The University of Johannesburg (UJ) has moved to the centre of the global artificial intelligence governance debate, formally entering the policy arena with the launch of Beyond the Code: AI and Law, a podcast led by Vice-Chancellor, Professor Letlhokwa George Mpedi, as regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) emerges as a defining legal and geopolitical fault line.
Launched on 29 April 2026 at the UJ Arts Centre, the series opened with a high-level inaugural episode featuring Professor Tshilidzi Marwala, Rector of the United Nations University and former UJ Vice-Chancellor, immediately signalling the global ambition and intellectual weight behind the initiative.
From finance and healthcare to policing and warfare, AI is already shaping high-stakes decisions, often without clear lines of accountability. What was until recently a theoretical policy debate is now an immediate governance problem.
Prof Mpedi’s intervention is deliberate. Rather than framing AI as a question of innovation, he centres it as a legal and societal challenge.
“The challenge before us is not merely technological but rather it is fundamentally legal and societal,” he said. “Our frameworks for accountability, justice and human dignity must evolve alongside the technologies reshaping our world.”
Prof Mpedi’s call for enforceable regulation, over voluntary ethical guidelines, signals a broader global shift toward accountability as AI systems move from theory into everyday decision-making.
Prof Mpedi during the launch event of Beyond the Code. Photo: University of Johannesburg/ Themba Mavuso
The first episode confronts a widening gap between the rapid advancement of AI and the legal and regulatory frameworks meant to govern it. Framing the issue in legal and societal terms, Prof Mpedi shifts the focus to governance and accountability, with both speakers arguing that voluntary ethical guidelines are no longer sufficient and calling for clear, enforceable frameworks that assign responsibility across developers, deployers and institutions.
Drawing on his role within the United Nations University, Prof Marwala framed the challenge as one of coordination, warning that without stronger global alignment, regulatory approaches risk diverging across regions. Within this context, Prof Mpedi emphasised the need for frameworks that are not only enforceable, but responsive to local realities.
The geopolitical dimension of AI regulation is sharpening, as major global powers advance competing models, raising the likelihood of a fragmented international regime. This has intensified the need for stronger multilateral coordination, alongside recognition of the role universities can play in bridging the gap between technological innovation and legal accountability.
Through Beyond the Code, that positioning becomes concrete.
The podcast is designed as more than an academic platform. It places UJ within a broader network of institutions actively engaging the policy, legal and societal implications of AI, at a moment when those questions are moving rapidly up the global agenda.
The inaugural episode also turns to the legal profession itself. As AI systems begin to perform tasks traditionally associated with lawyers, the conversation reframes disruption as structural change.
Prof Mpedi highlighted that legal education must move faster to remain relevant. “The profession is changing faster than curricula typically do,” he said. “That gap is where relevance is lost.”
This aligns with shifts at UJ toward digitally enabled legal training and immersive learning environments, reflecting a broader rethinking of how future lawyers are prepared and law is taught and practised.
Prof Mpedi concludes: “Universities must shape not only the technologies of the future, but the legal and ethical frameworks that govern them. As AI regulation rises on the global agenda, this is about ensuring innovation serves humanity and actively contributing to the debates that will define that future.”
WATCH: Beyond the Code – AI and Law: Episode 1 – Prof Tshilidzi Marwala
