GW Law student Eren Karaburun, Class of 2028, came to law school with the mission to be a part of shaping how the law regulates artificial intelligence.
In his 1L year, he used that passion to build Applas.ai, a gamified job-tracking platform for students navigating stressful job searches, and establish GW Law’s first AI Forum. He’s now the Founder and Executive Director of the forum, which he sees as not only a benefit to his privacy and technology law education but a way to improve his leadership skills.
In its first year, the AI Forum has brought together GW Law students, AI users and skeptics alike, to discuss the ramifications of AI, its potential uses in the legal profession, government regulation of AI, and much more.
“When the history of this moment is written, I want to have stood with the people and institutions that helped make this technology work alongside humanity instead of against it,” Karaburun said.
Read the full conversation below.
Why did you decide to go to law school?
I’ve always been interested in how narratives shape people’s decisions. At NYU, I studied law, ethics, history, and religion, and wrote my senior thesis on AI-enabled disinformation campaigns during election cycles. I was troubled by how the world’s newest technology is governed by doctrine written decades before it existed.
In my thesis, I argued that the best defense against AI-driven manipulation is data privacy regulation. If we cannot control how people use AI, particularly open-source models, we can at least control what it knows about us. The tools will always evolve faster than any rule about how they may be used. The law can guard the data that makes manipulation possible, or at least accessible.
Writing that thesis made my calling clear. Like nuclear energy, AI can be used for tremendous good or tremendous harm. It can democratize information and opportunity, or it can entrench the power and inequality we already live with. When the history of this moment is written, I want to have stood with the people and institutions that helped make this technology work alongside humanity instead of against it. And because you cannot solve problems in a system you don’t understand, I applied to law school.
Why did you choose GW Law?
GW Law has an esteemed faculty, a diverse student body, and proximity to the institutions shaping the world we live in. It also sends more students into government service than many other law schools in the country. Most law students read about the institutions that govern us; at GW, I pass them on my commute to class and see peers go on to shape the work of agencies, courts, and Congress. And the chance to sit in on a Senate hearing between classes or speak directly with national policymakers was a major draw.
The Northeast Corridor also keeps me a train ride from my family in the New York area. And, not insignificantly, GW Law admitted me two weeks after I applied. I had written my application about AI and democracy, so that quick yes told me the school cared about the same questions I did.
How did the idea to start the AI Forum come about?
I have a perpetual entrepreneurial itch. After going through firm recruiting as a 1L, I saw a gap in the tools available to students navigating the stress of the job search. I built Applas.ai, a gamified job-tracking platform with built-in mindfulness features, to help fill it. I saw a similar gap in how law students engage with AI. Students who arrive unfamiliar with the technology or wary of it need a place to ask questions and form their own views. I wanted to create that place, especially for skeptics, whose questions can challenge assumptions that proponents might otherwise leave unexamined.
GW Law’s technology law curriculum, faculty, and programming are among the best in the country. I wanted to spark curiosity, make room for different perspectives in the discussion, and connect interested students with GW Law’s technology law resources. That includes students who have never considered technology law, as well as those who distrust AI entirely.
The Forum functions as an on-ramp for the curious and a platform for the critics. When skeptics and proponents share ideas under the same roof, they learn from one another. Together, we can approach AI as every major societal issue should be approached: holistically, transparently, and without a presumption in favor of either adoption or rejection.
What sort of impact do you hope the AI Forum will have on the law school and the students participating?
In our first year, more than 150 students, skeptics and proponents alike, signed up for our newsletter. Our events have also drawn students from GW’s engineering, medical, and public policy schools. At our student symposium, student authors present their notes to peers, helping build institutional knowledge for future members. In focus groups, tool providers demo their products and hear candid feedback from a diverse range of students. At public forums, students join guided discussions, and we share what we learn with the university to help shape its curriculum and policies. Practitioner panels tackle current legal questions, from federal preemption to surveillance, the subject of our upcoming session.
When someone tells us they hate AI or refuse to use it, our answer is always the same: share your thoughts at the Forum. Whether you want to wield this technology or challenge it, you first have to know how it works and how it is being used today.
An idea that has never met its critics has never been tested. The forum brings AI proponents, skeptics, and students still figuring out what they think into the same room. We are not trying to force everyone to agree; we want students to confront ideas they might not otherwise hear, test their own assumptions, and form views beyond an echo chamber. Future lawyers and policymakers will have to engage with people who see these issues differently and make decisions that affect everyone. The Forum gives students a place to start practicing that now.
To date, two other law schools have reached out about creating their own AI forums. We hope what started at GW Law becomes a national movement of students claiming a voice in the decisions that will shape their profession.
What have you learned through the process of creating the forum?
Above all, creating the Forum has taught me how to be a better team leader. Between undergrad and law school, I worked in the United Nations’ Digital Government Branch during a period of budget cuts and a hiring freeze. Even as an intern, I was trusted to manage teams and projects with limited resources under tight deadlines. I brought that experience to the Forum, but I’m still learning how to best lead a team that’s building something new and is willing to try different approaches to everything from marketing to event formats.
I work with a brilliant executive board, and part of my role is making sure everyone has a real say in the Forum’s direction while helping us move forward on an uncharted path. We test ideas, see what works, and change what doesn’t. If we never try a different approach, we might miss a better one. Even when something doesn’t work, we learn from it.
That openness shapes how we make decisions internally as well. Rather than having a president and vice president, we have three directors. Decisions about the Forum’s direction need the support of at least two directors, often after an open discussion with the entire executive board. That process gives everyone a chance to shape the work and gives us more confidence in our choices because we move forward as a team.
The big takeaway is that people take pride in what they help build. I often think about ubuntu, a Southern African philosophy commonly expressed as “I am because we are.” That captures how I feel about the Forum: what we’ve built reflects the people who shape it.
What advice do you have for students looking to get involved or start an organization?
Find bright, hard-working people who buy into the mission. A proverb I come back to often: “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.” That’s especially true when you’re trying to build something new within a historic institution and a profession built on precedent. The road less traveled requires patience, creativity, and an exceptional team. You need teammates who will stick with it and advisors who know the institution and can help you find a way forward when obstacles arise.
To learn more about the Forum, visit our Linktree. Bring your questions and your doubts. To our E-board and our advisors, Professor Anita Singh and Raphael Jackson-Ortiz: thank you.
