Full Professor of Critical AI Literacy
2024 – present
Edinburgh Napier University, Department of Learning and Teaching Enhancement
I build tools and programmes that help people evaluate AI output critically. I founded Slow AI, a critical AI literacy newsletter with 22,500+ subscribers in 179 countries. I design interactive applications that train users in AI output evaluation: distinguishing human from machine-generated text (Bot or Not), identifying hallucinated academic citations (Dead Reference), stress-testing AI compliance culture (Good Employee), reading AI temperature from output (How Hot Is Your AI?), and confronting AI detection bias (Flagged). I have given invited expert evidence to the Council of Europe and the European Commission on AI literacy, human rights, and democratic governance, and submitted written evidence to a House of Lords Select Committee. My current Leverhulme-funded research investigates how university students interact with generative AI systems. Since launching Slow AI in 2025, I have published two Nature Correspondences on human-AI interaction.
Built
Slow AI: 22,500+ subscribers · 10 deployed AI literacy tools
Academic
125+ publications · 10 books · 2,800+ citations (h-index 27) · £450k+ research funding
AI Literacy Products: Built & Shipped
Critical AI Literacy programme
Designed and delivered a 12-month CPD-accredited programme in critical AI literacy during 2026 (Course #1019972, 25 credits, The CPD Group): monthly seminars combining theory, critical prompt exercises and group dialogue, for an international cohort of educators, researchers and professionals. Now runs as cohorts on Maven.
Integrity Debt Audit
Web application for educators measuring whether assessments can be completed by AI. Scores across 10 evidence-based categories that distinguish human learning from AI-generated work. Returns detailed reports with specific redesign recommendations.
Bot or Not
Turing test variant. 192 passages from published authors and AI models. Users evaluate whether text is human or machine-generated. Trains pattern recognition in AI output.
Dead Reference
Hallucination detection trainer. 40 real and fabricated academic citations presented side by side. Users identify AI-generated references. Addresses citation fabrication in LLM output.
Good Employee
Interactive satire exploring AI compliance dynamics in workplace settings. Users work through corporate AI policy and decide when to comply and when to resist.
Under Review
Tabletop role-playing game about peer review in the age of AI. Players take on the role of academic reviewers assessing papers that may be brilliant, AI-generated, or both. 3 to 5 players, 60 to 90 minutes.
AI Adoption Audit
Diagnostic tool measuring organisational AI maturity across 10 dimensions. 30 questions, instant results with downloadable PDF report. All scoring runs client-side.
Reading List Diversity Audit
Tool for educators analysing author geography and concentration patterns in reading lists. Paste DOIs, get instant structural diversity analysis. Based on Bird & Pitman (2020).
Flagged
AI detection bias simulator. Players act as an assistant professor reviewing 12 student submissions flagged by an AI detection tool. Each flag lands on a real person. Exposes how detection scores interact with student context to produce unjust outcomes.
Free guides on Gumroad: Keep Your Voice, Getting Started with Claude Code, A Gentle Guide to Reflection with AI, 7 Slow AI Prompts, hAIku.
AI Research & Evaluation
- Investigating ChatGPT and AI experiences in UK universities. Leverhulme Trust funded (£142,761, 2024–2026). Empirical research on how students interact with generative AI systems. Four papers in development: literature review, qualitative interview study, survey of 7,000+ students (largest of its kind in the UK), and a perspective on conducting large-scale cross-institutional research.
- GenAI in Higher Education: Redefining Teaching and Learning (Bloomsbury, 2026, with Rachel Forsyth). Open access. Examines AI integration in education, including synthetic empathy, AI anthropomorphism, and the psychology of human-AI interaction.
- Synthetic empathy and AI attachment. Ongoing research and public writing on the risks of simulated care in AI systems: how LLMs produce outputs that mimic empathy, why users form inappropriate attachments, and how to build critical distance. Core topic in the critical AI literacy teaching.
- Critical AI literacy teaching. Designed and delivered a 12-month programme teaching professionals and educators when to use AI and when to refuse it. Focuses on evaluating AI output through close reading, identifying what AI systems omit, and building the judgement to know when human expertise should not be delegated. 396 paid members.
AI Policy & Governance
- Expert Witness, Council of Europe on AI Literacy for Human Rights, Democracy and Social Agency (2025–). Advising on how AI literacy frameworks should inform regulation and democratic participation.
- Expert Witness, European Commission on the impact of AI on scientific publishing and communications (2023).
- Expert Witness, Policy Connect on net zero policy with Lord Teverson.
- Written evidence to House of Commons Education Committee on AI in education (2026). 38 paragraphs covering the deficit model critique, AI detection failure, teacher CPD, and cognitive erosion.
- Written evidence to House of Lords Select Committee. Work cited in UK Government policy papers on AI in education.
- Member, REF 2029 Sub-panel 23: Education. Evaluating research quality across UK higher education.
- Member, Royal Society of Edinburgh Education Committee (2024–).
