MND
A work in progress
There was some inexplicable force that compelled me to study law. Another powerful force draws me back home to the bayou, and yet another urges me to venture onward and away. I find some connection here in writing about it all.
Education
Dr Jur (PhD equivalent), University of Passau 2023
JD (Juris Doctor), University of North Carolina School of Law 2008
BA Political Science (Minor: English), Louisiana Tech University 2005
Academic Appointments
Maastricht University
Assistant Professor of Private Law July 2023 – present
Faculty of Law
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Affiliations: Maastricht Law & Tech Lab; Maastricht European Private Law Institute
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Courses: Regulation of Artificial Intelligence, Data, & Digital Services; Introduction to Private Law; Private Law; Introduction to Law & Legal Reasoning; European Private Law; Legal Writing
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Lectures: Tort Law; Regulation of AI, Data, & Digital Services; Law & Technology (Honors+)
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Educational supervision: thesis supervision (LLB & LLM); supervision of student research assistants; student internship programme coordination and supervision; coordination and supervision teaching team (LLM)
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Doctoral research supervision: co-supervision of Olivia Merckx, From Consent to Connectivity: Navigating Health Data Governance in the Netherlands and Lyra Hoeben-Kuil, Am AI Right? Enhancing Access to Justice through AI
School of Business and Economics
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Courses: Legal Governance of Artificial Intelligence module in MBA Digital Business, Digital Strategy Programme
Leibniz Universität Hannover
Professor in International Artificial Intelligence Regulation (part time) beginning October 2026
Institute for Legal Informatics
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Courses: Comparative Artificial Intelligence Governance (LLM)
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Educational supervision: thesis supervision of LLM students
Penn State Dickinson Law
Post-Doctoral Researcher / Legal Researcher October 2022 – June 2023 / July 2022 – June 2024
EU Horizon Project CLASSICA
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Project work packages: WP8 Legal, Liability and Ethical Aspects (primary); WP2 Clinical validation preparation (ancillary); WP6 Communications, Dissemination & Exploitation (ancillary); WP5 Results Analysis (ancillary)
New York University
Acting Assistant Professor of Lawyering June 2021 – December 2023
School of Law
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Courses: Lawyering (JD)
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Lectures: Foundations & Comparative Regulations (MS Health Law and Strategy)
University of Passau
PhD Researcher & Lecturer January 2018 – March 2019
Chair of Common Law
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Courses: US Civil Procedure; eHealth Law; US Legal Research & Writing
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Lectures: Foundations & Comparative Regulations (MS Health Law and Strategy)
Legal Expertise
Bar Admissions
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State bar: State of Illinois, 2008; State of Louisiana, 2011
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Federal courts: US District Court Northern District of Illinois, 2010; US District Court Eastern District of Louisiana, 2011; US District Court Middle District of Louisiana, 2014; US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, 2019; US Supreme Court, 2019
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Legal Practice
Chicago, Illinois & New Orleans, Louisiana, USA August 2008 – April 2021
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Civil litigation in state and federal courts: jury and bench trials, appellate arguments, mediations, depositions, and administrative proceeding
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Represented businesses, governmental organisations, and healthcare providers; advised on regulatory compliance and risk management; represented the Louisiana Department of Health in administrative proceedings; provided constitutional law training for state court judges
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Pro bono: artists (IP and contracts), indigent civil litigants and criminal defendants, detained immigrant bond appeals​
Funded Research, Fellowships & Awards
EAES Surgical Video Data Governance | Co-Principal Investigator & Legal Working Group Lead
February 2026 – present
