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Publications

Articles, conference papers and reports exploring the Public Policy Programme's research.

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AI for Public Services

Publication

AI for bureaucratic productivity: Measuring the potential of AI to help automate 143 million UK government transactions

There is currently considerable excitement within government about the potential of artificial intelligence to improve public service productivity through the...

AI for bureaucratic productivity: Measuring the potential of AI to help automate 143 million UK government transactions

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Generative AI is already widespread in the public sector

Generative AI has the potential to transform how public services are delivered by enhancing productivity and reducing time spent on...

Generative AI is already widespread in the public sector

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Understanding engagement with platform safety technology for reducing exposure to online harms

User facing 'platform safety technology' encompasses an array of tools offered by platforms to help people protect themselves from harm...

Understanding engagement with platform safety technology for reducing exposure to online harms

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A multidomain relational framework to guide institutional AI research and adoption

Calls for new metrics, technical standards and governance mechanisms to guide the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in institutions and...

A multidomain relational framework to guide institutional AI research and adoption

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Unsupervised feature extraction of aerial images for clustering and understanding hazardous road segments

Aerial image data are becoming more widely available, and analysis techniques based on supervised learning are advancing their use in...

Unsupervised feature extraction of aerial images for clustering and understanding hazardous road segments

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Artificial intelligence in government: Concepts, standards, and a unified framework

Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) hold the promise of improving government. Given the advanced capabilities...

Artificial intelligence in government: Concepts, standards, and a unified framework

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High-stakes team based public sector decision making and AI oversight

Oversight mechanisms, whereby the functioning and behaviour of AI systems are controlled to ensure that they are tuned to public...

High-stakes team based public sector decision making and AI oversight

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Key challenges for the participatory governance of AI in public administration

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly embedded in government operations, retaining democratic control over these technologies is becoming ever more...

Key challenges for the participatory governance of AI in public administration

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Estimating Chicago's tree cover and canopy height using multi-spectral satellite imagery

Information on urban tree canopies is fundamental to mitigating climate change as well as improving quality of life. Urban tree...

Estimating Chicago's tree cover and canopy height using multi-spectral satellite imagery

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Approaches to the algorithmic allocation of public resources: a cross-disciplinary review

Allocation of scarce resources is a recurring challenge for the public sector, emerging in areas as diverse as healthcare, disaster...

Approaches to the algorithmic allocation of public resources: a cross-disciplinary review

Ethics & Responsible Innovation

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Mapping the individual, social and biospheric impacts of Foundation Models

Responding to the rapid roll-out and large-scale commercialization of foundation models, large language models...

Mapping the individual, social and biospheric impacts of Foundation Models

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AI, Children’s Rights, & Wellbeing: Transnational Frameworks

Mapping 13 Frameworks at the Intersections of Data-Intensive Technologies, Children’s Rights, and Wellbeing

AI, Children’s Rights, & Wellbeing: Transnational Frameworks

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Process Based Governance in Action

A practical guide to ethical and responsible design, development, and deployment of Artificial Intelligence produced for the Department for Business and Trade

Process Based Governance in Action

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AI Ethics and Governance in Practice: An Introduction

An introduction to the AI Ethics and Governance in Practice programme, providing an outline of the key components that make up AI systems.

AI Ethics and Governance in Practice: An Introduction

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AI Ethics and Governance in Practice: AI Explainability in Practice

The seventh workbook in the AI Ethics and Governance in Practice Programme.

AI Ethics and Governance in Practice: AI Explainability in Practice

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AI Ethics and Governance in Practice: AI Sustainability in Practice Part One: Foundations for Sustainable AI Projects

The second workbook in the AI Ethics and Governance in Practice Programme, describing concepts and tools needed to put AI Sustainability into practice.

AI Ethics and Governance in Practice: AI Sustainability in Practice Part One: Foundations for Sustainable AI Projects

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AI Ethics and Governance in Practice: AI Sustainability in Practice Part Two: Sustainability Throughout the AI Workflow

The second workbook on AI Sustainability in Practice, part of the AI Ethics and Governance in Practice Programme.

