Introducing the 2025 MSc Thesis Prize Winners
Emerging academic work on LLM evaluation validity and AI moderation legitimacy may eventually inform governance frameworks — worth a light watch.
Key points
- Oxford Internet Institute announces four 2025 MSc thesis prize winners across AI and internet governance topics.
- One winning thesis examines construct validity in LLM evaluations — directly relevant to AI benchmarking reliability debates.
- A second winner studies public legitimacy perceptions of participatory versus closed-door AI content moderation approaches.
Implications for Australian agencies
- Monitor AI governance teams with an interest in LLM evaluation methodology may want to monitor Kearns' forthcoming DPhil work through the OII's Reasoning with Machines Lab.
Implications are AI-generated. Starting points, not advice — see methodology for how they're framed.
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"Introducing the 2025 MSc Thesis Prize Winners"
Source: Oxford Internet Institute – News
Published: 18 February 2026
URL: https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/news-events/introducing-the-2025-msc-thesis-prize-winners/
The Oxford Internet Institute has announced its 2025 MSc Thesis Prize winners, recognising outstanding student research across social data science and internet studies. Among the AI-relevant winners, Ryan Kearns examined how to meaningfully interpret LLM benchmark results by identifying robust, interpretable capabilities beyond headline scores. Maximilian Kroner Dale used a survey experiment to measure public perceptions of legitimacy in AI chatbot moderation governance. The other winners addressed crisis-time narrative control and evidence-to-policy translation in social media and mental health contexts. These are early-career research outputs rather than policy guidance.
Implications for Australian agencies:
- [Monitor] AI governance teams with an interest in LLM evaluation methodology may want to monitor Kearns' forthcoming DPhil work through the OII's Reasoning with Machines Lab.
Retrieved from SIMS, 18 July 2026.