There is no doubt that the world is very dependent on the Internet these days. If it wasn’t obvious before, we certainly realised our dependency during the Covid-19 pandemic. Also, when the whole world piled onto the Internet in order to do anything during the lockdowns, it stayed up and running which is a huge testament to the foresight of the Internet pioneers in terms of its design and in built resilience and scalability. But the Internet has never been under such threat and its whole future as a globally interconnected system is in much doubt for many different reasons. In this talk we will explore the future of the Internet through the perspective of geopolitics and data governance. We will argue that through this lens we see at least four internets, maybe more, rather than just one interconnected ecosystem. We will explore what aspects of the governance of cyberspace we must protect the most in order for us to continue to use the technical infrastructure of the Internet that we all rely on to support cloud and data services, and how this is all playing out in the age of AI

Additionally, the lecture will address the crucial topic of research integrity in the age of AI, exploring how academia can adapt to ensure ethical and responsible use of these powerful technologies and how they might affect education in general.

Link to Presentation: https://youtu.be/bQygq5Fwtx4

Dame Wendy Hall, DBE, FRS, FREng is Regius Professor of Computer Science, Associate Vice President (International Engagement) and Director of the Web Science Institute at the University of Southampton. She was Dean of the Faculty of Physical Science and Engineering from 2010 to 2014 and Head of the School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) from 2002 to 2007.

One of the first computer scientists to undertake serious research in multimedia and hypermedia, she has been at its forefront ever since. The influence of her work has been significant in many areas including digital libraries, the development of the Internet, and the emerging research discipline of Web Science. Her current research includes exploring interfaces between the social and physical sciences through the development of Web Science and the study of online systems through a sociotechnical lens. She is Managing Director of the Web Science Trust.

She became a Dame Commander of the British Empire in the 2009 UK New Year’s Honours list and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in the same year. She was elected President of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in July 2008, and was the first person from outside North America to hold this position. She is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institution of Engineering and Technology and the ACM. She is a distinguished fellow of the British Computer Society. She was Senior Vice President of the Royal Academy of Engineering (2005-8), a member of the UK Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology (2004-10), and a founder member of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council (2005-10). She was President of the British Computer Society (2003-4), an EPSRC Senior Research Fellow (1996-2002) and a member of the EPSRC Council (1997-2002).

In 2017, Dame Wendy was co-Chair of the UK government’s AI Review, which was published in October 2017. She became a member of the AI Council and was appointed the first UK AI Skills Champion in 2018. She was Chair of the Ada Lovelace Institute (2020-2023). She is currently the co-Chair of the ACM Publications Board and Editor-in-Chief of Royal Society Open Science. She is an advisor to the UK government and many other governments and companies around the world and in 2023 was appointed to the United Nations high-level advisory body on artificial intelligence. Her latest book, Four Internets, co-written with Kieron O’Hara and published by OUP in 2021, is about data, geopolitics and the governance of cyberspace.

Through her leadership roles on national and international bodies, she has shattered many glass ceilings, readily deploying her position on numerous national and international bodies to promote the role of women in SET and acting as an important role model for others.

www.damewendydbe.com