In the absence of an announcement from the FTC, Fordham University has announced the appointment of Olivier Sylvain as a senior advisor to FTC Chair, Lina Khan.  Sylvain’s appointing further points to Chair Khan’s priority to look closely at technology issues, including the use of artificial intelligence.

The Fordham announcement says that

Olivier Sylvain, a professor of communications, information, and administrative law, and the director of the McGannon Center for Communications Research and the academic director of the Center for Law and Information Policy, has been named a senior advisor to [FTC] Chair Lina Khan.  During his appointment to the FTC, Sylvain will advise on rulemaking and emerging tech, among other issues.

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[Olivier has also written about] the social impacts of artificial intelligence…Olivier teaches legislation & regulation, administrative law, information law, U.S. data protection law & privacy, and information law-related courses. At Fordham, he has been the Director of the McGannon Center for Communications Research, the Academic Director of the Center for Law and Information Policy, and a research affiliate at the Center on Race, Law, and Justice. Before entering academia, Olivier was a Karpatkin Fellow in the National Legal Office of the American Civil Liberties Union in New York City and a litigation associate at Jenner & Block, LLC, in Washington, D.C. Until September 2021, he was the Board President of the ACLU’s New York affiliate and sat on the Academic Advisory Board for the Open Markets Institute and the Advisory Committee for the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative.

Sylvain’s writings include Sylvain, Olivier, Recovering Tech’s Humanity (November 1, 2019). Columbia Law Review, Vol. 119, 2019; Sylvain, Olivier, Intermediary Design Duties (March 1, 2018). 50 Connecticut Law Review 203 (2018), Fordham Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2997141.