Kate Devlin

Kate is Professor of AI & Society in the Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London and is the current Chair-Director of the Digital Futures Institute. With an undergraduate degree in archaeology (QUB) and an MSc (QUB) and PhD (Bristol) in computer science, her research investigates how – and why – people interact with and react to technologies, both past and future. Kate is the author of the critically acclaimed Turned On: Science, Sex and Robots (Bloomsbury, 2018), which examines the ethical and social implications of technology and intimacy.

Kate is a co-investigator and the King's lead on the UKRI's £31 million Repsonsible AI UK programme, which brings together researchers from across the UK to understand how we should shape the development of AI to benefit people, communities and society. She was Advocacy and Engagement Director for the UKRI-funded Trusted Autonomous Systems Hub, which ran from 2020-2024.

Kate is a board member of the Open Rights Group, a UK-based organisation that works to preserve digital rights and freedoms. In July 2022 she was made a patron of Humanists UK for her contribution to the greater public understanding of science. She represents Humanists UK in her role as a Commissioner for the international AI, Faith & Civil Society Commission. As a science communicator, she provides accessible accounts of robotics and AI in both broadcast and print media.