Richard Stallman to Speak in Oxford University Exactly a Day From Now
This has just been announced by the hosts (last minute, as usual, due to the cancel cult; must run nonfree JS to view) and there's a sign-up form they outsourced to GAFAM (yes, ironic in a way).
From the introductory page (Google with nonfree JS):
Talk by Richard Stallman: Free/Libre Software and Freedom in the Digital SocietyTalk by Richard Stallman: Free/Libre Software and Freedom in the Digital SocietyDate: 24 April 2025
Time: 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Date: 24 April 2025
Venue: Lecture Theatre, Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PW
A social event will happen after the talk (TBA)
All are welcome, sign up to reserve your place recommended. Note: this sign-up page requires JavaScript to function properly. If you prefer to sign up with JavaScript disabled, please email us directly at event@oxai.org.
This month, the Oxford Artificial Intelligence Society and the Oxford Blockchain Society are honoured to welcome a distinguished speaker: Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Movement and the Free Software Foundation, and main developer of the GNU operating system.
Talk by Richard Stallman: Free/Libre Software and Freedom in the Digital SocietyAbstract:
There are many threats to freedom in the digital society. They include nonfree software, massive surveillance, and censorship. Many digital systems identify and track people, including all portable phones and many payment systems. Nonfree proprams are often designed to restrict users, control users, or manipulate users. The War on Sharing aims to stop people from sharing copies of published works. Other threats come from use of web services to do your own computing, instead of software running on your own computer. Programs that generate text based on no semantic understanding or knowledge whatsoever are marketed as "artificial intelligence", so people presume the output to be valid.
Finally, most internet activities (aside from those which existed before 2000) are precarious, dependent on permission from one company. All of these threats originate more or less in the use of nonfree software. That is why free software is the first battle in the liberation of the digital society.
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Richard Stallman launched the free software movement in 1983 and started the development of the GNU operating system (see www.gnu.org) in 1984. GNU is free software: everyone has the freedom to copy it and redistribute it, with or without changes. The GNU/Linux system, basically the GNU operating system with Linux as the kernel, is used on tens of millions of computers today.
Stallman has received ACM Grace Hopper Award and the ACM Software and Systems Award, a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Pioneer Award, and the the Takeda Award for Social/Economic Betterment, as well as many doctorates honoris causa, and has been inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame.
All are welcome. Limited seating – please arrive early.
This sign-up page requires JavaScript to function properly. If you prefer to sign up with JavaScript disabled, please email us your info directly at event@oxai.org.
*This event is hosted by the Oxford Artificial Intelligence Society (OxAI) and the Oxford Blockchain Society as part of our speaker series, but Dr Stallman criticizes the way the term "artificial intelligence" is often used and declines to refer to LLMs that way. The views he expresses do not represent any other person or organization, though they have partial overlap with the Free Software Foundation.
We spoke to him a lot over the years, also in Oxford (where I met him in person).
Hopefully many people will attend his talk in spite of the short notice and silence from the FSF. Dr. Stallman explains where GNU/Linux started (not in Finland) and why. █