Rhodes Forum on Technology & Society 2025

Still processing this moment. 🏆
Bureaucrazy.co won Runner-Up at the Kevin Xu Innovation Challenge at Rhodes House, Oxford. It was a privilege to present at the Rhodes Forum on Technology & Society 2025.

Standing in that room at Rhodes House, I'll be honest, I was terrified!! Not for myself, but because I was representing the voices of citizens who trust our platform. I was showcasing the work of a team of incredibly motivated young people who believe that government services shouldn't be a puzzle.

When we started Bureaucrazy, it was born from frustration. Watching people spend hours, days, sometimes months trying to figure out basic government processes. Seeing the contrast between the advanced AI conversations I was having at Oxford and the antiquated systems back home that force citizens to stand in endless queues, resubmit the same documents multiple times, and navigate processes with zero transparency.

This recognition isn't just about our platform. It's validation that civic tech matters. The problems we're solving in Nepal, bureaucratic inefficiency, lack of transparency, and citizen disempowerment, are problems worth solving.

Immense gratitude to:
- Equitech Futures for believing in this vision from day one.
- Thomas Murray, Linda Kinning, and Abhilash Mishra for your invaluable guidance and support.
- Noa Havazelet, Ming T., and Helen Zhang, thank you for believing in our team and our work. We will make sure to use this prize to pay it forward.
- Everyone who showed up, online and in person, to champion this work
- Our incredible team and the users who trust us.
- Aakriti Ghimire and Aayusha Shrestha ofc!! And the team: Manish Singh Mahato, Preeti, Drishya Puri, Prashim Timsina, Sarwashree Subedi, Akrishta Dahal, Niharika, Kriti, Rishavi.

This is just the beginning.

Link to our MVP website: lnkd.in/dJ_Jt3VR

#CivicTech #SocialImpact #KevinXuChallenge #Bureaucracy #Nepal #Innovation #TechAndSociety2025 #bureaucrazy
Rhodes Trust

I was honoured to represent the Clarendon Scholars' Association at the Rhodes Forum on Technology & Society 2025 held at Rhodes House. The forum, masterfully moderated by Paul Cadario, Firas Darwish, John Dupree, and Tina Christmann, explored how technology might help realise an 'age of abundance', one grounded in sustainability, trust and shared opportunity.

Key discussions from Jeremy Heimans on reimagining power in the digital era, Lindsay Herbert on adaptive institutional innovation and Farwiza Farhan on technology's role in conservation in the age of AI offered truly cross-disciplinary insight. Contributions from Madeleine de Cock Buning and Patience Mususa further underscored how governance and culture shape the social impact of emerging technologies.

As a bioengineering researcher, I left reflecting on how scientific progress must remain inseperable from ethical and societal responsibility. My sincere thanks to the Rhodes Trust for convening such an inspiring and intellectually rich event. I am already looking forward to next year's event!

#RhodesForum #TechnologyAndSociety #Innovation #Leadership #AI #Sustainability

I had the honour of speaking with Jeremy Heimans to open the 2025 Rhodes Forum on Technology & Society this past weekend.

Exploring how we will navigate a world filled with new artificial intelligence (AI) systems that are increasingly woven into our private and professional lives, our conversation centred on a few key questions:

1. How is the information ecosystem changing with the emergence of AI systems?
2. With the rise of wearables, how do we preserve our agency when the AI system is no longer just a tool, but an active participant—listening, responding, even observing our lives?
3. The pursuit of general artificial intelligence seeks to automate every domain of work, from the physical to the intellectual. What happens then to human labour—and how does it retain its value?

Thank you to Rhodes Trust and Equitech Futures for organising this forum—a true platform for interdisciplinary thinking and conversation on the rapidly evolving implications of technology for our world.

✨ Still buzzing from last weekend at the Rhodes Forum on Technology & Society at the University of Oxford, where I joined a stellar lineup for the panel “Rebuilding Trust in the Digital Age.” Atindriyo Sanyal Helen Zhang

👏 Huge thanks to John Dupree, our amazing panel moderator for leading with clarity, curiosity, and balance! A true masterclass in facilitation.

💬 The conversation hit a nerve, the room was packed, people standing along the walls, and by Q&A time, nearly every hand was raised. If there was ever proof that trust in digital systems isn’t abstract, this was it. People care. Deeply.

I spoke about how trust is built over time, through decisions that honour people’s agency. We explored the ethics of AI in content moderation and why harm looks different depending on context and the important of leaning local!

🌍 Culture shapes experience. Context shapes harm.

I am truly energised by the thoughtful minds across sectors, each bringing a unique lens on transparency, accountability, and digital responsibility. The generosity of ideas throughout the day was something special, so consider this your warning, you don’t want to miss next year’s Rhodes Trust ‘s Technology and Society Forum.

