Autonomous AI Policy Summit Materials
Thank you for joining Penn LDI and Penn Medicine for our co-hosted policy summit on September 28th and 29th in Philadelphia. This website is intended as a resource for participants. If you need assistance with anything, please contact Katie Milholin (kmilholi@upenn.edu) and Caleb Hearn (clbhearn@upenn.edu).
Pre-work
As an expert on AI, your responses to our pre-work will be essential to structuring our discussions. Please complete the short exercise by Wednesday, September 23, 2026.
Shared Goals
Fully autonomous AI in healthcare is increasingly technically feasible and has the potential to address access challenges, improve care delivery, and advance care innovation. This convening aims to identify practical policies and actions that advance autonomous AI in health care safely and equitably without stifling innovation, and to foster connections and collaborations that move those ideas forward.
Scope
For the purposes of the summit, we are focused on health-system embedded “level five” or “highest risk” autonomous AI. Specifically, we are referring to “autonomous decision making (prescribing, treating, test ordering, diagnosis) by algorithms without human intervention.” (See Exhibit 2 here.)
Agenda
Detailed agendas will be provided when we meet.
Monday, September 28, 2026
Join colleagues from across the country for a meal and mingling. Both venues are within a short walk of The Study hotel.
6:00 p.m. Dinner at the White Dog Cafe, 3420 Sansom Street
8:00 p.m. NFL football watch party at The Post, 129 S 30th St
Tuesday, September 29, 2026 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Location: Penn Center for Advanced Medicine, 15th Floor
8:30: Breakfast
Welcome, Introductions, and Summit Overview
Session 1: What are the pre-deployment standards and processes needed for safe and equitable autonomous AI progress and who should be responsible?
Session 2: What are the post-deployment standards and processes needed for safe and equitable autonomous AI progress and who should be responsible?
12:30 p.m. –1:00 p.m. Lunch
Session 3: Breakout 1 (Four groups to be assigned)
Session 4: Breakout 2 (Same groups as above)
2:45 – 3:00 p.m. Closing reflections and next steps (whole group)
Participants
Thank you for contributing to this effort. A full list of participants and short bios can be found here.
Resources
Primary reading
A Five-Level Path To AI Automation In Health Care
The AI Clinical Services Act: A Pro-Innovation Framework for Healthcare Access and Safety
Other Relevant Publications
Aligning AI Payment Policy With Desired Outcomes Rather Than Inputs May Require Customized Pathways
Software as a Medical Practitioner—Is It Time to License Artificial Intelligence?
Lessons for Local Oversight of AI in Medicine From the Regulation of Clinical Laboratory Testing
Risk, Accountability, and the Clinician’s Role in the Artificial Intelligence Era
Regulatory Sandbox Playbook, Coalition for Health AI