- Member, Scottish Universities Working Group on Generative AI in Curriculum and Assessment.
- Chair, Science Foundation Ireland Discover Programme grant panel (overseeing €24M+ in funding allocation).
Current Positions
Visiting Professor
2025 – present
University College Dublin
Founder, Slow AI
2025 – present
Critical AI literacy newsletter, 22,500 readers in 179 countries
Associate Professor
2021 – 2024
Edinburgh Napier University
Education
PhD in Atmospheric Physics
2011
University of Leicester
MPhys Physics with Space Science and Technology (First Class, 87%, top of cohort)
2006
University of Leicester
MA in Higher Education
2016
Manchester Metropolitan University
Selected Books & Publications
GenAI in Higher Education: Redefining Teaching and Learning
Bridging Scholarship and Practice in Higher Education
Poetry and Pedagogy in Higher Education
Effective Science Communication
A Sonnet to Science: Scientists and Their Poetry
Selected Keynotes & Invited Talks
- Keynote: Teaching and Learning AI Day, Birmingham City University Oct 2026
- Keynote: CLT Symposium, American University in Cairo Sep 2026
- Keynote: AI in Schools and Colleges Scotland, COSLA, Edinburgh Jun 2026
- Keynote: RCA AI Festival, Royal College of Art, London Feb 2026
- Keynote: Institute of Physics Nov 2025
- Keynote: U!REKA EduForum, VSB-TUO, Czechia Apr 2025
- Keynote: Brain to Machine Generative AI Conference, Learning Planet Institute Feb 2025
- Keynote: ARC Speaker Series, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, USA Oct 2024
- Keynote: European Geosciences Union, Vienna Apr 2023
- Invited: ISC Paris, AI and the future of knowledge series Oct 2026
- Invited: VSB-TUO PhD Academy, Czechia Oct 2026
- Invited: Google for Education, higher education community Sep 2026
- Invited: Equity Unbound Nov 2025
- Invited: Barcelona Biomedical Research Park May 2025
- Invited: BERA: AI and Curriculum Making in Schools Nov 2024
- Invited: Stockholm Resilience Centre Sep 2023
- Invited: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (UK Gov) May 2022
- Invited: University of Edinburgh (x4) 2022–2025
- Invited: Wellesley College (x2) 2022–2023
Full list of 40+ invited engagements available on request.
Media
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio Scotland
NPR
Wired
Buzzfeed
Financial Times
Nature
Scientific American
Inside Higher Ed
Channel News Asia
Times Higher Education
The Conversation
BBC Science Focus
Newsweek
WIRED (2 September 2026). Quoted as the critical voice in a Big Story on AI-detection company Pangram, on why detectors do not work and how they are prejudiced against certain writers.
Times Higher Education (9 September 2026). Quoted as an expert on device-free classroom policies, on translation access, group work, and asking students what they want.
NPR, All Things Considered (12 August 2026). Interviewed on Substack’s AI-detection rollout, on the risk of false positives and the documented bias of detection software against non-native English speakers and neurodivergent writers.
400 million media reach over the past three years. Written and presented for BBC. Featured by NPR (All Things Considered), Wired, Buzzfeed, Scientific American, Inside Higher Ed, Newsweek, and BBC Science Focus (Instant Genius).
Awards & Fellowships
- Katia and Maurice Krafft Award (2023), European Geosciences Union, for innovative engagement methods in the geosciences
- Principal Fellow of Advance HE (PFHEA, 2022)
- LSE Higher Education Blog Fellow (2024), one of six globally
- Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation Scholar, two years studying science and theatre in Japan
- Fellow of the Young Academy of Scotland (2022–)
Selected Funded Research
Investigating ChatGPT and AI Experiences in UK Universities · Leverhulme Trust, 2024–2026
£142,761
Climate Consortium · NERC, 2017–2018
£119,000
The Imitation Game: AI in Analogue and Digital Games · AHRC, 2018–2020
£56,000
Additional grants from The Royal Society, EPSRC, Arts Council England, Advance HE, QAA, and others. Total: £450,000+.
Editorial & Supervision
Editorial: Chief Executive Editor, Geoscience Communication (Copernicus, 2018–). Editorial Board, Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (Nature Portfolio, 2025–). Founder, Consilience, interdisciplinary journal with 86 volunteers across 6 continents. External Examiner, MSc Science Communication, University of Edinburgh.
PhD supervision: 4 completed: Dr Eleanor Dunn (UCD, 2026), Dr Tony Hall (MMU, 2020), Dr Maria Loroño (MMU, 2019), Dr Joanne Phillips (MMU, 2018). Current doctoral candidates at Edinburgh Napier University. 5 external examiner appointments.
Grant reviewing: UKRI, AHRC, Swiss National Science Foundation, L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science, Science Foundation Ireland, Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Creative: Poetry and theatrical works performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and at Green Man festival. Written and presented for BBC.