Marks Received for Thesis
Receiving an 80/100 on my master’s thesis at Edinburgh — what distinction means at the graduate level, the feedback I received, and what it taught me about the difference between completion and contribution.
Blog
Essays, commentary, and research on AI ethics — from philosophical foundations to policy implications.
Year 2 Begins
Reflections on beginning the second year of the AI Ethics programme, with fewer courses but the added challenge of a full research dissertation.
Thesis Completion & Submission
Submitting my MSc thesis proposing ETHICA — a poly-ethical decision-making framework that repositions AI ethics from compliance to competency — and reflecting on whether to pursue a PhD.
Thesis Development: Advisor Meeting #2
Lessons from my second thesis advisor meeting — on academic writing, proportionate argumentation, and the risk of oversimplifying normative ethical theory.
Algorithmic Fairness, Bias, and Justice
Reflections on a final paper examining Ofqual’s A-Level grading algorithm and the broader lessons of algorithmic fairness in education.
Ethical Data Futures
End-of-semester reflections on the Ethical Data Futures course, covering six core ethical data skills and the importance of moving beyond personal perspectives in ethics.
Education, Personalisation and Surveillance
Reflections on my final coursework at Edinburgh — the false promise of personalized learning, the ethics of data collection on children, and the marginalization of teachers through AI augmentation.
Intensive Day 1: Algorithmic Bias, Fairness, and Justice
Key takeaways from the first eight-hour intensive on algorithmic bias, including the black-chain framework, definitions of bias, and approaches to fairness.
Representing Data
A course on data visualization that changed how I think about what we choose to show — and what we leave out. From sketches to Python, with ethical implications throughout.
A New Direction
Announcing a change in thesis direction, shifting from a deontological rules-and-tools approach to responsible AI toward a virtue ethics framework that treats ethics as a skillset.
Translational Ethics
Exploring translational data and AI ethics, including how ethical values are communicated across technology stakeholders and the role of ethnography in understanding technology creation.
Data Ethics as a Practice Intensives
Five key takeaways from two days of intensives on data ethics, covering value-laden data, dataset bias, AI ethics specializations, and the contextual nature of bias.
Thesis Development: Advisor Meeting #1
My first thesis advisor meeting at Edinburgh — adopting a poly-ethical approach, the MVP strategy for academic work, and the birth of the Ethical Debugging concept.
Ethics as a Skillset: An Alternative Approach to Responsible AI
A thesis proposal for shifting responsible AI from a deontological rules-based approach to a virtue ethics framework that cultivates ethics as a skillset over time.
Model Cards
An overview of Model Cards for Model Reporting, a standardized documentation approach for machine learning models that promotes transparency, fairness, and explainability.
The Ethics of AI Ethics: An Evaluation of Guidelines -- Thilo Hagendorff
A review of Hagendorff’s paper examining whether ethical guidelines actually influence human decision-making, concluding they do not, and why virtue ethics may be a better approach.
Using Kant’s Moral Absolutism to Point Out the Flaws in Utilitarianism
An exploration of Kant’s categorical imperative and moral absolutism as a lens for examining the shortcomings of utilitarianism in ethical decision-making.
New Podcast: Machines & Meaning
How a course assignment turned into a passion project — creating a podcast that examines AI through the lens of different philosophers.
Reflections on Semester 1
End-of-semester reflections on five courses covering AI ethics, law, governance, democracy, data science, interdisciplinary thinking, and project planning.
The Process of Developing an Argument
A creative writing exercise on the process of constructing an academic argument, exploring thesis development and the role of examples in supporting a claim.
New Paradigms in Ethics
A deep dive into Alasdair MacIntyre’s moral philosophy at Edinburgh — on tradition as the embodiment of values, the role of virtues, and questions that shaped my thesis.
When Should We Start Treating Private Companies More Like Public Entities?
Exploring the argument that private companies should be treated like public entities when they reach ubiquity and essentially function as public utilities.
What is Normative AI?
An exploration of normative ethics and its potential application to AI, questioning whether we can establish baselines of normal and outlying behavior for artificial intelligence.
Reflections on Data and Artificial Intelligence Ethics
A pivotal reflection on the realization that ethics alone has limited power without enforcement mechanisms, and how this reframing transformed an understanding of AI ethics.
Draft Proposal for Intervention
A draft proposal for an intervention designed to help creative professionals reskill and avoid AI-related job displacement, drawing on personal experience as a Creative Director.
Readings from Ethics of Robotics and Autonomous Systems
Halfway through readings on robot ethics — on autonomy’s effect on work ethic, whether robots deserve rights, and the outsourcing of moral responsibility.
The First Case Study: Using AI to Classify Emergency Calls
Reflections on a case study involving Thames Valley Police and AI-based call classification, highlighting the value of multidisciplinary analysis through legal, policy, and ethical lenses.
Optimizing to Human Rights Over Innovation
A critique of the ‘Innovation First’ approach to AI, arguing that human rights should take precedence over innovation when the two are in tension.
The Individual vs. The Group
Exploring the question of whether a group can be harmed without an individual being harmed, and the implications for group privacy protections.
Research Ethics
An overview of Edinburgh’s approach to research ethics, covering guiding principles for ethical research conduct from conception through dissemination.
Interdisciplinary Futures
An introduction to the Interdisciplinary Futures course at Edinburgh Futures Institute, exploring how ethics is inherently interdisciplinary and what the course aims to develop in students.
Multidisciplinarity vs. Interdisciplinarity vs. Transdisciplinarity
Understanding the differences between multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary approaches, and why interdisciplinarity is central to the Edinburgh Futures Institute.
Pre-reading Begins
First impressions of the diverse reading materials in the data ethics programme, including key takeaways from Shannon Vallor’s ‘An Introduction to Data Ethics.'
Lessons Learned in Edinburgh
Early reflections on the programme — why ethics needs alliances, the power of virtue ethics, and growing market demand for AI ethicists.
Touring the New Building
Exploring the Edinburgh Futures Institute’s home in the renovated Old Royal Infirmary — where centuries-old stone meets contemporary design.
White Lies on Silver Tongues: Why Robots Need to Deceive (and How)
Examining the academic argument for robot deception — when bullshitting serves benevolent goals, and what ethical frameworks we embed when we permit machines to lie.
Course Selections
Choosing electives for the MSc programme — balancing interest with long-term professional goals and being kind to my future self.
Welcome to the Edinburgh Futures Institute
Induction day at EFI — meeting peers from 40 countries, learning about the Futures Cone, and understanding the programme’s philosophy of navigating complexity.
The Meeting with Shannon Vallor
Meeting the Director of the Data & AI Ethics programme and discovering how virtue ethics reframes the way we think about technology.
Welcome to Edinburgh
First impressions of Edinburgh — from Holyrood Palace to Scottish comfort food at Makars Gourmet Mash Bar.