📝 I am leaving with a notebook full of reflections, and a renewed sense that intentional design and ethical governance aren’t add-ons, but the core of digital futures people can trust.

Rebuilding trust isn’t just technical, it’s deeply human!

Thank you Sorina Campean, Georgie Thurston and Nayana Niji for inviting me to take part of this day and for all your efforts in making this a reality and crafting such a great event. And to the amazing staff at the Rhodes House.

Special thanks also to Equitech Futures! And Abhilash Mishra for sparking the vision for this year’s topic.

📸 credit: Fisher Studios

#TechAndSociety2025 #ResponsibleAI #EthicalAI #DigitalTrust #ContentModeration #PlatformGovernance #TrustByDesign #AIForGood #HumanCenteredTech

What a week in the UK! From celebrating the launch of the Vitality AI partnership with Google in London to returning to my alma mater and Rhodes House for the 2025 Rhodes Forum on Technology and Society.

Seeing my team’s work come alive at the Vitality event was incredibly rewarding. It was a reminder of what’s possible when technology and purpose meet and when innovation begins to make prevention more personalised and wellbeing more achievable for all.

This year’s Forum theme, Abundance, has stayed with me. As data scientists and technologists, we are often trained to optimise for finite resources. This theme challenges that mindset by inviting us to reimagine how next-gen technologies such as Gen and Agentic AI can be harnessed to create abundance for patients, healthcare systems, and communities.

In healthcare, Abundance invites us to reimagine wellness, prevention, and care not as finite commodities but as renewable, shared resources. Next gen technologies can help make this possible by expanding capacity, deepening insight, and enabling more human connection where it matters most.

Abundance is not about having more, but about creating more possibility through collective action, shared imagination, and the courage to design a future where everyone can thrive.

These two experiences leave me with a powerful take-away that innovation with purpose and the belief that technology, when guided by humanity, can help us all live more abundant lives.

Many thanks to the organizers of this year's Rhodes Trust Technology Forum. The event opened terrific discussions about human-centred technological futures from a range of different perspectives. For me, it also underscored the centrality of museums as inclusive spaces for imagining and experimenting with technology. Thanks to Kati Price, Brendan McGetrick and Bruce Niyonkuru for sharing their ideas and curatorial experiences at the Museums of Tomorrow panel.

In my day-to-day work, I'm fortunate to witness incredible technology development and groundbreaking ventures firsthand. However, it was especially impactful to join the annual Rhodes Trust Forum on Technology & Society 2025 this weekend. This event truly brings together a diverse range of perspectives—from academic research to the public and private sectors—and it was an honor to be in a room with so many brilliant minds dedicated to exploring the intersection of innovation and humanity.

It was a privilege to serve as a judge alongside Helen Zhang and Ming T. for the Kevin Xu Innovation Challenge. Thanks to Abhilash Mishra, founder of Equitech Futures, we heard from six inspiring finalists who are harnessing AI for social good, and a huge congratulations goes to the impressive winners, Open Door!

I left with a notebook full of ideas, but here are a few key learnings that resonated with me:
💡 Ethical AI is contextual: Helen Zhang offered a powerful reminder that what is considered 'ethical' in AI can differ greatly across cultures, prompting the crucial question: who gets to decide?
💡 Defining our terms: Lian Ryan-Hume (Najami) Ryan-He from TikTok shared their constant process of examining what "fairness" and "transparency" mean within their local and original platform context.
💡 AI ethic for business growth: It was fascinating to hear from Atindriyo Sanyal, co-founder and CTO of Galileo, on how accurately monitored AI is already proving to be a thriving business case.
💡 Storytelling bridges: A great insight from Madeleine de Cock Buning from Netflix, who shared how they build bridges between cultures through the universal power of media and storytelling.
💡 Technology's role in well-being: Experiencing the Atlantic Institute's immersive XR experience sparked a compelling discussion about the broader role of technology in fostering well-being. Thanks Harpinder Athwal Collacott, for pulling me in to this one!

Beyond the insightful discussions, the magical evening reception at the museum and the 'Harry Potter style' 🪄 dinner were fantastic highlights, creating a wonderful atmosphere for connection. Running into one of our very own Google for Startups #Accelerator alumni, Jeffrey Fasegha from Deducta, was an amazing surprise!

🙏 A huge thank you to Sorina Campean and Georgie Thurston for inviting me and introducing me to this fantastic annual tradition. I'm leaving with a full mind and a renewed sense of passion for the impactful work we do.

