Jun speaks at the France-Oxford-Quebec Colloquium on 'Shaping the Future of AI"

Dr Jun Zhao from OxfordCCAI was invited to speak at the third France–Oxford–Quebec Colloquium on “Shaping the Future of AI”, held from 2–3 July 2026 at the British Embassy in Paris, amongst four other Oxford colleagues.

The previous two workshops explored the themes of AI and Healthcare (2024) and AI and Regulations (2025). This year, the workshop focused on the challenges associated with AI companions.

In her presentation, Jun argued that children’s agency must be a central consideration in the design of AI systems for children. Without this focus, we risk creating a digital society that weakens children’s resilience, limits their opportunities to be treated fairly and with respect, and constrains their ability to grow, make decisions, and act independently. She examined the potential risks AI poses to children, explored how designing for agency connects to broader ethical design concerns, and identified key gaps in current child-centred design practices. In particular, her talk highlighted the need to better account for children’s relationships with both other people and technology. She concluded by arguing that AI systems for children must be designed with children’s social contexts in mind. Doing so can help foster not only self-regulation but also resilience and the capacity to navigate increasingly complex relationships with AI systems.

The workshop was attended by world-leading computer scientists, regulators, legal scholars, and philosophers. A workshop report will be published in early autumn, with further collaborations anticipated to follow.