FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ÖREBRO, Sweden — December 16, 2025 — As generative AI becomes increasingly embedded in daily life, it is paramount that it protects the ability to speak, question, and share freely. Otherwise, it risks restricted or biased outputs corroding the public discourse on which democracy relies.
On December 1, 2025, The Future of Free Speech, in partnership with Örebro University, convened leading academics, regulators, companies, and civil society experts to confront this challenge in an in-depth roundtable examining AI’s impact on freedom of expression.
With the support of the Swedish Postcode Lottery Foundation, this event (“Roundtable on Generative AI and Freedom of Expression”) was built on flagship research into global AI governance. Over the past year, The Future of Free Speech has carefully analyzed AI laws and policies across six countries and conducted an independent assessment of eight of the world’s most popular chatbots.
This work culminated in a report, “That Violates My Policies: AI Laws, Chatbots, and the Future of Expression,” which measures freedom of expression in regulatory frameworks and AI systems and will continue next year with a planned analysis of additional countries, including Sweden.
“If we want the future to remain open and democratic, we must embed freedom-of-expression principles into AI governance from the start,” said Jordi Calvet-Bademunt, Senior Research Fellow at The Future of Free Speech and co-host of the roundtable. “By convening experts from around the world, we hope to advance practical solutions that ensure AI technologies expand, rather than narrow, our shared space for free expression.”
The discussion in Örebro expanded on findings from this report, exploring how restrictions on AI content can transform democratic dialogue and influence the boundaries of acceptable speech, and threaten pluralism. Below are some key takeaways that emerged from the participants’ discussions:
- Defending free expression in AI is not a peripheral task, but an urgent priority.
- AI systems are not neutral — they embed political, cultural, and economic choices that affect freedom of expression and access to information.
- Who trains AI, and on what data, matters deeply for whose voices are amplified or marginalized.
- Safeguarding freedom of expression in the AI era requires cross-disciplinary cooperation, bringing together law, technology, civil society, and affected communities.
- Transparency and accountability in AI design and deployment are essential, especially when systems moderate or amplify speech.
- Global South perspectives remain underrepresented in AI policy debates, despite being affected by AI systems.
- Future AI policy and regulation should account for the world’s diverse democratic, linguistic, and social contexts while ensuring the robust protection of freedom of expression.
- Human-rights-based approaches that robustly protect freedom of expression offer a viable alternative to purely technical or market-driven AI governance models.
This roundtable was made possible through the generous funding of the Swedish Postcode Lottery Foundation. The Future of Free Speech also extends its gratitude to the Swedish Postcode Lottery Foundation’s essential support in the creation of the AI Report, as well as Vanderbilt University and Rising Tide. The collaboration of Örebro University and the meaningful contributions of its WASP-HS-funded project, “Private Rule-Making and European Governance of AI & Robotics,” were also vital to this event’s success.
Links:
- Report: “That Violates My Policies: AI Laws, Chatbots, and the Future of Expression”
- Roundtable Agenda
- Photos from the Event
About The Future of Free Speech
The Future of Free Speech is an independent, nonpartisan think tank located at Vanderbilt University that works to reaffirm freedom of expression as the bedrock of free and thriving societies through actionable research, empowering tools, and principled advocacy. Learn more at www.futurefreespeech.org or follow along on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn.
About Örebro University
Örebro University is a Swedish academic institution that champions critical thinking, learning, debate, and questioning, with mutual respect and the capacity to take on a variety of perspectives. Learn more at www.oru.se.
About The Swedish Postcode Lottery Foundation
The Swedish Postcode Lottery Foundation provides temporary support to projects that foster positive social impact or pursue long-term solutions to local and global challenges. The Foundation has an open application process where organizations can apply for project funding anytime throughout the year. Today, the Foundation is one of sixty-two organizations that annually receive funding provided by the Swedish Postcode Lottery’s surplus. Since 2007, the Foundation has distributed over SEK 2.4 billion from the Swedish Postcode Lottery to more than 1,300 projects in Sweden and around the world.
