OxTalks is Changing
OxTalks will soon be transitioning to Oxford Events (full details are available on the Staff Gateway). A two-week publishing freeze is expected to start before the end of Hilary Term to allow all future events to be migrated to the new platform. During this period, you will not be able to submit or edit events on OxTalks. The exact freeze dates will be confirmed on the Staff Gateway and via email to identified OxTalks users.
If you have any questions, please contact halo@digital.ox.ac.uk
Ethics in AI Lunchtime Research Seminar: The ‘Public’, Disrupted: The Transformative Effects of Technology on Democracy
Digital and artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies are increasingly mediating our political and legal interactions. This is manifest, for example, in the ways in which judges and civil servants increasingly rely on algorithmic tools in their decision making, or in how political communications increasingly take place on, and are structured by, digital platforms. These technological developments have been the focal point of legal scholarship engaging with deep-seated puzzles about what is it that we gain and lose from the penetration of digital and AI technologies into political and legal spheres.
In this discussion, I will share my insights on the implications of these transformations for the notion of the ‘public’ as a fundamental category and unit of analysis. The project examines the role that the notion of the ‘public’ plays in democratic politics and jurisprudence, and how this role is obstructed when humans and human functions are replaced by machines. It illuminates the evolving triadic interplay between the ‘public’, democracy, and technology, and considers the ways in which these understandings set novel priorities for law in the regulation of digital and AI technologies.
Date:
4 February 2026, 12:30
Venue:
Schwarzman Centre/Remote
Speaker:
Dr Neli Frost (The London School of Economics and Political Science)
Organising department:
Faculty of Philosophy
Organisers:
Graham Bagley (Institute for Ethics in AI, University of Oxford),
Jacqueline Wright (Institute for Ethics in AI, University of Oxford),
Graham Bagley (Institute for Ethics in AI, Oxford),
Jacqueline Wright (Institute for Ethics in AI, University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address:
aiethicsevents@philosophy.ox.ac.uk
Part of:
Institute for Ethics in AI lunchtime seminars
Booking required?:
Required
Booking url:
https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=G96VzPWXk0-0uv5ouFLPkSnDR5rtD-ZKr9OdhFlXG41UMEM5MUxRVUJBUEcxRFdCVkc5OEZQODhDTS4u
Cost:
free
Audience:
Public
Editors:
Graham Bagley,
Jacqueline Wright
