Oxford Internet Institute (OII)

Description

The Oxford Internet Institute (OII) is a multidisciplinary research and teaching department of the University of Oxford, dedicated to studying the social science of the Internet.

The Institute was established in 2001 as a department of the University of Oxford. The idea for a research centre at Oxford focusing on the societal impact of rapidly developing Internet technologies was initially proposed by the then Master-Elect of Balliol College and Member of Parliament for Sittingbourne and Sheppey. They were supported by the Vice Chancellor of Oxford University at that time.

The department's establishment was financially supported by Dame Stephanie Shirley, the founder of the computer software company Xansa, with additional funding provided by the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

Since 2006, the department has offered graduate degrees, signalling its transition to a research-led teaching department. In 2009, it introduced the MSc in Social Science of the Internet, its first master's program, following the success of the DPhil in Information, Communication, and the Social Sciences. Recently, the department has launched MSc and DPhil programs in Social Data Science to broaden its appeal to students.

Digital connections now permeate nearly every aspect of daily life, and studying individual and collective online behaviour is vital for comprehending the social, economic, and political world.

The Institute’s work include:

• Research: The OII has unparalleled access to vast amounts of rich social data and is developing new theories, concepts, and methods to analyse it.
• Teaching: the faculty at the OII, renowned in their respective fields, collaborates with students from around the world in cutting-edge master's and doctoral programs.
• Policy: The OII provides empirical data and conceptual analysis crucial for designing policy solutions to societal issues.

The academic faculty and graduate students at the OII come from diverse disciplines, as members believe this interdisciplinary approach is crucial for addressing society's most significant challenges. Together, they strive to positively shape the development of the digital world for the benefit of the public.

Research areas include:

• Digital Economies
• Digital Knowledge and Culture
• Digital Politics and Government
• Education, Digital Life, and Wellbeing
• Ethics and Philosophy of Information
• Information Geography and Inequality
• Information Governance and Security
• Social Data Science

Within the Institute, dedicated research groups engage directly with artificial intelligence methods and their governance. The Reasoning with Machines AI Lab focuses on benchmarking and evaluating AI systems, with particular emphasis on large language models, designing new evaluation methods and datasets to measure AI performance across logical, mathematical and common sense reasoning tasks, and combining human-computer interaction with mechanistic interpretability to study both how humans engage with these models and how their inner mechanics work. The Governing in the Age of AI research group develops AI models and methodologies to help policymakers understand the economic and social consequences of their decisions, and investigates questions of regulatory readiness and the regulatory frameworks through which AI-driven innovation can benefit societies and economies while minimising risks. Together these groups extend the Institute's remit into the technical evaluation of AI systems and the governance of AI in policy.

Currently active

Yes

Offers funding

No, this infrastructure does not provide funding.

Founding year

2006

Contact details

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University affiliation(s)

University of Oxford
Oxford