Where Generative AI Goes Next: Insights From The 2026 Oxford Generative AI Summit

Earlier this month, I attended the Oxford Generative AI Summit at Jesus College, Oxford for the third consecutive year. The event once again brought together several hundred leaders from government, academia, industry, the media, and creative sectors to discuss the evolving opportunities and challenges presented by generative AI. 

Many of last year’s themes – change management, AI sovereignty, and truth and trust – remain central to the conversation. What has changed, however, is how these issues are being approached, reflecting the rapid evolution of generative AI.

• AI Sovereignty: A year ago, the discussion of AI sovereignty was flavored with a strong dose of how countries other than the U.S. and China can compete to develop a fully domestic, globally competitive AI industry. In the U.K., this contributed to framing a head-to-head conflict between the technology industry and the creative industry, namely in the debate over the scope of a commercial text-and-data-mining (TDM)