What does it take for AI to be not only powerful, but worthy of trust? That question is my job. I'm a Responsible AI governance executive at Accenture, based in San Francisco. I lead enterprise Responsible AI strategy, governance engagements and agentic transformation for global organisations, advising senior executives on AI risk, regulatory readiness and trusted adoption.
I came to this by an unusual route. For two decades I studied how societies imagine intelligent machines: as a permanent researcher at the IDEAT-CNRS (France's National Center for Scientific Research) directing a research program on virtual environments and interactive systems, and as a tenured Associate Professor of Cinema and Digital Arts at the University of Montpellier, where I pioneered the study of AI and robotics in film and philosophy and taught over 2,000 graduate hours. I have been on statutory academic leave from that chair since 2011.
Then I built things. Commissioned by the Office of the President of New Caledonia, I authored the territory's Strategic Plan for Innovation and the Creative Economy, 40+ policy initiatives, designed a $40M School of Digital Media Design with twenty-plus partners, and conceived the agency created to run it. In San Francisco, I built the design and innovation organisation at the West Coast's largest healthcare marketing agency, delivering 350+ digital products for Amgen, Genentech, Novartis and Abbott across oncology, rare disease and gene therapy — an industry that has practised high-risk governance far longer than AI has existed. From 2019 to 2023 I founded and led Intelligent Story, advising corporations, governments and universities on Responsible AI, leading multi-stakeholder engagement for the Business Roundtable's Responsible AI Initiative and building Aivancity's executive portfolio from nothing: ten programs across ten industries, thirteen graduate courses.
I hold a Ph.D. in Arts and Art Sciences, Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, Summa Cum Laude; my dissertation Poietics of Transversalities argued that interdisciplinarity is constitutive of innovation, not incidental to it. Agrégée des Universités. Founding editorial board member, AI and Ethics (Springer Nature). Certified by MIT Sloan and MIT CSAIL in AI and Business Strategy, and by MIT in Machine Learning.
I was born in New Caledonia, a French territory in the South Pacific, and a great place to begin a life spent between worlds. Away from the desk I return to the water. I'm a CEDIP- and ANMP-certified Level 3 rescue diver and an underwater photographer, with work recognised by the Sony World Photography Awards, the International Photography Awards and the Arte Laguna Prize. Diving is not a hobby that contradicts the day job. It is 165 feet down, on a finite air supply, with a checklist you do not skip — the most literal risk management I practise.
Dr. Valerie Morignat holds a Ph.D. in Arts and Art Sciences (awarded Summa Cum Laude), a Masters of Research (awarded Summa Cum Laude) and a Masters of Fine Arts (awarded Summa Cum Laude) from the University of Paris I, Pantheon-Sorbonne. She was awarded two Merit Doctoral Fellowships by the Sorbonne University of Paris 1 and the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research for her research achievements.
She holds the French academic rank of "Maître de Conférences" (Tenured Associate Professor) since 2003 (she has been on statutory academic leave from that chair since February 2011). She holds the title of "Agrégée des Universités" after winning France's most competitive national teaching contest "Agrégation Externe".
She earned a certification in Responsible AI from Stanford University; two executive certifications from MIT Sloan School of Management and MIT CSAIL in "Artificial intelligence: Implications for Business Strategy", and from MIT in "Machine Learning: From Data to Decisions". She is also certified in "Design for Virtual and Augmented Reality" with the Interactive Design Foundation. She is a Level 3 Rescue Diver certified by CEDIP and ANMP International.