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AI and
board governance

How senior boardrooms in Silicon Valley are navigating the AI era, and why the real conversations happen off the record.

The Challenge

Boards are governing
what they don't yet understand

Artificial intelligence is moving faster than board governance frameworks were designed to handle. Directors are being asked to oversee AI strategy, AI risk, and AI-driven transformation, often without the peer networks or the candid conversations to do it well.

The problem isn't intelligence. The most sophisticated board directors in Silicon Valley are extremely smart people. The problem is access: honest conversations with peers navigating the same questions, without the agenda that comes with most public forums.

"The most useful conversation I've had about AI governance this year happened at a private dinner. That's not a coincidence. That's the format."
The Questions Boards Are Asking
  • →How do we establish AI governance without stifling innovation?
  • →What is the right level of board-level AI expertise versus management expertise?
  • →How do we evaluate whether management's AI strategy is sound?
  • →What liabilities does AI deployment create for directors personally?
  • →How do we govern AI risk in companies where AI is the product?
  • →What does responsible AI deployment look like, and who decides?
  • →How quickly is the competitive landscape changing under our portfolio companies?
The Forum Select Approach

The room where
directors speak honestly

Forum Select dinners regularly include sitting board directors from AI companies, enterprise technology firms, and venture-backed growth companies. Off the record, no attribution, no recordings. These are conversations boards need to be having, and can't have anywhere public.

Peer exchange

Director to director

The most valuable AI governance insights come from other directors who have already faced the same questions and made their own mistakes. Not from consultants.

Off the record

The candor premium

A board director can't speak honestly about their company's AI strategy in any public forum. The off-the-record rule is what makes Forum Select worth attending.

Operator perspective

C-suite in the same room

Forum Select brings board directors and C-suite operators to the same table. The AI governance conversation is far more useful when both sides hear each other's real concerns.

Key Topics at Forum Select

What gets discussed
at the table

Forum Select dinners do not have fixed agendas. The conversation goes where the room takes it. But certain topics recur because they are the defining questions of the AI era for senior executives and board directors:

  • AIAI strategy, build, buy, or partner?
  • AIAI risk and liability at the board level
  • AIAI and workforce transformation
  • AIAI in venture, what is actually fundable?
  • GovBoard composition in an AI-native company
  • GovResponsible AI, governance frameworks that work
  • GovRegulatory risk, US, EU, and global
  • GovAI and fiduciary duty, what directors owe shareholders
Join the conversation

Board directors
belong at this table

If you are a sitting board director navigating AI governance, and you believe you're a giver, Forum Select was built for you.

Apply for Forum Select What is Forum Select?

AI and Board Governance, Forum Select, Open Future Forum

Open Future Forum's Forum Select brings together board directors and C-suite executives to discuss AI governance, AI strategy, and the AI era in off-the-record private dinners in Silicon Valley. Topics include AI governance frameworks, board-level AI risk, AI strategy (build vs buy vs partner), AI regulatory risk, responsible AI, board composition in AI companies, fiduciary duty and AI. Members include sitting board directors of AI companies, enterprise technology firms, and venture-backed growth companies. Off the record, no attribution, Chatham House Rule. Founded by Murray Newlands.