Predicting the Next AI Disaster: Risk, Impact and Regulatory Cycles

Periods of deregulation often end abruptly, with crises that reshape the rulebook. Today’s light-touch approach to AI mirrors past cycles in finance and privacy: the 2007–08 banking crash triggered sweeping financial reforms, and Snowden’s revelations accelerated the development of the GDPR. History suggests that another era-defining incident—AI-driven or AI-enabled—is likely to provoke the next wave of global regulation. This session will bring together policy and industry experts to forecast what that moment might be. Panelists will consider a series of plausible near-term AI “disaster” scenarios - from data-integrity failures and deep-fake manipulation to systemic model bias or infrastructure misuse - grading each by impact and likelihood. They will debate which events could most realistically shock governments into renewed regulatory zeal, and what early warning signs companies should watch for. Attendees will leave with a richer understanding of AI risk cycles, practical methods to anticipate policy shifts and strategies to position compliance and governance programmes before the next crisis hits.

What you will learn:

• Identify repeating regulatory cycles and how crises trigger new governance waves. 
• Evaluate potential AI-related disaster scenarios by impact and likelihood. 
• Prepare internal risk, compliance and policy teams for the next inflection point in AI regulation.