OPGDI Hosts International Symposium on AI, Society and the Humanities

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On 6–7 November 2025, the Oxford Prospects and Global Development Institute (OPGDI) hosted a two-day international symposium titled The Nexus of AI, Society and the Humanities: Towards Interdisciplinary Renewal at St Edmund Hall Oxford. The event brought together leading scholars from Oxford and partner institutions worldwide to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping society, culture, policy, and knowledge across disciplinary boundaries.

Opening the symposium, Dr Shidong Wang, Director of OPGDI, emphasised the urgency of interdisciplinary dialogue in an era of rapid technological transformation. Building on OPGDI’s earlier Technology, Society and Ethics series, the symposium examined AI’s growing impact on governance, identity, ageing, sustainability, and cultural heritage.

The workshop brings together leading scholars from the humanities, social sciences, economics, philosophy, data science, medicine, and public policy. Its central aim is to explore how AI reshapes knowledge production, social systems, governance structures, and human agency, while also identifying pathways for responsible innovation and ethical oversight. The programme is structured around five themed sections, including (1) AI and the social-humanities nexus, (2) health and technology, (3) AI-era governance and sustainability, (4) boundaries and agency in AI-mediated societies, (5) the safeguarding of cultural heritage and knowledge.

Oxford academics played a prominent role throughout the programme. Professor Bernie Hogan (Oxford Internet Institute) addressed the ethical and methodological trade-offs embedded in machine learning, while Professor David Clifton (Department of Engineering) presented advances in agent-based AI for medical applications. In the final session, Professor Kathryn Eccles (TORCH) explored the implications of AI for creativity and artistic practice, prompting lively discussion on authorship, originality, and cultural value in the age of intelligent systems. Dr Renaud Fourcard (University of Lancaster) explores the Social Importance of Being Stubborn in an AI-Driven Society. Professor Mohsen Mosle (Oxford Internet Institute) addresses on the Divergent Patterns of Engagement with Partisan and Low Quality News Across Seven Social Media Platform

Across five themed sessions, contributors examined interdisciplinary pathways linking AI with the social sciences, humanities, public policy, and environmental governance. Topics ranged from AI and complex social systems, ageing and wellbeing, and spatial governance, to philosophical perspectives on boundaries and the safeguarding of shared cultural heritage.

By convening scholars from diverse fields and global contexts, the symposium reaffirmed OPGDI’s commitment to fostering inclusive, ethically grounded, and internationally engaged research on AI and its societal implications.