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Law on Trial 2026: AI and the Future of the University - Critical Perspectives

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Venue: Birkbeck Clore Management Centre

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This year's Law on Trial brings together leading experts and critical voices to challenge the narrative around AI in higher education.

Free to register.

The emergence of generative AI is already causing sweeping changes to law, politics, the economy and indeed the private lives of individuals. It presents unprecedented challenges for universities, in both education and research, reshaping the economy, the professional work-world and the public sphere in ways that demand a response.

The pace, complexity and obscurity of change has made informed critical reflection difficult. The dominant narrative across the sector so far has been that, since everyone else is doing it, we must ‘embrace the positives’ of AI. But should we be so enthusiastic to integrate these addictive slop-bots into every facet of university life?

The dangers have been minimised. The glaring issues of so-called 'hallucinations', privacy violations, copyright theft, algorithmic bias, and environmental impact receive only lip-service. The deeper erosion of intellectual capacities and knowledge, the outsourcing of cognitive effort and skill, and the risk of a disastrous collapse in independent thought are largely glossed over. There is no alternative, or so we are told.

Not everyone is persuaded. This year’s Law on Trial brings together leading experts and critical voices, from academia and beyond, to challenge the narrative around AI in higher education and academic research.

-One-day Conference: Friday, 5th June / 12 noon - 5:15pm (Clore Lecture Theatre)

-Conference Roundtable and Reception: Friday, 5th June / 6-8pm (MAL 152/153)

-This event is in-person.

 

Speakers

  • Hristina Banic, Deputy Managing Editor, MDPI
  • Jack Grove, Correspondent, Times Higher Education
  • Dr James Humphries, Lecturer in Politics, University of Glasgow
  • Dr Alex Lancaster, Deputy Managing Editor, MDPI
  • Dr Joe Slater, Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Glasgow
  • Bhargav Srinivasa Desikan, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford
  • Joseph de Weck, Senior Fellow, Institut Montaigne
  • Riccardo Benzo, Digital Education Consultant, Birkbeck
  • Prof Stewart Motha, LLB Programme Director, Birkbeck
  • Dr Victoria Ridler, Head of Birkbeck Law School

Opening Remarks: Prof Diane Houston (Deputy V-C, Education and Student Experience, Birkbeck); Dr Fred Cowell (FBL Head of Research, Birkbeck)

Chair: Dr Craig Reeves (Education Lead, Birkbeck Law School)

 

The conference is generously sponsored by the following journals: Philosophies, Laws, Societies, AI, Education Sciences, Economies, Trends in Higher Education, Social Sciences, AI in Education, AI for Society, Encyclopedia; and by an FBL Strategic Research and Innovation Grant.

 

Speaker Biogs: 

Hristina Banic holds a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from the University of Novi Sad. She completed her Master’s studies at the University of Graz and the University of Novi Sad, focusing on the concept of metaphysics in Kant and Heidegger’s philosophy. She is currently pursuing her PhD at the University of Novi Sad, researching the contemporary implications of Kantian metaphysics and epistemology. Hristina joined MDPI in December 2021 and currently serves as a Senior Deputy Managing Editor, where she coordinates outreach activities across the Humanities journal portfolio. Hristina's research interests focus on the metaphysical boundaries of AI, specifically the distinction between phenomena and noumena within the framework of simulation theory and the evolving concept of truth.

Jack Grove is a journalist and deputy features editor at Times Higher Education. He mainly covers research policy, science funding, research misconduct, academic publishing, university governance, free speech debates and issues affecting PhD students and early-career researchers. He has written widely about the impact of generative AI on academic life, including its perception among scholars and researchers, and how it has affected teaching and learning, assessment and research practices. His reporting on AI includes 'Academics despair as ChatGPT-written essays swamp marking season', and 'Research funders ‘flooded with AI-assisted applications’'.

James Humphries completed his PhD at the University of Glasgow, where he has since worked as a lecturer in philosophy and latterly politics. His research interests are mainly in social and political philosophy, particularly in autonomy, political obligation and political authority, and justice; more recently, he has been working on questions connected to the nature and increasing ubiquity of large language models - most pressingly, how we should think of their outputs, the social context of the push for adoption, and how their use may affect critical thinking. His scholarly publications on AI include 'LLMs Bullshit By Design' and ‘Another Reason to Call Bullshit on AI “hallucinations”’. 

Alex Lancaster graduated from the University of Hull with a Bachelor of Science in Ecology. After some time participating in fieldwork in South Africa, he obtained a PhD from the University of Chester, specialising in conservation endocrinology, animal behaviour, and human-wildlife conflicts, and is now the part-time Director of Science for the Charity Zoo and Wildlife Conservation. He joined MDPI in May 2024 as an Assistant Editor for the Biology section, where the usage of AI by authors has to be carefully checked before they can be published online. Alex currently serves as a Deputy Managing Editor for MDPI, where he assists in the outreach activities for multiple journals, including Philosophies.

Joe Slater is lecturer in moral and political philosophy at the University of Glasgow. He has research interests in applied ethics, philosophy of technology and philosophy of sport. His scholarly publications on AI include the articles 'ChatGPT is Bullshit', and 'LLMs Bullshit By Design'. 

Joseph de Weck is a historian and senior fellow with the Institut Montaigne in Paris and the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin. He is also Europe director at Greenmantle, a macroeconomic and geopolitical risk consultancy. A regular contributor to The Guardian and The Atlantic, he writes a column for the foreign affairs magazine Internationale Politik Quarterly. In 2021, he published Emmanuel Macron: Der revolutionäre Präsident, a German-language essay examining Macron’s first term and offering a portrait of contemporary French society. His publications on AI include 'Our king, our priest, our feudal lord – how AI is taking us back to the dark ages'.

 

Contact name: Ed Brandt

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