I have spent 15 years investigating and documenting how machines and humans interact — and what that means for how the world works. It started in 2010 when I founded and ran the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media (CASM) at the think tank Demos, in partnership with the University of Sussex, applying machine learning to the study of social movements. From there I began investigating online subcultures, in particular online criminality (The Dark Net, 2014), fringe movements (Radicals, 2017), and digital scams (The Missing Cryptoqueen).

I am fascinated by the way people use machines, and how even small changes in technology can create enormous political and economic transformations elsewhere. At the moment my principal area of research and investigation is AI, and in particular language models. I regularly advise and deliver briefings to governments and multinational organisations on these subjects.

Author of several books and podcasts about technology and society, including The Dark Net, and The People Vs Tech. My podcasts about technology include the international hit series The Missing Cryptoqueen, which topped charts all over the world. My latest is Endgame with The Observer, examining existential risks from artificial general intelligence.

I am regularly sought out as a speaker for events, where I typically cover AI, cyber-crime, and how technology is changing the world. My TED talk about the dark net has been viewed over 5 million times.

I offer bespoke, in-person masterclasses that help people and companies understand and use language models in more effective and thoughtful ways. My one-day sessions, limited to small groups and designed around each group's own work, are hands-on, practical and focus on a combination of technical and linguistic habits required to improve use. We run live exercises in designing structured prompts, understanding workflows, spotting hallucinated facts and fabricated sources, and resisting "sycophancy". The day is built around keeping the human in charge: developing the habits of critical thinking, independent judgement, and self-reflection needed to use these tools as a creative and intellectual aid rather than a crutch. People leave not just knowing how to 'prompt' a model well, but with the confidence and scepticism to stay in control of it.