What if the biggest barrier to justice is not the law itself, but who can reach it?

In this episode of Oxford+, part of the Ethics and Innovation miniseries sponsored by Equinox, host Susannah de Jager speaks with Professor Philippa Webb, co-founder of the Oxford Institute of Technology and Justice, about whether artificial intelligence can close the global justice gap rather than widen it. Philippa explains why only a small fraction of people who need a lawyer can access one, how her team is building legal tools for women and girls in Malawi, and why judges in Brazil and Argentina are already teaching themselves to code and building their own agents.

The conversation also confronts the risks. Deepfakes are now trivially easy to produce, digital evidence is piling up unused in atrocity prosecutions, and 130 states have suffered cyber attacks. With the World Economic Forum reporting that 87% of organisations see AI-related vulnerabilities as the fastest-growing cyber risk, Philippa makes the case for legal routes to accountability, better training, and closing the perception gap that still keeps AI out of the courtroom.

• (00:00) - Welcome to Oxford+
• (01:55) - A Career Across Academia and Practice
• (03:33) - Inside the Oxford Institute of Technology and Justice
• (06:19) - Cyber Attacks, Critical Infrastructure and Accountability
• (10:00) - The Digital Evidence Gap in Atrocity Crimes
• (13:22) - Training Judges, Prosecutors and Defence Counsel
• (16:18) - How Easy It Is to Make a Deepfake
• (19:32) - The AI Justice Atlas and Courtrooms Worldwide
• (21:48) - Building a Fair Trial Advisor for Judges
• (25:48) - Malawi, a Legal Desert and a Testing Ground
• (33:47) - Protecting Journalists in the First 48 Hours
• (38:50) - What the Institute Needs Next

Connect with Philippa on LinkedIn

Susannah de Jager: Susannah is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience in UK asset management. She has worked closely with industry experts, entrepreneurs, and government officials to shape the conversation around domestic scale-up capital.

Connect with Susannah on LinkedIn and Subscribe to the Oxford+ Newsletter for Exclusive Content

Oxford+ is hosted by Susannah de Jager and supported by Mishcon de Reya, HSBC Innovation Banking, and James Cowper Kreston.

Produced and Edited by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford.

What do our conversations with machines reveal about what it means to be human?

In this episode of Ethics and Innovation by Oxford+ brought to you by Equinox, host Susannah de Jager speaks with Professor Edward Harcourt, Director of Oxford's Institute for Ethics in AI, about the parts of human life that no algorithm can reproduce. Edward argues that the real risk of chatbots is not that they reshape social life, but that people mistake them for something real.

Recorded as the UK government confirmed a ban on social media for under-16s from spring 2027, the conversation moves from embodiment and mortality to attachment theory, pluralism and the limits of machine minds. Edward warns of two quieter dangers: cognitive atrophy, as we outsource our thinking, and social atrophy, as we trade human contact for efficiency.

Edward Harcourt: Edward Harcourt is Director of the Institute for Ethics in AI at the University of Oxford, where he is also Professor of Philosophy and a Fellow of Keble College. His work sits at the boundary of ethics and the philosophy of mind, and his research at the Institute focuses on AI and humanity: how human values should shape the design, governance and use of AI, and what philosophical reflection on AI reveals about what is unique to human beings. From 2018 to 2022 he was Director of Research, Strategy and Innovation at UK Research and Innovation's Arts and Humanities Research Council, where he helped develop its Bridging Responsible AI Divides (BRAID) programme. He is the editor of Attachment and Character (Oxford University Press, 2021) and has written widely on moral psychology, child development and Wittgenstein. He was appointed MBE.

Connect with Edward on LinkedIn

Susannah de Jager: Susannah is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience in UK asset management. She has worked closely with industry experts, entrepreneurs, and government officials to shape the conversation around domestic scale-up capital.

Connect with Susannah on LinkedIn and Subscribe to the Oxford+ Newsletter for Exclusive Content

Oxford+ is hosted by Susannah de Jager and supported by Equinox.

Produced and Edited by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford.

What if AI could strengthen democracy instead of concentrating power?

In this episode of Ethics and Innovation by Oxford+ brought to you by Equinox, host Susannah de Jager speaks with Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s Cyber Ambassador and former Digital Minister, about civic AI, digital democracy and the practical alternatives to extractive big tech models. Audrey explains why data should be treated as soil, not oil, and how smaller, community-shaped models can serve families, cities and nations without forcing everyone into a single technological dependency.

The conversation moves from Taiwan’s pandemic response to deepfake fraud, social media portability, local Kami models and the 6-Pack of Care, offering a hopeful but grounded vision for AI governance. Recent reporting on Taiwan’s anti-fraud work shows why this matters now: Audrey has said Taiwan’s civic AI approach helped reduce deepfake scams by more than 94%, as reported by MIT Solve.

For policymakers, founders and citizens, this episode asks a practical question: how do we design AI systems that increase participation, transparency and trust, rather than deepening dependency, polarisation and surveillance?

• (00:00) - Welcome to Oxford+
• (01:13) - Audrey Tang’s Role in Taiwan and Oxford
• (03:16) - Data as Soil, Not Oil
• (05:14) - Replacing Rage Algorithms with Consensus
• (09:10) - Community Notes and Commercial Bridge-Building
• (13:00) - Singleton Models, Kami and Local AI
• (17:19) - Sovereign Models and Technology Dependency
• (22:29) - Building Trust Around Public Data
• (27:34) - Transparency, Data Altruism and Shared Purpose
• (31:16) - The 6-Pack of Care
• (33:45) - Barriers to Civic AI Adoption
• (36:58) - Rewilding the Web

Connect with Audrey on LinkedIn

Susannah de Jager: Susannah is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience in UK asset management. She has worked closely with industry experts, entrepreneurs, and government officials to shape the conversation around domestic scale-up capital.

Connect with Susannah on LinkedIn and Subscribe to the Oxford+ Newsletter for Exclusive Content

Oxford+ is hosted by Susannah de Jager and supported by Equinox.

Produced and Edited by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford.