Thanks for listening.

Audrey, thank you so much for this conversation. From Taiwan’s open government movement to your work with the accelerator fellowship program, it’s clear that ethical AI isn’t just about rules, it’s about relationships, participation, imagination and what you have shown is not just problems, it’s actually finding solutions and that’s ...

It’s not just the job of policy makers of, you know, law and regulation. It’s our collective job.

Do you think we need more governance to ensure that these very, very powerful systems don’t happen.

There’s one follow-up question that I’d like to ask before we we close and that’s around Singularity going back to that. You spoke about these very powerful AI systems that don’t need human input anymore to develop, and there is a concern about these types of systems, and at the ...

So thank you for giving me hope.

That’s very, very nice. It fills me with hope. Because often I feel like, are we being stripped off caring for each other, just because sometimes this digital technology seems more like a barrier to meaningful human relationships rather than, you know, being a facilitator to foster them.

I live in London and I love walking down the South Bank and I just love seeing people engaging with each other and playing chess, having fun. How important is it still to really invest also in these social spaces where people come together, as in not online, but to ...

So would you say that’s type of a new type of care, like digital care, that people will need to develop, they can care for each other?. Digitally. But then also socially, you know, when they meet each other as people.

By design, help me understand a bit more that concept of care? Umm, what does it mean to you? How do you define it?

So, AI ethics not as an afterthought? Mm-hmm. But as the starting point.

I have so many follow up questions, but the first one is: How worried are you about human AI relationships? You know, we hear these stories of people falling in love with their chatbot, and we hear of how people are going to have AI friends. How worried are you ...

Is that right?

So you are offering an very alternative perspective. You are offering a perspective that’s positive. You are saying actually, what makes us human is something that technology that AI can explore, help us understand, expand.

So that’s really beautiful that idea. Because I think when we think of AI specifically, agentic, AI, generative AI, everything you know, there’s buzzwords and systems that are out there. It’s often about the threat to what we as humans value, whether it’s social connection, whether it’s our work and ...

You co-authored a book called ‘Plurality, The Future of collaborative Technology and Democracy’. Tell me about the book. What are some of the main messages that you want sent to the readers.

And so that’s very beautiful. And we’re really excited to, to have you work with us on that.

That sounds amazing because I do feel and it’s, you know, this is the work you’re doing right is to build these bridges between, people you know amazing, very clever people who are building these AI systems, but often in the silo. And then these systems are available to the ...

Do you have some ideas of what kind of events formats we could have in that new building to bring people in and for them to hear about the work you’re doing?

In September 2025 the Institute for Ethics and AI will be moving into the new Schwartzman Center for the Humanities, which is an amazing new building or the humanities across the University of Oxford. We’ll be meeting in that building, and it’s all about bridging, building bridges with the local ...

That’s very exciting to hear that the UK Government and local authorities are embracing this. And now you’re in Oxford with us, tell us about your accelerator fellowship project. What will you be doing?

OK, so that sounds to me like we need plurality ambassadors within our governments.

Is this something you feel we see or you can see also in other governments around the world?

Yeah. So, what strikes me about that is that the Taiwanese government also has the readiness and the openness to listen to people, to embrace that modern age. Democracy.

From Civic Hacker to Digital Minister to global advocate for Democratic technology, it’s really extraordinary. What drives you to build systems of radical transparency and public participation? We’ve already spoken about that now a bit, but just to put that question to you again, what’s your main driver right now?

I’m going to pivot slightly to different questions. So, Audrey, what is AI ethics to you?

That’s very powerful thinking about, you know, our changing demographics. And so yeah, thank you for sharing that story.

Well, that’s great. So, the idea of a human right to the broadband. And then that beautiful example of how technology can span the generations for intergenerational activity and bringing people together of all ages.

I work a lot with, you know, communities, individuals who don’t use the Internet. They just don’t have the connectivity or so on. What can we do to also reach these people?

Wow, that’s amazing. I’m wondering about when you tell these stories, how you bring people together, you know, collectively, on the Internet, it’s very powerful in, in terms of beating social isolation, loneliness. But I’m also wondering about groups of people here who are digitally, not as connected.

Can you tell me a little bit more about that. Are there specific projects you’ve been working on where you’ve seen the power of you know that?

We see echo chambers. So, your idea of actually bringing technology to the world to improve relationships between people to find innovative solutions. That’s something really exciting.

So that’s really interesting. I’d love to hear more about that, because quite often when I think of social media, when I think of artificial intelligence, it’s more anti-human really, it’s really anti positive relationships. You know we see a lot of bad behaviour on the Internet.

What I also really enjoy about what you’re saying is you believe in the good in people, right? That’s the whole way you’re coming to your work, is that right?

Wow, I love that. So here you’re also bringing in a whole new way of looking at democracy and how technology can help us today to forge new paths in global democracy, right. And bringing people together.

So, do you think that humans are better when they are operating collectively?

So, Audrey, listening to your amazing story, it strikes me that you are someone who is really fascinated by people, by humans, how their minds work. Can you tell me a little bit more what drives you working with humans?

And how has that shaped you into adulthood?

Wow, that’s that’s quite a story. So as a child, when you were going through that, you actually took it as a driver to, you know, share with the world, what you’re learning every single day.

To get started, tell me about Audrey Tang. Audrey, where are you from? What’s your story?

Audrey, welcome. It’s a real pleasure to have you with us today.

Ambassador Audrey Tang is Taiwan’s Cyber Ambassador at large, and formerly its first digital minister. A self-described civic hacker Audrey helped transform Taiwan’s government into a global leader in digital democracy, using open data, participatory platforms and radical transparency to foster public trust. Now, as a fellow of the Accelerator ...