed to move ideas from conversation to action. It isn’t merely an event—it's a platform for meaningful action, a catalyst for enduring relationships, and an incubator for breakthrough solutions that define the next chapter of AI.
We will welcome leaders and prominent voices from government, technology, academia, civil society, and philanthropy, as well as sector experts in education, healthcare, finance, national security, and more.
Building on the momentum and partnerships of Ashby 2025, the 2026 Ashby Workshops will dive deeper into the pressing question:
"Which societal-level challenges uniquely raised by AI will require our greatest collective action and energy to solve?”
Together, attendees will tackle concrete use cases and pressing issues and explore how society and stakeholders can engage to support a future where AI is aligned with shared values and public trust.
Fathom created The Ashby Workshops as a tangible embodiment of our mission—to find, build, and scale innovative, practical governance solutions that bring about a successful transition to a future with AI.

Speakers

Alicia Vikander
Academy Award-Winning Actress
Ethan Mollick
Ralph J. Roberts Distinguished Faculty Scholar, Associate Professor at the
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, NYT Best-Selling Author of Co-
Intelligence
Arthur C. Evans, Ph.D
CEO & Executive Vice President, American Psychological Association
David L. Reich, MD
Chief Clinical Officer, Mount Sinai Health System & President, The Mount Sinai Hospital
Dean Ball
Policy Fellow, Fathom & Senior Fellow, Foundation for American Innovation
Gregory C. Allen
Senior Advisor, Wadhwani AI Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
Jeff McMillan
Head of Firm-Wide AI, Morgan Stanley
Anton Korinek
Professor of Economics, University of Virginia and Faculty Director, Economics of Transformative AI Initiative (EconTAI)
Reza Aslan
Writer, commentator, Emmy- and Peabody-nominated producer, and scholar of religions, and professor at University of California
Michelle Rozo
Vice President of Technology, In-Q-Tel
Marlynn Wei, MD, JD
Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist, and Author
Lev Gonick
Chief Information Officer, Arizona State University
Brendan McCord
Founder & Chair, Cosmos Institute
Neesha Nanda
CEO & Co-Founder of HeyBodhi
Nichol Bradford
Executive in Residence AI+HI, SHRM
Chris McGuire
Senior Fellow for China and Emerging Technologies, Council on Foreign Relations
Michael Kuiken
Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Stanford University's Hoover Institution
Dave Willner
Co-Founder at Zentropi
Brad Thompson
Senior Vice President, Technology at Target
Professor David Zilberman
Professor, The University of California, Berkeley
Susan Coller
Founder & CEO, Heartland Global Strategies
Professor Gillian Hadfield
Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of AI Alignment and Governance, Johns Hopkins University
David Zvi Kalman
Shalom Hartman Institute
Father Michael Baggot
Professor at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, Visiting Scholar at The Catholic University of America's Institute for Human Ecology
Sasha Baker
Head of National Security Policy at OpenAI
Gavin McCormick
Co-founder, Climate TRACE
Marietje Schaake
Int. Policy Director, Cyber Policy Center & Int. Policy Fellow Institute for Human-Centered AI
Helen Toner
Interim Executive Director, Center for Security and Emerging Technology
Sam Ramadori
Co-President & Executive Director, LawZero
Aya Ibrahim
Non-Resident Fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia | SIPA
Tom Gruber
Founder of Humanistic AI and Siri Co-founder
Tim O'Reilly
Founder & CEO, O’Reilly Media
Alexandra Reeve Givens
President & CEO, Center for Democracy & Technology
Ben Buchanan
Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins University
Nabiha Syed
Executive Director, Mozilla Foundation
Owen Larter
Senior Director & Global Head of Frontier Policy, Google DeepMind
Miles Brundage
Executive Director, AI Verification and Evaluation Research Institute (AVERI)
Zico Kolter
Professor & Department Head of the Machine Learning Department at Carnegie Mellon University

Esteemed
Guests

The
Location

The Ashby Workshops will be hosted at the renowned Salamander Resort & Spa in Middleburg, Virginia, about an hour from Washington, DC. The invite-only summit will take place February 2-4, 2026.

Three days of mind-expanding, occasionally overwhelming, often illuminating and consistently galvanizing conversation. I left more convinced than ever that there is no time to waste. The AI revolution is an accelerating inevitability that needs input from communities of care like ours.
Todd Essig, Founder & Co-Chair, APsA Council on Artificial Intelligence (CAI)
An unbelievable gathering of ~180 movers and shakers in the AI policy world. I could have spent hours talking to every single person there—the group included a current and former member of U.S. Congress, heads of numerous think tanks and foundations, some of the world’s most prominent AI researchers and scholars, and representatives from some of the leading AI companies.
David Evan Harris, California Initiative for Technology and Democracy, Brennan Center for Justice, UC Berkeley
If you think this sounds like every other conference on AI… I think there’s two reasons it wasn’t: The conversation wasn’t dominated by ‘the usual suspects’ and the Fathom team did a remarkable job of creating time and space for conversations and connections among participants that might not otherwise occur.
Dennis Gleeson, former Director of Strategy for Analytic Technologies & IT Systems, Central Intelligence Agency

The Ashby Workshops 2025

In January 2025, Fathom hosted the inaugural Ashby Workshops at the Salamander Resort & Spa in Middleburg, VA, with leaders including:

Professor Yoshua Bengio
Founder and Scientific Director of Mila - Quebec AI Institute
Former Congressman Patrick McHenry
Senior Advisor at Lazard
President Tino Cuéllar
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Former U.S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith
CEO and Founder of shift7

Professor Lawrence Lessig
Harvard Law School
President and CEO Jason Matheny
RAND Corporation
Cofounder Jack Clark
Anthropic
Former Congressman & Administration Official Mick Mulvaney
Senior Advisor at McLarty Associates

Participants stepped beyond the familiar talking points that dominate AI policy debates to surface real technical and governance gaps in the AI ecosystem. These conversations led to tangible outcomes, including launching and advancing the Independent Verification Organizations (IVO) policy model—a new governance framework inspired by the academic work of Dr. Gillian Hadfield, Dean Ball, and other Ashby alumni, now being advanced in several U.S. states.

