“The ‘responsible use of (generative) AI in social care’ means that the use of AI systems in the care or related to the care of people, supports and does not undermine, harm or unfairly breach fundamental values of care, including human rights, independence, choice and control, dignity, equality and wellbeing.”
The Oxford collaboration definition of the responsible use of (generative) AI in adult social care – 27 March 2025
Generative AI in adult social care, such as GPT-powered AI chatbots, has many potential and actual use cases.
Whilst this quickly developing type of AI may benefit people in adult social care, we need to understand the ethical risks and implications of using this new technology in social care provision. The process towards defining, disseminating knowledge and implementing the ‘responsible use of generative AI’ in adult social care must include all groups of people in social care, such as people drawing on care, family and professional carers, care provider organisations, policy makers and regulators, local authorities, representative and advocacy groups amongst others.
In response to this, the Institute for Ethics in AI at Oxford University, particularly Dr Caroline Green, together with Reuben College, Katie Thorn from Digital Care Hub and Daniel Casson at Casson Consulting organised the first roundtable on the responsible use of generative AI in Adult Social Care in February 2024 and a major AI in Social Care Summit in March 2025.
We invite:
- all social care stakeholders to read our co-produced guidance, endorse our Call to action and sign up to a future alliance on AI in social care
- tech suppliers to sign up to a pledge on the responsible use of AI in social care in their technology.
We recognise that this work was only the beginning. At our AI in Social Care Summit, we announced plans for a new alliance on the responsible use of AI in social care. Further details will be published shortly, in the meantime, sign up to the Digital Care Hub newsletter for updates, or follow #AIinSocialCare on social media.
These web pages have more information about our work, background, outputs and plans.
You can also view a recording of our webinar on generative AI in social care held in June 2024.
