What should AI actually do for us, rather than simply what can it do?

In this episode of Ethics and Innovation by Oxford+ brought to you by Equinox, host Susannah de Jager speaks with Dr Caroline Green, Director of Research at Oxford's Institute for Ethics in AI, about care as one of the defining ethical questions of the AI age. Caroline explains what care means inside a regulated social care system, why OpenAI and Anthropic have started borrowing the language of caregiving, and where she thinks that borrowing should worry us.

The conversation moves between the very specific and the very broad: carebots collecting data while they chat to residents, the Oxford framework that helps providers question technology suppliers properly, a week in Dharamsala learning how Tibetan communities use AI to preserve their language, and the civic AI work she is developing with Ambassador Audrey Tang. New Stanford research published this month found that people with smaller social networks who turn to AI companions for emotional support report lower well-being, which makes Caroline's warning about caring-sounding systems timely. Two phrases anchor the episode: serving, not harming, and connection, not convenience.

• (00:00) - Welcome to Oxford+
• (01:42) - What Care Actually Means
• (03:55) - Why Big Tech Has Adopted the Language of Care
• (05:53) - Job Displacement and the Doom Narrative
• (08:15) - Dharamsala, Monasteries and Tibetan Language AI
• (11:59) - What Makes Us Distinct as Humans
• (14:26) - The Oxford Framework for Responsible AI in Care
• (17:13) - Carebots and the Line between Task and Relationship
• (23:26) - Ageing Societies and the Rights of Older People
• (26:54) - Young People, Trust and Over-Reliance on AI
• (33:16) - Civic AI and the Ethics of Care
• (37:36) - Hope, Harm and the Civic Space

Dr. Caroline Green: Dr Caroline Emmer De Albuquerque Green is Director of Research and Head of Public Engagement at the Institute for Ethics in AI, University of Oxford, where she leads the Accelerator Fellowship Programme. She is one of the UK's leading voices on the responsible use of AI in health and social care. Caroline co-led the Oxford Project on the Responsible Use of Generative AI in Social Care and wrote its April 2025 white paper setting out a value-led approach, work that led to the AI in Care Alliance whose vision and priorities were agreed at the second AI in Social Care Summit in March 2026. She also leads Truth and Trust: AI and Young People, a research collaboration with the BBC announced in February 2026. Caroline holds an LLB from the University of Edinburgh, an MSc in Human Rights from the LSE, an MA in Investigative Journalism from City University and a PhD in Gerontology from King's College London.

Connect with Caroline 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 do you do when the technology arrives faster than the plan you wrote for it?

In this episode of Ethics and Innovation by Oxford+ brought to you by Equinox, host Susannah de Jager speaks with Professor Anne Trefethen, Professor of Scientific Computing at the University of Oxford and Trustee of the Alan Turing Institute, about leading a university through the arrival of generative AI. Oxford published its digital strategy in 2022, weeks before ChatGPT appeared, and Anne explains why it then took courage to stop, rethink planned investments and add the governance she had hoped to avoid.

The conversation moves from student adoption and equal access to what national resilience now means: sovereign capability, models we can trust because we know what they were trained on, and enough trained people to use them well. It lands in the middle of a live policy push, with the UK government expanding free AI training to reach 10 million workers by 2030.

Anne also makes the case for optimism, and for changing how we prepare graduates as entry-level work shifts. Useful listening for anyone setting AI strategy inside a large, complex organisation.

• (00:00) - Welcome to Oxford+
• (01:31) - A Career in Scientific Computing
• (02:41) - Oxford's First CIO and the Road to Digital
• (04:21) - When ChatGPT Overturned the Strategy
• (06:39) - Rethinking Investment and Governance
• (09:12) - Pilots, Rollout and Equal Access
• (12:57) - Hinton, Altman and the Race to Superintelligence
• (19:41) - The Turing as National Convener
• (22:02) - What Resilience Means in the Age of AI
• (25:45) - Sovereign Models, Distillation and Trust
• (28:57) - Sovereign Data Sets and British Values
• (36:18) - Entry-Level Jobs and the Next Generation

Connect with Anne 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.

Who really benefits when an innovation ecosystem succeeds?

In this episode of Ethics and Innovation by Oxford+ brought to you by Equinox, host Susannah de Jager talks to Dr Olga Kozlova, Director of Innovation and Engagement at the University of Oxford, about Equinox, Equitable Innovation Oxford, the regional partnership she has helped drive since its launch. Olga explains why Oxford wants to avoid repeating San Francisco's mistakes, where economic success sat alongside rising poverty and crime, and how Equinox is instead building a skills agenda, an inward investment unit and a founders' pledge to spread the benefits of growth more widely.

The conversation lands as the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor gains fresh momentum, with government plans to double funding and unlock up to £78 billion for the UK economy by 2035. Olga argues that Britain needs more national pride in its innovation strengths, and a clearer story about why Oxfordshire's growth should matter to everyone who lives there, not just those inside the university's walls.

• (00:00) - Welcome to Oxford+
• (01:13) - Introducing Equinox and Equitable Innovation
• (02:29) - Bringing Equity and Innovation Together
• (05:54) - Taking Stakeholders on the Growth Journey
• (06:38) - Focusing Equinox's Delivery Priorities
• (07:50) - Telling Innovation's Local Success Stories
• (09:07) - Opening Up Oxford's Communal Spaces
• (10:21) - Supporting Founders Outside the University System
• (12:31) - Building an Inward Investment Unit
• (16:34) - Backing the Ox-Cam Rail and Growth Corridor
• (19:59) - Keeping Sovereign Talent and Capital in the UK
• (22:32) - National Pride and Self-Belief

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.