The AI in Critical Sectors Research Group aims to explore one of the most significant challenges and opportunities of our time: The transformative potential and governance challenges of artificial intelligence as it integrates into high-stakes domains, such as transportation and mobility, healthcare and medical devices, energy management, autonomous weaponry, finance and legal practice, and supply chains, among others. These critical sectors underscore the duality of AI's promise: Unprecedented opportunities for innovation, growth, and development, paired with equally significant risks to safety, ethics, and societal stability.

This initiative adopts an interdisciplinary approach bridging law, technology, and policy to study the lifecycle of AI systems, from development and deployment to long-term societal impacts. By examining the regulatory frameworks, industry standards, and international agreements shaping critical sectors, the research seeks to address key questions: How can AI technologies enhance sector and macro-efficiency and safety without compromising privacy, security, and human rights? What principles should guide the regulation of AI in critical sectors to ensure resilience, equitable development, and sustainability? 

This Research Group addresses AI integration as a sector-specific endeavor. The integration of AI can take vastly different shapes depending on the deployment domain, as each sector presents unique risks, opportunities, and regulatory challenges. Regulations must be tailored to address these sector-specific risks while enabling innovation and development. Even the definition of critical sectors itself is constantly evolving as AI technologies advance and geopolitical dynamics shift, highlighting the need for ongoing adaptation and responsiveness in research and regulation.