I am a researcher interested in the social and environmental impact of technology. My training is in computer science, and for over two decades I worked in natural language processing, where I pursued a broad range of questions at the intersection of computer science, linguistics, mathematics, cognitive science, and social science. In short, my interests are interdisciplinary. Most of my past research can be found on the ACL Anthology and/ or Google Scholar.

Thanks to large language models, NLP is now being applied recklessly at scale to every imaginable human activity, creating a situation where both its production and application are causing immense harm. In this environment, what’s most urgently needed are social, historical, and ethical perspectives on NLP, automation, labour, media, supply chains, and the environment. If you are working in these areas and would find it helpful to talk to or collaborate with someone with my background, please get in touch!

I have held roles in both academia and industry, as an engineer, scientist, lecturer, and as director of artificial intelligence at a startup. I am currently an academic at the University of Edinburgh. I have advised some immensely talented PhD students:

If you are interested in joining my research team, please read my advice for prospective team members before emailing me.