Oxford Internet Institute

When access to frontier AI becomes a geopolitical switch In early June, within days of Anthropic launching Fable 5 and Mythos 5, the US government imposed export controls on the models, citing national security concerns. The decision prompted a wave of concern about Europe’s dependence on U.S. tech companies. Reporting suggests that the foreign-national restriction was not simply a targeted move against Europe, but a fast and legally available way to force a broader pause in access.

As part of the OII’s 25th Anniversary celebrations, Dr Andrew Graham, Prof Richard Susskind, OBE, Prof Bill Dutton, Prof Helen Margetts and Dr Vicki Nash join us to look back on the early days of the OII. Chair Dr Scott Hale, Director of the Oxford Internet Institute since January 2026.

The public is in all but name a shareholder of AI companies, and yet is promised little in return to justify subsidies given on their behalf. In our new working paper, “Optimising for happiness in EU technology policy to repay public subsidies for AI,” we set out a plan for this to change. Backlash against the AI industry is growing globally. In Europe, plans are afoot to lower ‘barriers to innovation’ for the sake of AI.

The OII’s Dr Fabian Stephany reflects on a recent LSE study that explored the relationship between remote work and AI automation pressure on specific job roles. Dr Stephany adds insights from his own work, arguing that the more commodifiable your work is, the more likely you will be competing with AI. On the flip side, for experts working in lockstep with AI and prioritising delivering their unique expertise, work quality and wages are likely to increase.

Researchers and DPhil students from the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, are set to attend the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) Conference on Fairness, Accountability and Transparency (FAccT) in Montréal, from 25-28 June 2026.

2026 marks 25 years of the Oxford Internet Institute. To celebrate this milestone, we’re holding a series of events throughout the year. We invite you to join our celebrations on the 15th June for this lecture and drinks reception. Abstract It’s easy to scoff at Facebook’s old mission to “connect the world,” but the stark reality is that many of us genuinely believed that the internet could be used to empower everyday people in new and uplifting ways. We were hopeful. We were also naive.

Skip down to main content Dr Victoria Nash, Associate Professor & Senior Policy Fellow, Oxford Internet Institute, warns that a social media ban risks leaving teenagers ‘protected’ but disempowered, cut off from news, learning and support at the very moment the UK is preparing to give 16-year-olds the vote.

A new systematic review by researchers from the OII’s Digital Ethics and Defence Technologies Research Group, comprising Antonia Toffert, Katharina Klotz, Huw Roberts, Cyril Birks and Professor Mariarosaria Taddeo, explains why. Drawing on an analysis of over 1,000 publications, the researchers find that the answer lies less in any single failing than in how the obstacles interact.

Skip down to main content Recorded: 5 Jun 2026 Speakers: With Dr Ewan Soubutts People’s relationship to ageing is often complex and situated in intimate social rituals that make our transfer into different life stages more manageable. Online personas and the way that we are perceived by others often force us to relinquish control of these rituals and succumb to labels placed on us through online discourse, that we may otherwise avoid.

Overview Why is this important? There are 107,000 looked-after children in the UK, many of whom face significant barriers to acquiring essential digital skills. As digital technologies increasingly underpin most aspects of daily life, from accessing public services and education, to banking and applying for jobs or housing, understanding how these young people acquire – or fail to acquire – digital skills is increasingly urgent.