Speaking
Keynotes, workshops, and panels for conferences, universities, and organisations.
Talk topics
Slow AI: Prioritising Human Agency in Synthetic Systems
What happens when we stop treating speed as a virtue? This talk examines the cost of uncritical AI adoption in education, research, and professional life. It introduces the Slow AI framework: deliberate, critical, human-centred AI use. Audiences leave with practical methods for evaluating when AI helps and when it gets in the way.
Critical AI Literacy: What It Is and Why It Matters
AI literacy is not knowing how to write a good prompt. It is knowing how to read AI output critically, identify what is missing, and make informed decisions about when to use these tools. This talk covers the AI Literacy Deficit Model and gives educators and professionals a framework for building genuine critical AI literacy.
Synthetic Empathy: AI, Emotion, and the Limits of Care
AI tools are increasingly designed to simulate empathy, offering emotional support, companionship, and therapeutic interaction. This talk examines what happens when care is automated: the psychological risks of synthetic attachment, the ethics of designed intimacy, and why real empathy requires something machines cannot provide.
AI in Higher Education: Trust, Agency, and Assessment
Universities face a fundamental question about AI: not whether students will use it, but whether the institution can maintain trust, student agency, and meaningful assessment in a world where AI can produce plausible work on demand. This talk draws on research, classroom practice, and the four pillars framework from my forthcoming book.
'He is passionate and driven to make learning and teaching stimulating and stick. His work around cross-disciplinary working and poetry for teaching is inspirational. Sam is making a real difference to our students and staff.'
Chrissi Nerantzi, Professor in Creative and Open Education, National Teaching Fellow
Recent and upcoming
Substack Live, with EM Lewis-Jong (Founder/VP, Mozilla Data Collective)
Keynote, RCA AI Festival 2026, Royal College of Art, London
Invited panellist, CIC AI Ready Webinar, Council of Independent Colleges (US)
Keynote, Institute of Physics
Invited speaker, Equity Unbound
Keynote, U!REKA EduForum, VSB Technical University of Ostrava, Czechia
Keynote, Brain to Machine Generative AI Conference, Learning Planet Institute
Keynote, ARC Speaker Series, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, USA
Keynote, European Geosciences Union General Assembly, Vienna
Keynote, European Science Engagement Association, Vienna
Substack Lives, weekly conversations with writers and researchers on AI, ethics, and education
Also invited by
- Council of Europe (expert witness)
- European Commission (expert witness)
- Westminster Education Forum (expert witness)
- House of Lords Select Committee
- Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
- Google (SciFoo, Googleplex)
- NPR (All Things Considered)
- BBC Radio 3, Radio 4, Radio Scotland
- Royal Astronomical Society
- Stockholm Resilience Centre
- Swedish Research Council
- Science Foundation Ireland
- Policy Connect
- Falling Walls
- British Science Association
- Wellesley College
- Barcelona Biomedical Research Park
- University of Edinburgh
- Brock University
- Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Green Man Festival, Royal Shakespeare Company
Booking enquiries
Available for keynotes, workshops, panels, and webinars. In-person and online. Fees depend on format, location, and audience. Get in touch and I will send a quote.