The Web was once for everyone. Thirty years ago, the Web was launched as an open, common, universal infrastructure that anyone with a computer and a modem could use to communicate, publish and access information. In recent years, however, it has radically diverged from the values upon which it was founded.

The medium that was designed to bring together the world’s information and support a plurality of voices—the many, without privileging the few—is increasingly dominated by a number of platform companies, who have established business models and built services that generate huge profits. There are increasing concerns of the concentration of powers that enable the dominance and controls of a few.

In this talk, Prof Ruben Verborgh, Visiting Fellow of the Oxford Martin Programme on Ethical Web and Data Architectures, will be joined by Prof Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Prof Sir Nigel Shadbolt, to discuss how new forms of technical and legal infrastructure are being developed and deployed to provide a more equitable and ethical treatment of individual users in the age of AI. They will outline the challenges of achieving better data autonomy, providing individuals with better rights to data privacy while enabling them to benefit from the exciting possibilities of digital innovations.