Co-lead for interdisciplinary project funded by European Association for Endoscopic Surgery (EAES) with surgeon Pietro Mascagni. Project phases include steering committee, legal scoping review, modified Delphi process, expert consensus meeting, and publication of EAES position statement
Understanding Empathic Housing: towards ethically and legally informed design solutions for automated household caretaking | Legal Researcher
November 2025 – present
Core team member for interdisciplinary project funded by Maastricht University-Radboud University Cooperation Grant to study ethical and legal implications of the use of AI in ‘smart homes’ for elderly, including appointment of joint post-doctoral researcher to develop network and project for further funding opportunities
HANDEL — Health Data Governance in the Netherlands and the EU | Principal Investigator
May 2025 – present
Lead for two-phase research project with external funding from Maastricht University Medical Center to examine health data governance. Phase 1 (complete): funded research investigating governance of regional health data exchanges. Phase 2 (ongoing): co-funded 4-year PhD project on health data governance implementation in Dutch hospitals and the EU
AI & Law Research Award — Miami Law & AI Lab, University of Miami | Award Recipient
January 2025 – July 2025
Project: Imposters: Unregulated Medical Advice from AI Chatbots in the US and EU
Regulation of LLMs for Health under AI Act | Principal Investigator
December 2024 – March 2025
Lead for project funded through Dutch MIT Knowledge Scheme for SMEs to investigate implications of the AI Act on LLM-driven health applications
Carnegie Award for Scholarship on AI and Liability | Finalist
November 2024
Article, The Autonomous AI Physician, discussed and named as award finalist on Carnegie Endowment Website, available here
Free the Law | PhD Supervision Team
October 2024 – present
Project funded by Dutch Research Council (NWO) exploring new avenues of using technology and AI to increase access to justice
HIGHTECH Agenda Bavaria Speinshart Healthcare Fellow | Invited Fellow
March 2024
Interdisciplinary working group and symposium on the theme, ‘Large Health Models: Building Transformers for Public Health’
CLASSICA — Validating AI in Classifying Cancer in Real-Time Surgery | External Collaborator (formerly Post-Doctoral Researcher & Seconded Research Team Member)
October 2022 – present
Ongoing collaboration with project Principal Investigator in project publications and conference presentations
Joachim Herz Fellowship — Bucerius Law School, Hamburg | Award Recipient
April 2022 – July 2022
Research on artificial intelligence and medical liability
German Chancellor Fellowship — Alexander von Humboldt Foundation | Award Recipient
August 2016 – December 2017
Comparative legal research on medical malpractice and healthcare risk management in the US and Germany
Publications
Books
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Negligent Risk Management in the United States and Germany (Hart forthcoming 2026)
Journal Articles
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Cahill RA, MacAonghusa P and Duffourc MN, ‘“Surgery is Thinking”: Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective for the AI Age’ (2026) Section Colorectal and Proctological Surgery Frontiers in Surgery online first
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Duffourc MN and Cahill RA, ‘Informed consent for medical AI’ (2026) AI & Society doi.org/10.1007/s00146-026-02940-y
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Duffourc MN and Cahill RA. ‘Legal implications of AI standard of care integration on patients' informed consent: lessons from surgery’ (2025) 9 npj Digital Medicine
Duffourc MN, Verhees FG and Gilbert S, ‘Artificial intelligence characters are dangerous without legal guardrails’ (2025) 10 Nature Human Behaviour 218
Duffourc MN, Private Law Design for New Technology: Retrofitting Unjust Enrichment for GenAI Liability (2025) 86 Ohio State Law Journal 196
Kinross JM, Lam K, Yiu A, Adams K, Altaf K, Burns E, Duffourc M, Eardley N, Evans C, Giannarou S, Hancock L, ‘The ACPGBI AI taskforce report: A mixed-methods roadmap for AI in colorectal surgery’ (2025) 27 Colorectal Disease e70232
Cahill RA, Duffourc M and Gerke S, ‘The AI-enhanced surgeon — integrating black-box artificial intelligence in the operating room’ (2025) 111 International Journal of Surgery 2823
Duffourc M, Mollebaek M, Druedahl LC, Minssen T and Gerke S, ‘Surgeons' Perspectives on Liability for AI Technologies in the US and EU: Results from a Focus Group Study’ (2025) 6 Annals of Surgery Open e542
Cahill RA, Duffourc MN and Gerke S, ‘Surgical Video Data: In, Out, or Shake it All About the Medical Record’ (2025) 281 Annals of Surgery 382
Duffourc MN, Gerke S and Kollnig K, ‘Privacy of Personal Data in the Generative AI Data Lifecycle’ (2024) 13 NYU Journal of Intellectual Property and Entertainment Law 219.
