The Future of the AI Summit Series: One Year Later
The Oxford Martin
AI Governance Initiative
The Challenge
Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to bring profound benefits to all. AI can improve medical care, legal services, education and scientific innovation. AI systems also have the capacity to improve the productivity of workers individually and of economies as a whole.
However, AI also has the potential for harms, such as displacing workers, reducing transparency, reinforcing societal biases, and threatening public safety. AI poses substantial risks both from unintended consequences and from deliberate misuse by malicious actors.
The social and political challenges posed by advanced AI are in the news daily, but rigorous work to understand these challenges and to deliver helpful interventions remains sparse. Furthermore, while the nature of future AI capabilities and their associated risks are difficult to predict, it is vital to analyse how we can safeguard against potential future harms now.
The Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative aims to understand and anticipate the lasting risks from AI through rigorous research into the technical and computational elements of AI development, combined with deep policy analysis.
The work will include understanding the form and frameworks of national and international AI regulation, exploring the technological feasibility of using AI and machine learning technologies themselves to facilitate the governance of AI, and investigating how the AI industry can and should cooperate with international institutions for public benefit. The Initiative’s research will then be used to support decision-makers from industry, government, and civil society to mitigate AI’s challenges and to realise its benefits.
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Ask an AI Expert with Professor Robert Trager
Professor Robert Trager, Co-Director of the Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative, answers pressing questions about the risks posed by AI and how effective governance can help shape its future.
publications
Agentic Inequality
Beyond alignment: Why robotic foundation models need context-aware safety
AutoControl Arena: Synthesizing Executable Test Environments for Frontier AI Risk Evaluation
Token Taxes: Mitigating AGI’S Economic Risks
Old Habits Die Hard: How Conversational History Geometrically Traps LLMs
Automated Interpretability-Driven Model Auditing and Control: A Research Agenda
A Blueprint for Multinational Advanced AI Development
Chain-of-Thought Hijacking
News
Europe’s AI Liability Wake-Up Call
Over the past few months, various AI companies disclosed incidents in which their AI agents, operating in supposedly contained environments, escaped those environments and gained unauthorised access to third-party infrastructure.
Flying blind into the AI age
Maike Osborne, Professor of Machine Learning and Co-Director of the Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative, and Dr Fazl Barez, Senior Researcher and Technical Director of the Initiative, argue that the question of the week – whether AI is slipping out of our control – cannot be answered with the measurement instruments we have, but that improving upon them offers a realistic path for reining in both AI and the companies that own it.
What Evidence Week Taught Us About Engaging with Parliament
Evidence Week, organised by Sense about Science, is designed to facilitate direct conversations between researchers and policymakers. Sami Wymes of the Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative describes their experience at this year's gathering.
Oxford researchers warn Parliament that the UK cannot rely on access to the world's most advanced AI
Oxford Martin School researchers told MPs this week that the UK cannot rely on continued access to the world's most advanced artificial intelligence systems, presenting new evidence to Parliament as AI sovereignty moves up the pollical agenda.
AI robots can go rogue – a researcher on how easily it happens
Earlier this year in Beijing, a humanoid robot crossed a half-marathon finish line in a blistering 50 minutes, 26 seconds.
Governing AI for the public good
Artificial intelligence is advancing at unprecedented speed, with growing influence over economies, societies and global security. The Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative (AIGI) is helping shape how governments and institutions respond, ensuring that the development of advanced AI systems delivers public benefit while managing systemic risk.
Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative Hosts Pre-Summit Dialogue in New Delhi
The Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative (AIGI) convened a high-level dialogue in New Delhi ahead of the India AI Impact Summit 2026.
Importance of AI international reporting regimes highlighted at key summits
May was a busy month for the Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative, with programme director Professor Robert Trager playing key roles at two leading AI summits in South Korea and Switzerland.
US Deputy Attorney General launches AI criminal justice initiative
America's Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Lisa O. Monaco announced the launch of the Justice AI initiative that focuses on the use of AI in the American criminal justice system.
Jobs will be automated, but not because of the latest Generative AI
Everyone is worried about Artificial Intelligence. From writers in Hollywood to computer programmers, recent advances in technology are causing concern about what Generative AI is going to mean for the future of work, our society and the wider world. Is there nothing machines will not be able to do?
Generative AI can potentially disrupt labour markets, say Oxford experts 10 years after ground-breaking study
Ten years ago, two experts in AI from the Oxford Martin School predicted that almost half of jobs were at risk of automation. In a new upcoming study, Professors Carl-Benedikt Frey and Maike Osborne now say that while Generative AI has increased the scope of automation further, it will also make many jobs easier to do for people with lower skills.
New programmes to focus on challenges of Net Zero, AI and critical metals
The Oxford Martin School has launched three new research programmes focussed on solving a diverse set of critical challenges: sourcing the critical metals needed for the energy transition, achieving global Net Zero, and managing the risks of Artificial Intelligence.