180

AI leaders across sectors

9 out of 10

said they would recommend Ashby to a peer

9 out of 10

found immense value in the connections made at the event

See what we discussed—and accomplished—during Ashby 2025 by reviewing our report.

Download the Full Report

FAQ

The Event

Why is Fathom hosting The Ashby Workshops?
Fathom is an independent 501(c)(3) dedicated to finding, building, and scaling the solutions needed for our transition to a world with AI.
We believe AI is the defining technology of our lifetime — but the pace and complexity of AI demand a different approach from traditional regulation alone. They require cross-sector collaboration, new governance models, and creative solutions that reflect the nuance and complexity of the technology’s impacts.
We are hosting The Ashby Workshops to generate, incubate, and realize solutions to the challenges uniquely posed by AI and to create a trusted environment where leaders can shape and test bold ideas together.
This invite-only convening brings together influential leaders from government, tech, academia, industry, civil society, and philanthropy to design bold, implementable solutions. We approach this challenge and opportunity with humility and a shared commitment to moving beyond surface-level debates toward tangible policy and technical outcomes.
We hope Ashby acts as a catalyst for long-term partnerships, uniting leaders who share a commitment to ensuring AI is developed and deployed in ways that uphold democratic values, strengthen public trust, and secure a thriving, innovative future.
Why is it called The Ashby Workshops?
W. Ross Ashby pioneered the field of cybernetics, the study of communication and automatic control systems in living organisms and machines. He posited the Law of Requisite Variety, which is as simple and straightforward as it is profound in its implications: The greater the complexity of a system, the greater the need for nuance and variety in its controls.
AI in society is precisely such a system — deeply complex, fast-moving, and impossible to manage with a one-size-fits-all approach. The Ashby Workshops embodies this principle, convening diverse stakeholder voices to develop governance solutions that are thoughtful, nuanced, innovative, and — most importantly — effective in bringing about a better AI future.
What is the goal of Ashby?
The Ashby Workshops are designed to turn high-level conversations about AI into concrete solutions and partnerships that can be realized in the real world. Our goal is to give influential leaders the time, space, and trust needed to tackle specific technical, policy, and societal challenges—and to leave with a shared path forward.
Through expert-led sessions, scenario planning, and collaborative workshops, participants work side-by-side to identify critical gaps, test new ideas, and refine proposals that can shape how AI is developed and governed.
Ashby aims to seed ongoing collaborations, policy models, and initiatives that continue long after the event.
How is Ashby different from other AI conferences?
The Ashby Workshops isn't merely an event—it's a platform for meaningful action, a catalyst for enduring relationships, and an incubator for breakthrough solutions that define the next chapter of AI.
Participants will tackle pressing questions raised by AI — the future of education, youth safety, job disruption, and the new AI economy, humanity in the time of AI, US leadership, and more, with a focus on practical, implementable outcomes. Our goal is not merely to discuss, but to actively drive forward initiatives that ensure the development of AI aligns with shared values and public trust.
Who will be there?
The Ashby Workshops is an invite-only gathering that brings together influential leaders with the expertise and authority to shape AI’s future. Attendees include prominent voices from government, tech, academia, civil society, and philanthropy, as well as sector experts in areas such as education, healthcare, finance, and national security etc.
Rather than simply bring together a mix of titles and sectors, our focus is on bringing the right people into the room—those who can work collaboratively to design and implement real solutions. Past participants have included Yoshua Bengio, Founder and Scientific Director of Mila - Quebec AI Institute; Former Congressman Patrick McHenry, Senior Advisor at Lazard; President Tino Cuéllar, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Former U.S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith, CEO and Founder of shift7; Professor Lawrence Lessig of Harvard Law School; President and CEO Jason Matheny of the RAND Corporation; Cofounder Jack Clark of Anthropic; and Former Congressman and Administration official Mick Mulvaney, Senior Advisor at McLarty Associates.
We will share a selection of confirmed speakers and workshop facilitators closer to the event.

When and where is the event?
Why the Salamander?
The Salamander Resort and Spa in Middleburg, Virginia, is a Forbes Five-Star resort known for combining luxury with a serene countryside ambiance just an hour outside Washington, D.C. The Salamander Resort was founded by Sheila C. Johnson, co-founder of BET, in 2013. It reflects her vision of combining luxury with natural beauty and sustainability. Over the years, it has become a destination for high-end travelers and executives and stands out thanks to its…
- Award-Winning Spa: The Salamander’s Spa is renowned as one of the best in the country. It offers various wellness services, including massages, facials, and holistic treatments.
- Equestrian Experiences: Middleburg is known as the nation’s horse and hunt capital, and the resort offers exclusive equestrian programs, from trail riding to lessons, providing a one-of-a-kind experience.
- Culinary Excellence: The on-site restaurants feature farm-to-table dining, offering gourmet meals crafted with local ingredients.
Why Middleburg?
We deeply value the time commitment our attendees are making for The Ashby Workshops, and we’ve carefully selected a location that balances convenience with comfort to provide the best possible experience. Set amidst the rolling hills of Virginia’s horse country, Middleburg offers a serene, retreat-like atmosphere that feels far removed from the busy world yet remains easily accessible from major urban centers.
Will sessions be recorded and shared after the fact?
Can I buy a ticket or sponsor the event?

The AshbyWorkshops

TheEvent