Elamin S, Duffourc M, Berzin TM, Geissler ME and Gerke S, ‘Artificial intelligence and medical liability in gastrointestinal endoscopy’ (2024) 22 Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology 1165
Duffourc MN and Gerke S, ‘Health care AI and patient privacy — Dinerstein v Google’ (2024) 331 JAMA 909
Duffourc MN and Gerke S, ‘Decoding US Tort Liability in Healthcare's Black-Box AI Era: Lessons from the European Union’ (2023) 27 Stanford Technology Law Review 1
Duffourc M and Gerke S, ‘Generative AI in health care and liability risks for physicians and safety concerns for patients’ (2023) 330 JAMA 313–4
Walsh R, Kearns EC, Moynihan A, Gerke S, Duffourc M, Corrales Compagnucci M, Minssen T and Cahill RA, ‘Ethical perspectives on surgical video recording: systematic review’ (2023) 7 BJS Open zrad063
Duffourc MN and Gerke S, ‘The proposed EU Directives for AI liability leave worrying gaps likely to impact medical AI’ (2023) 6 npj Digital Medicine 77
Duffourc MN, ‘Malpractice by the autonomous AI physician’ (2023) 2023 Illinois Journal of Law, Technology & Policy 1
Duffourc MN, ‘Are you my doctor? Defining the doctor-patient relationship in the global age of E-health’ (2019) 28 Tulane Journal of International & Comparative Law 311
Duffourc MN, ‘Filling voice promotion gaps in healthcare through a comparative analysis of error reporting and learning systems in the US and Germany’ (2018) 44 American Journal of Law & Medicine 579
Duffourc MN, ‘Repurposing the affirmative defense of comparative fault in medical malpractice cases to improve patient safety’ (2018) 16 Indiana Health Law Review 21
Book Chapters
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Duffourc MN, ‘AI-Driven Medical Devices and Defectiveness under the Proposed Product Liability Directive’ in Cauffman C, On AD and Oosterhuis J (eds), New Product Liability Directive: Doctrinal, Comparative and Interdisciplinary Approaches (Hart forthcoming 2026)
Breskaya M, van Dijck G and Duffourc MN, ‘The Product Liability Directive: Another Brick in the Wall’ in Cauffman C, On AD and Oosterhuis J (eds), New Product Liability Directive (Hart forthcoming 2026)
Duffourc MN, Goel R and Kennedy R, ‘Regulation of Consumer Safety Risks from AI Characters in the EU and US’ in Crea C, Infantino M (eds), Remedies to Digital Vulnerability in European Private Law (Springer forthcoming 2026)
Duffourc MN and Giovanniello DS, ‘The Autonomous AI Physician: Medical Ethics and Legal Liability’ in Sousa Antunes H and others (eds), Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence and the Law (Springer 2023)
Blogs, Preprints & Reports
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Hoeben-Kuil L, van Dijck G, Savelka J, Gunawan J, Kollnig K, Kolacz M, Duffourc M, Chakravarthy S and Westermann H, ‘Can LLMs Create Legally Relevant Summaries and Analyses of Videos?’ (2025) arXiv:2511.13772
Gerke S, Duffourc M and Simon D. CLASSICA deliverable 8.3 Liability Landscape. CLASSICA project (2025)
Duffourc MN, ‘The Withdrawal of the AI Liability Directive: A Critical Reflection on AI Liability in the EU, available’ (2025) Maastricht European Law Institute Blog
Duffourc MN, ‘Dissecting Tort Liability for AI-Driven Technologies in Surgery’ (2024) Maastricht European Law Institute Blog
Duffourc MN, Gunawan J and Cauffman C, ‘EU Regulation Update: The Digital Services Act (DSA) Now in Force’ (2024) Maastricht European Law Institute Blog
Duffourc MN and Haag M, ‘German Telemedicine for an American Patient: The validity of venue selection and choice-of-law clauses in international telemedical contracts’ (2018) Harvard International Law Journal Blog
Selected Cases From Legal Practice
Medical Liability
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Brown et al v Tucker et al, 22nd Judicial District Court, No 101197
Lead counsel representing nephrologist in medical malpractice trial requiring legal analysis of complex issues related to specialist standards of care and medical causation
Marshall v Touro Infirmary et al, Orleans Parish Civil District Court, Nos 2010-9464 cw 2013-2105
Defence counsel responsible for legal analysis of novel issue of statutory interpretation of Louisiana's medical malpractice damages cap considering legislative history and prior case law
Johnson v State of Louisiana et al, 15th Judicial District Court, No C-20145036
Defence counsel in medical negligence case concerning diagnosis and treatment for physiological condition and the patient's subsequent criminal act injuring a third party, requiring legal doctrinal analysis of foreseeability and intervening causes
SR v St Francis Medical Center et al, Louisiana PCF No 2013-01347 (Medical Review Panel)
Defence counsel in medical negligence claim requiring legal standard-of-care analysis for emergency medicine in a rural hospital with limited diagnostic equipment considering rare diagnosis and inter-facility patient transfer protocols
