Universities and the Future of Truth: AI, Free Speech, and Power
17th September 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM BST
At a time when artificial intelligence is reshaping how information is produced, distributed, and consumed, questions of truth, trust, and authority have become increasingly urgent. What happens when AI systems mediate public debate, generate knowledge, and influence what we see, believe, and share? How should universities respond to a world of contested expertise, information abundance, and growing distrust in institutions? Bringing together perspectives on technology, democracy, public discourse, and digital rights, this discussion will explore the role of universities in defending open inquiry, fostering critical thinking, and sustaining the conditions for informed public life.
Speaker Biographies
Rumman Chowdhury, PhD, is a globally recognized expert in responsible AI, governance, and algorithmic accountability. She is the CEO and founder of Humane Intelligence public benefit corporation, and the co-founder of Humane Intelligence, a nonprofit advancing community-driven AI auditing and evaluation. Appointed as the U.S. Science Envoy for Artificial Intelligence, she engages in global AI governance efforts with a focus on emerging markets. Previously, she led AI ethics teams at Twitter and Accenture, pioneering enterprise-level AI risk mitigation tools. Rumman is also a Responsible AI Fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center and a trusted advisor to international organisations on AI policy and ethics.
Jillian C. York is a writer and activist whose work examines the impact of technology on our societal and cultural values. Based in London, she is the Director for International Freedom of Expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a fellow at the Center for Internet & Human Rights at the European University Viadrina, a visiting professor at the College of Europe Natolin, and the author of Silicon Values: The Future of Free Speech Under Surveillance Capitalism (Verso 2021).
Jeffrey W. Howard is professor of political philosophy and public policy at University College London, where he is director of the Digital Speech Lab. He is co-editor of the journal Political Philosophy.
Dr. Emily Sullivan is Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh’s Department of Philosophy. She is the Co-Director of the Centre for Technomoral Futures in the Edinburgh Futures Institute and an Associate Editor for The British Journal of Philosophy of Science. In 2025 she was awarded the Herbert A. Simon Award from the International Association of Computing and Philosophy (IACAP) for outstanding research in computing and philosophy. She is currently the PI on an ERC Starting Grant (2025-2030) that conceptualizes and evaluates machine learning models across science and society as a type of toy model. In this project, she bridges epistemic and ethical issues in simple computational models with complex modern day machine learning models.
