AI is reshaping the way we live, learn, work and connect. Its potential is opening remarkable possibilities for human flourishing while raising important challenges for individuals, communities and societies. By placing AI within a human rights-based framework, this podcast series offers thought-provoking conversations that clarify what is at stake and highlight the values that should guide our shared digital future: participation, accountability, non-discrimination, empowerment and legality.
Series 6 - Our Human Future with AI
Our Human Future with AI, the sixth series in the Global Campus “To the Righthouse” podcast programme, invites listeners to explore AI through a human rights lens: its promise, its perils and the urgent questions it raises. At the heart of the series is a set of pressing reflections on how we can live and work with AI while respecting everyone’s human rights. It looks at the current and future scenarios shaping the relationship between human rights and AI, asking how this technology can empower people, renew democracy, help overcome discrimination, support meaningful learning, and promote and protect the rights of children and young people.
Across five compelling episodes, we offer fresh insights on how to engage with AI while keeping people and their rights at the heart of the conversation.
The series is hosted by Thérèse Murphy, Professor at Queen’s University Belfast, Visiting Professor at Lund University and EMA Chairperson. Join and listen to her conversations with Audrey Tang, Fola Adeleke, Sue Anne Teo and Fredrik Heintz, Christopher Newfield, Farah Gul Rahuja and Sam Hiner.
Episode 5 // Friend or Foe: Children and Young People and AI
The series concludes with a timely episode on the vital role of young people in AI governance. Joined by two guests representing youth initiatives from Pakistan and the USA, we explore lived experiences, bold ideas and practical approaches for making AI a force for opportunity, inclusion and human dignity.
is the Co-Founder and the Executive Director of the Young People’s Alliance. In this role, Sam leads a youth movement that spans over 75 campuses in the US to advocate for policy to address the crises of youth opportunity, affordability, and communities. At YPA, Sam started their policy initiatives on AI companions, including leading the creation of the Human-like AI Framework, filing an FTC complaint against a prominent AI companion company, and advocating for legislation in states across the US. Sam graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with degrees in Sociology and Economics in 2025.
Farah Gul Rahuja is an AI innovator and social entrepreneur dedicated to Artificial Intelligence for Social Good. She is the Co-Founder of PakGPT, Pakistan’s first AI-powered conversational platform built for low-bandwidth environments and supporting local languages including Sindhi, Urdu, and Pashto. PakGPT empowers underserved populations—especially rural youth, women, and farmers—by providing critical information on health, education, climate adaptation, and entrepreneurship through ethical, rights-based AI systems. Farah serves as National Director for AI Hackathons at Aspire Pakistan, leading nationwide initiatives to engage young innovators, with strong emphasis on women’s participation. Her efforts have earned global recognition: she was named Global Youth Leader in AI Innovation at the World Internet Conference 2024, and PakGPT received the Global Excellence Action Award at the World Youth Development Forum 2025.
Episode 4 // University Teaching and Learning in an AI World
This episode takes listeners inside today’s AI-shaped university world. As our host and guest explore AI’s growing presence in teaching, learning and academic life, they open up crucial questions about creativity, writing, cognitive agency, digital competence and the future of our shared intellectual commons.
is Director of Research at the Independent Social Research Foundation in London. He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the Immediate Past President of the Modern Language Association. His academic work has focused on critical university studies, American literature since 1990, California culture and society, quantification studies, and the status of literary knowledge. Newfield began his career as an Assistant Professor of English at Rice University, before moving to the University of California, Santa Barbara where he worked for over thirty years.
Episode 3 // Regulate and Build: The EU's past, present and future in and with AI
This episode offers essential insights on the EU AI Act and what it means for the future of trustworthy AI. Our guests unpack the benefits and challenges of risk-based regulation, ethical guidelines, legal uncertainties and the dynamic relationship between innovation, regulation and human rights protection.
is a Professor of Computer Science at Linköping University, where he directs the AI4x Center of Excellence, the Division of Artificial Intelligence and Integrated Computer Systems (AIICS), and the Reasoning and Learning lab (ReaL). His research focus is artificial intelligence especially Trustworthy AI and the intersection between machine reasoning and machine learning. Director of the Wallenberg AI and Transformative Technologies Education Development Program (WASP-ED), Co-director of the Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP), Coordinator of the TrustLLM project, and Vice President for AI Research Adra the AI, Data, and Robotics partnership. Member of the Swedish AI Commission. Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA).
is a Thematic Expert on AI and Human Rights at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (RWI). She was also a 2025-2026 Human Rights and Technology Fellow at the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights at Harvard Kennedy School. Sue Anne’s primary research interest lies in examining the relationship between human rights, artificial intelligence and emergent vulnerabilities. She holds a PhD in Law from the University of Copenhagen where she examined how AI challenges the foundations of human rights. She was also a PhD Europaeum Scholar during the same period. Her work has appeared in various peer-reviewed publications and policy documents on AI and human rights.
Episode 2 // Is AI Causing or Reducing Global Inequalities?
The series continues with a powerful conversation on AI, access and global inequality. Focused on the so-called digital divide and responses emerging across the Global Majority world, this episode asks how AI can help create a more inclusive, participatory future aimed at reducing inequalities rather than deepening them.
is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Global Center on AI Governance. He leads their knowledge hub, the African Observatory on Responsible AI. Prof. Adeleke holds a PhD in international investment law and human rights from the University of Witwatersrand and completed his post-doctoral research as a Fulbright Scholar at the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, Columbia University, and the Human Rights Program, Harvard University. He is also an Associate Professor at Wits Law School South Africa, an Atlantic Senior Fellow on Social and Economic Equity at the London School of Economics and an Assistant Professor in Commercial Law at the Sobey Business School, St Mary’s University, Canada. He currently serves as a Commissioner for the Lancet Commission on AI and HIV.
Episode 1 // ‘The People are the Superintelligence’: How AI affects political deliberation and democracy
The opening episode features Audrey Tang in an inspiring conversation on how digital technology can empower people, bridge divides and renew democracy. Moving from fragmentation to common ground, it invites us to imagine AI as a tool for strengthening civic knowledge and collective wisdom.
rose to prominence as an entrepreneur and leader in free and open-source software, revitalizing the Haskell and Perl programming languages. Audrey went on to play a key role in shaping g0v (gov-zero), one of the world’s most prominent civic tech movements. In 2014, she supported the Sunflower Movement activists, and worked to resolve conflicts and build consensus during a three-week occupation of Taiwan’s Legislature. Audrey became a reverse mentor to the minister in charge of digital participation, before assuming the role in 2016. Audrey assisted in developing participatory democracy platforms such as vTaiwan and Join, bringing civic innovation into the public sector through initiatives like the Presidential Hackathon and Ideathon. Other achievements include shaping Taiwan’s internationally acclaimed COVID-19 response, being named a TIME100 “Most Influential People in AI” honoree in 2023, and safeguarding the country’s 2024 presidential and legislative elections from cyber interference. In 2025 she was honoured with the Right Livelihood Award for “advancing the social use of digital technology to empower citizens, renew democracy and heal divides”. Audrey’s current focus is developing the Civic AI and 6-Pack of Care framework through the Accelerator Fellowship Programme of the Institute for Ethics in AI at the University of Oxford. As a changemaker and leader, Audrey invites all devotees of freedom, democracy, good governance and societal care to wage peace and free the future — together!