CC v St Francis Medical Center et al, Louisiana PCF No 2014-00368 (Medical Review Panel)
Defence counsel in medical negligence claim requiring legal analysis of physician-assistant scope of practice, physician delegation, and supervision standards within a multi-provider team
Constitutional Law
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Cain et al v White et al; Caliste et al v Cantrell, US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Nos 18-30955 & 18-30954 and Petition for Writ of Certiorari to United States Supreme Court
Lead counsel at trial and appellate levels representing state court judges in two consolidated constitutional challenges to state bail procedures requiring legal analysis of federal standing and due process doctrines; led successful revision of bail hearing protocol in contentious litigation
Carlisle v Normand et al, US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, No 18-30002
Appellate counsel responsible for analysis and oral argument on Eleventh Amendment state immunity in claims for prospective relief against state judicial administrators in official capacity; quasi-judicial immunity in individual capacity; and standing doctrine to address speculative injury, causation, and redressability
Moran v Landrum-Johnson et al, US Federal Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, No 19-cv-13553
Lead counsel representing state court judges in constitutional challenges to criminal proceedings requiring legal analysis of federal class certification requirements and standing doctrine
Tort & Contract Law
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Kent v Entergy Louisiana et al, Orleans Parish Civil District Court, No. 2019-177
Lead counsel representing general contractor in multi-party consolidated litigation requiring extensive discovery, motion practice, and alternative dispute resolution involving issues of contract, tort, and administrative law
Chicago Property Interests v. Broussard, Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 2015-CA-0299
Appellate counsel in Hurricane Katrina class action responsible for analysis, briefing, and oral argument involving issues of federal flood control law in state tort claims
Daniels v State of Louisiana, Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 2020-CA-0175
Trial and appellate counsel representing State Board of Education requiring analysis of existence of legal duties to provide oversight and supervision with respect to charter school operation
Henry v State of Louisiana, 24th Judicial District Court, Louisiana, No 781-258
Co-counsel in jury trial representing state in tort claim stemming from state employee negligence and involving post-trial interpretation of state law governing future medical expenses
Deonte Bellow v. All-Serv, 14th Judicial District Court, 2012-1414 B
Counsel in products liability action involving mechanical coupling failure requiring legal analysis of liability in complex supply chain, negligent performance, and intervening/superseding causes
Snider v ASF, US Federal Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, No 2:14-CV-02132
Lead pre-trial counsel in multi-party personal injury litigation in federal court on diversity jurisdiction requiring analysis of claims of negligent hiring; transitioned to academic appointment at NYU prior to trial
Domingue v Louisiana State Police Crime Lab, 19th Judicial District Court, No 636432
Counsel representing state crime lab in negligence claims requiring novel application of discretionary immunity doctrine to distinguish operational from policy-level decisions as applied to the adoption of forensic fire-debris analysis procedures
Mills v Buisson, 24th Judicial District Court, Louisiana, No 780-667
Counsel in state tort and contract action requiring legal analysis of derivative liability under contractual implied indemnity theory
Academic & Professional Service
University & Institutional Committees
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Maastricht University Faculty of Law Science Committee (2026 – present)
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Maastricht University Ethics Review Committee Inner City Faculties (ERCIC) (2025 – present)
External Advisory Boards & Taskforces
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Advisory Board, Responsible AI UK Keystone Project on Addressing Socio-technical Limitations of LLMs for Medical and Social Computing (PI: Professor Maria Liakata, Queen Mary University of London, 2024-present)
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Advisory Committee, KU Leuven PhD Project: An Interdisciplinary Research on Law and Ethics to Bridge Safe AI for All Patients (Eylem Karakaya, 2025-present)