#Technology #SocialImpact #Innovation #AIForGood #Leadership #Networking

Wrapping up the Rhodes Trust Technology & Society Forum, I’ve been reflecting on a thought I shared while introducing one of our Kevin Xu Innovation Challenge finalist teams. I mentioned that while curiosity is a universal human trait, each of us harnesses it in our own way.

One of my favorite ways to feed my curiosity is through designing this forum: exploring new ideas, shaping the panels, and handpicking the speakers who can best bring those conversations to life.
This year, a big part of the inspiration came from Abhilash Mishra, Founder of Equitech Futures (our main partner for the forum) who introduced me to Ezra Klein’s book on abundance earlier this spring. From that spark, we built out everything.

It’s a collaborative effort, of course. Our alumni advisory board gives invaluable guidance, and my amazing team is the one who actually turns that vision into reality. But at the heart of it, this forum is my favourite way of exploring the world’s big questions side by side with the incredible community we gather in Oxford each year. So thank you to everyone involved for helping bring it to life.

I’m always curious about what ideas really stuck with others, so if you were part of this year’s forum, feel free to share a takeaway or thought in the comments.

Lindsay Herbert Jeremy Heimans Firas Darwish Paul Cadario Madeleine de Cock Buning Brian Wyborn Alberto Cottica Kathryn Brown Bruce Niyonkuru Kati Price Brendan McGetrick Tina Christmann Ella Duus John Dupree Farwiza Farhan Patience Mususa Noa Havazelet Helen Zhang Ming T. Anand Gandhi Anthony House Dr Lollie Mancey Lian Ryan-Hume (Najami) Atindriyo Sanyal Rob Saldin Michael Schmidt

Travelling home from an inspirational Rhodes Forum on Tech and Society. The event invited everyone to reimagine ‘abundance’ and think critically, challenge prevailing assumptions, and shape our own visions of the future.

It was amazing to have a day dedicated to doing just that and to be stimulated by excellent speakers and delegates.

Particularly, I enjoyed conversations around:
- social thickness
- polycentric wisdom
- the conflicted and strange position of the key AI leaders
- how to monitor and measure natural ecosystems in ways that work within financial calendars
- whether ‘significant digital others’ or social media will prevail in the attention economy… and so much more…

Thank you to all those who made the trip to Oxford hugely worthwhile, including Paul Cadario Brian Wyborn Noa Havazelet Jeremy Heimans Thomas Murray Alberto Cottica Georgie Thurston Sorina Campean Michael Schmidt

Jo Reid Calvium Marisa Harlington Pablo Isidoro Carrillo Alvarez

"𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧?"

Today, I was invited to attend the 𝐑𝐡𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐮𝐦 𝐨𝐧 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 & 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐲 virtually, by the best community, Equitech Futures and Rhodes Trust! This year's theme is "Abundance", which hooked me right away.

Kicked off the day with the outstanding opening remark by Jeremy Heimans and Firas Darwish. I do agree that AI has been integrated into our lives, having it from 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞, 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐧-𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 embedded in devices that are actively listening or sensing, which presses the need to wisely leverage such technologies without making them degrade our human abilities and softskills.
The future is promising to have more "𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐬" agents; however, I strongly support that our human thinking should not be replaced in the pipeline.
The 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 LLMs and AI decisions, and the 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐚𝐥 why that decision exactly and reasoning abilities are crucial to be honest.

Jumping to the exceptional panellists: Atindriyo Sanyal, Lian Ryan-Hume (Najami), John Dupree and Helen Xiao He Zhang, and the 𝐑𝐞𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐀𝐠𝐞: 𝐓𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐜𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐄𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐀𝐈 and Abhilash Mishra on 𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐆𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞? 𝐏𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫, 𝐆𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 & 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐛𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞.

The quality and content of what we're seeing on a daily basis affect the digital trust scale. Accountability, Fairness and Transparency should be promoted for rebuilding this trust.

"AI is a black box, and we have to unbox it to achieve those pillars", as I'm researching in LLMs and reasoning these words by Lian resonates a lot! On the ethical side, harm is global when using technology, yet the way it exposes itself is so local. Cultural aspects matter, and Geographical locations matter from a policy point of view, where we have to be specific. As Safety by Design does not directly reflect a safe user experience, we should investigate this more to reach a concrete vision.

LLMs are built to generate, which is not to say "IDK", but rather hallucinate. Thus, sometimes concepts like "RLHF" ring a bell, but the human supervision of massive data generated in seconds is not practical or feasible.
Our awareness is important: The guilt for being unconscious users sometimes!
If you choose to walk away from a company that breached your data, that's their loss and not yours as a user.

Congrats, Equitech startups Koan and @bureaucrazy for winning the Kevin Xu Innovation Prize! 👏 ♥️

Thanks, Thomas Murray, for staying virtually with us while at there!

𝐈𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐝, 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭.

#TechAndSociety2025