INDEPENDENT RESEARCHER & CONSULTANT
Conversational AI is now part of everyday human life. What role do psychological ‘attachments’ play in these interactions, and can this extend to dependency? I explore these questions and how they relate to our business and personal lives.
Featured essay
Artificial intelligence had a turbulent September. A succession of extraordinary events raised questions about AI, human control and the escalating global race for technological supremacy.
But beneath the headlines, another AI story has been quietly unfolding – inside the conversations taking place between humans and machines.
Read the essay →Posts
Exploring what trust means in the context of artificial intelligence and chatbots.
Read post →AdolescentsChatbot concerns for adolescentsResearch on anthropomorphism, emotional reliance and youth wellbeing.
Read post →AI agentsHugging Face hack in plain-EnglishWhat happened, why it matters and what it may tell us about autonomous AI agents.
Read post →Elsewhere
When AI companions get a personality update, some users respond with grief, study finds.
Harvard Gazette ↗AI in businessWhy 95% of companies stall on AI, and the behavioral science that fixes itThe Consumer Behavior Lab ↗Personal assistantsThe Battle to Be Your Personal AI Agent Is HereWIRED ↗About
I explore the human consequences of interacting with AI chatbots. My work brings together emerging AI research, human psychology and the stories behind a technology increasingly woven into everyday life – at home and at work.
My professional background is in marketing and business development. My current research brings that experience together with my interest in conversational AI, exploring the role of chatbots in marketing and the wider consumer ecosystem – and, more fundamentally, the psychological mechanisms at work when humans interact with increasingly human-like machines.