Noah Feldman
Renowned Harvard Law Professor
Noah Feldman
Renowned Harvard Law Professor
Biography
Harvard law professor, public intellectual, prolific writer and a leading AI ethicist & tech advisor, Noah Feldman is considered one of the great minds and speakers of our time. Described as "one of the country’s most sought-after authorities," and “a public intellectual for our time,” Feldman was named to Esquire’s list of the 75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century and has been called a “legal rock star” by the Wall Street Journal and "one of the stars of his generation" by Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan.
Specializing in the intersection of artificial intelligence, technology, governance, ethics and the law, Feldman has spoken to audiences of thousands on stages around the world, from China and India to Europe, the Middle East, and every major city in the United States. He's spoken at many of the world's best known conferences and summits, including TED's mainstage (twice!), the Aspen Ideas Festival, Chautauqua, the Sun Valley Writers Conference, the Council for Foreign Relations, the 92nd St Y, and many, many talks for YPO. He's given lectures at Yale, Princeton, Stanford & Cambridge Universities, as well as dozens of other colleges and universities around the world. He addressed a global audience of 13 million as an expert in Donald Trump's impeachment hearings, where he was the first speaker. He's appeared as an expert dozens of times on CNN, Good Morning America, MSNBC, The Colbert Report, Charlie Rose, Anderson Cooper 360, Fareed Zakaria GPS, among many other news programs.
He is the author of 10 critically acclaimed nonfiction books, including Divided By God, What We Owe Iraq, Cool War, Scorpions, The Three Lives of James Madison, Arab Winter, The Broken Constitution, and his latest, To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People. A widely read policy & public affairs columnist for Bloomberg Opinion, Feldman also writes for The New York Review of Books and was a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine for nearly a decade.
In 2021 Feldman founded Ethical Compass Advisors, which helps technology clients like Meta (Facebook), eBay & Tiktok, and major AI startups improve ethical decisionmaking by creating and implementing innovative new governance solutions. He conceived and architected the Facebook Oversight Board, and continues to be at the forefront of the conversation around the AI revolution - and what individuals, businesses, the government and society need to do to ensure a safe transition.
Feldman has been the well-respected host of the Deep Background podcast, an interview show that explores the historical, scientific, legal and cultural context behind the biggest stories in the news, with a focus on ethics & power. He has interviewed luminaries & thought leaders like the NYT’s Nikole Hannah-Jones, author Malcolm Gladwell and Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin.
At age 32, Feldman served as senior constitutional advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, and subsequently advised members of the Iraqi Governing Council on the drafting of Iraq’s interim constitution. At 42, he advised the Tunisian constituent assembly on the design and drafting of their post-Arab Spring constitution.
Earning his A.B. summa cum laude from Harvard, Feldman finished first in his class. Selected as a Rhodes Scholar, he earned a D.Phil. from Oxford University, writing his dissertation on Aristotle’s Ethics. Feldman received his J.D. from Yale Law School, and clerked for Justice David Souter of the U.S. Supreme Court. He was a Junior Fellows of the Society of Fellows at Harvard, a professor at the NYU School of Law, and an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Feldman currently serves as Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Chair of the Society of Fellows, and founding director of the Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law, all at Harvard University.
He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with his fiance and two teenage children.
Speaker Videos
The Three Lives of James Madison: A Constitutional Conversation with Noah Feldman
Harvard Polymath Noah Feldman on Deep Focus and Flow for Hyper-Productivity
Hamilton vs. Madison and the birth of American partisanship
Revolution | Noah Feldman | TEDxUChicago 2012
HLS Library Book Talk | Noah Feldman's "The Three Lives of James Madison"
Prof. Noah Feldman: The Judiciary Crisis in Israel
Noah Feldman’s full opening statement | Trump's first impeachment
Speech Topics
Who’s in Charge Here? AI & the Future of Humanity
It’s rule or be ruled - we have to govern AI. How to regulate AI for safety and fairness? How our AI ethics around AI or lack of them will determine the future? Who should be in charge of AI regulation?
Responsible Disruption: How to Make AI Work for Us So We Don’t Work for It
The demands – and risks – of disruptive technological innovation. When everyone else is jumping off the building, wear a parachute. How to innovate responsibly by establishing guardrails and principles? Taking consequences seriously to achieve responsibility.
Lessons for the AI Revolution: The Historical Do’s & Don’ts of World-Breaking Technologies
Your guide to the AI revolution. Learning from past efforts to control and moderate transformative tech. How to avoid the AI-pocolypse and keep AI from going off the rails. Ethical responsibility for business leaders in the age of AI.
How AI Can Make Better Humans – and How to Make Sure It Doesn’t Make Worse Ones
AI will teach us why it matters to be human. What’s so great about people? Redefining ethics for the AI era. Who’s human now? Bots, people, and relationships. Tech ethics will shape the future of AI.
To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel & the Jewish People
What does it mean to be a Jew? As intermarriage, political upheaval, and new forms of spirituality spread, venerable answers to this question have become unsettled. In this speech, Noah Feldman draws on his Jewish studies scholarship and his religious education to offer a new account of Judaism in its contemporary varieties. How have Jews understood their relationship to God, to Israel, and to each other―and lived their lives accordingly? Feldman clarifies what’s at stake in the choice of how to be a Jew, and discusses the “theology of struggle” that lies at the heart of Jewish belief (and unbelief).
Books & Media
Books
To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People
The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President
Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices
Divided by God: America's Church-State Problem--and What We Should Do About It
After Jihad: America and the Struggle for Islamic Democracy
Cool War: The United States, China, and the Future of Global Competition