Nobody Knows How AI Works? | On the Risks of Ethical Disclaimers and the Opportunity to Rethink the Human

Nobody Knows How AI Works?

On the Risks of Ethical Disclaimers and the Opportunity to Rethink the Human

Friday 22 May 2026, 2.00pm - 3.30pm

Learning Centre, Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, Oxford, OX2 6GG

Join us for an interdisciplinary mini symposium featuring two keynote talks, followed by moderated discussion and audience Q&A.

All Welcome

Keynote talk by Rebecca Gorman:

The Ethics of Building and Using AI

This talk is for both users of AI and for people building AI apps. We will explore how AI *really* works, without the mysticism and the jargon. We will look at this in regards to language models, chatbots, and other types of AI systems. In this context, we will reflect on what is, and what is not, achievable with AI. We will take these into account in reasoning about using AI safely and effectively, and especially building with and deploying AI in ethical and responsible ways. Finally, we will look at the contrasts between AI and the human mind, and ask what, if anything, AI informs us about being human.

Keynote talk by Alberto Giubilini:

It’s Not About AI, It Is About Humans: The Language of AI and Its Problems

A lot of the language we use to refer to AI is the result of "conceptual borrowing”: we adopt terms originally meant to describe human aspects or relationships and we apply them to AI metaphorically. “Autonomy”, “responsibility”, “trust” or indeed “intelligence” itself are the obvious examples. With time, we tend to lose sight of the fact that we are using metaphors and we treat that language literally. This creates conceptual confusion and ethical problems when dealing with AI, but it also raises interesting questions about ourselves as it requires us to reflect on what those terms mean in the first place, when referring to us.

Biography:

Rebecca Gorman is a machine learning and human interaction researcher and the founder and chief technologist of Aligned AI, a Fortune 50 AI Innovator. She has advised the EU, UN, OECD and UK Parliament on responsible AI regulation.

Dr Alberto Giubilini is a philosopher and the Academic Lead of Medical Humanities at Oxford. He is Deputy Director of Education at the Uehiro Oxford Institute and works mainly in public health ethics and medical ethics. He is Project Manager for the Oxford team of the EU funded CAVAA project, investigating ethical implications of AI awareness.

For enquiries and to join the events mailing list, contact: human-ities@torch.ox.ac.uk 

Humans in Humanities Network is part of TORCH Student Networks