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AI and Data Management Taskforce, Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland (ACPGBI, 2025)
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Taskforce on the European Approach to Liability for the AI Age, Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS, 2025)
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Advisory Board, II Legal SciComm Conference 2024, University of Coimbra Faculty of Law (2023-2024)
Peer Review
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Selected Journals: AI & Ethics; npj Digital Medicine (Springer Nature); The Lancet; eClinicalMedicine (The Lancet); European Journal of Risk Regulation (Cambridge University Press); Science (AAAS)
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Conferences: Computers, Privacy & Data Protection (CPDP) 2025; II Legal SciComm Conference 2024
Selected Presentations & Events
Recent Invited Speaking Engagements
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PERSONA Summer School, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, in July 2026
Lecture: ‘Comparative Perspectives — USA’ in EU-funded Jean Monnet Module PERSONA
Future of Surgery Festival, Royal College of Surgeons of England, Birmingham, in April 2026
Closing Keynote ‘AI on Trial’
Ministry of Social Affairs and Health of Finland & Council of Europe, Helsinki, May 2025
Moderator: Panel on Professional Responsibilities and AI Systems at Conference on AI healthcare and human rights: supporting patients, enabling doctors, safeguarding the therapeutic relationship
EAES Rising Stars Academy: Resilience in Surgery, April 2025 / April 2026
Lecture: Medico-legal issues in surgery
LiaNs Seminar Series, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, February 2025
Presentation: AI Liability in Healthcare: Comparing U.S. and EU Legal Frameworks & Surgeon Perspectives
UCD Centre for Precision Surgery, Dublin, November 2024
Presentation: Legal considerations for AI in Surgery at Conference on Computer Aided Surgery & AI
EUTOPIA Summer School: Digital Health Technology, Brussels, June 2024
Lecture: Liability for AI in Medicine
Justice, Fundamental Rights and AI (JuLIA) Project Event, Trento, January 2024
Presentation: AI liability in the health sector and the protection of health as a fundamental right
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Selected Conference Presentations and Organisation
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Health Data Research Event, Maastricht, February 2026
Organization of interdisciplinary conference
Presentation: Comparative perspective on secondary use of health data in the UK
2025 International Conference on Robot Ethics and Standards (ICRES), Porto, July 2025
Presentation: Regulating Safety of AI Medical Devices under the AI Act and Medical Device Regulation
2025 EAES Congress, Belgrade, June 2025
Presentations: AI in Surgery: Liability Issues; Who takes the blame when AI fails: Machine, surgeon, or system
AlgoNomy Conference, Robotica Festival 2025, Pisa, May 2025
Presentation: Informed Consent and the Impact of AI on Patient–and Physician–Autonomy
Digital Vulnerability in European Private Law (DiVE), Trieste, April 2025
Presentation: Hi-Tech Toxicity: Regulating AI characters on the EU market at Conference on Remedies to Digital Vulnerability in European Law
Workshop on Governing or governed by online platforms?, Maastricht, February 2025
Presentation: The dangers of unregulated AI characters on the EU market
Maastricht European Private Law Institute (M-EPLI) Research Talk, November 2024
Presentation: Tort Liability for AI-Driven Technologies in Surgery
M-EPLI Product Liability Directive Conference, Maastricht, October 2024
Presentations: The New Product Liability Directive: Another Brick in the Wall; AI-Driven Medical Devices and Defectiveness under the Proposed Product Liability Directive
2024 Congress of European Association for Endoscopic Surgery, Maastricht, June 2024
Presentation: AI in Surgery – liability issues
2024 Computers, Privacy & Data Protection (CPDP), Brussels, May 2024
Workshop Organization: AI on Trial: A Cross-Examination of AI “Expertise
Recent Podcasts, Videos & Webinars
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Webinar: Belgium AI Week, Robotics & AI Law Society (RAILS) on AI Liability, March 2025
Podcast: Digital Legal Lab Podcast, guest on episode Project CLASSICA: Validating AI in classifying cancer in real-time surgery, available here, January 2024
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Podcast: Digital Legal Lab Podcast, host for episode Pervasive Computational Law w/ Dr. Aurelia Tamò-Larrieux & Dr. Clement Guitton, available here, November 2023
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Video: research discussion, Felix Aigner and Mindy Nunez Duffourc explore the intersection of AI and law in the operating room, available here, May 2023