AI Ethics and Governance in Practice: AI Sustainability in Practice Part Two: Sustainability Throughout the AI Workflow

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AI Ethics and Governance in Practice: Responsible Data Stewardship in Practice

The fifth workbook in the AI Ethics and Governance in Practice Programme.

AI Ethics and Governance in Practice: Responsible Data Stewardship in Practice

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AI Ethics and Governance in Practice: AI Safety in Practice

The sixth workbook in the AI Ethics and Governance in Practice Programme.

AI Ethics and Governance in Practice: AI Safety in Practice

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AI Ethics and Governance in Practice: AI Fairness in Practice

A workbook exploring a context-based and society-centred approach to understanding AI Fairness.

AI Ethics and Governance in Practice: AI Fairness in Practice

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AI Ethics and Governance in Practice: AI Accountability in Practice

The final workbook in the AI Ethics and Governance in Practice Programme.

AI Ethics and Governance in Practice: AI Accountability in Practice

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Does the sun rise for ChatGPT? Scientific discovery in the age of generative AI

In the current hype-laden climate surrounding the rapid proliferation of foundation models and generative...

Does the sun rise for ChatGPT? Scientific discovery in the age of generative AI

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Advancing Data Justice Research and Practice

An Integrated Literature Review

Advancing Data Justice Research and Practice

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Data Justice Stories: A Repository of Case Studies

The idea of “data justice” is of recent academic vintage. It has arisen over...

Data Justice Stories: A Repository of Case Studies

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Data Justice in Practice: A Guide for Developers

The Advancing Data Justice Research and Practice project aims to broaden understanding of the...

Data Justice in Practice: A Guide for Developers

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Data Justice in Practice: A Guide for Policymakers

The Advancing Data Justice Research and Practice project aims to broaden understanding of the...

Data Justice in Practice: A Guide for Policymakers

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AI, human rights, democracy and the rule of law: A primer prepared for the Council of Europe

In September 2019, the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers adopted the terms of...

AI, human rights, democracy and the rule of law: A primer prepared for the Council of Europe

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Human rights, democracy, and the rule of law assurance framework for AI systems

A proposal prepared for the Council of Europe's Ad hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence

Human rights, democracy, and the rule of law assurance framework for AI systems

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Understanding artificial intelligence ethics and safety

A guide to AI ethics, including responsible design and implementation of AI systems in the public sector

Understanding artificial intelligence ethics and safety

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Privacy, Agency and Trust in Human-AI Ecosystems: Interim Report (Short Version)

This short-form version of the interim report presents an overview of the PATH-AI project...

Privacy, Agency and Trust in Human-AI Ecosystems: Interim Report (Short Version)

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Ethics of machine learning in children's social care

Across the press, academia, and the worlds of policy and practice, concerns abound about...

Ethics of machine learning in children's social care

Modelling for Policy

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Automatic SDG Budget Tagging: Building Public Financial Management Capacity through Natural Language Processing

The “budgeting for SDGs” (B4SDGs) paradigm seeks to coordinate the budgeting process of the fiscal cycle with the Sustainable Development...

Automatic SDG Budget Tagging: Building Public Financial Management Capacity through Natural Language Processing

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Quantifying the Technological Foundations of Economic Complexity

The problem of inferring the technological structure of production processes and, hence, quantifying technological sophistication, remains largely unsolved; at least...

Quantifying the Technological Foundations of Economic Complexity

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Decentralized markets and the emergence of housing wealth inequality

Recent studies suggest that the traditional determinants of housing wealth are insufficient to explain its current inequality levels. Thus, they...

Decentralized markets and the emergence of housing wealth inequality

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How Do Governments Determine Policy Priorities? Studying Development Strategies Through Spillover Networks

Determining policy priorities is a challenging task for any government because there may be, for example, a multiplicity of objectives...

How Do Governments Determine Policy Priorities? Studying Development Strategies Through Spillover Networks

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The Resilience of Public Policies in Economic Development

This paper studies the resilience of public policies that governments design for catalyzing economic development. This property depends on the...

The Resilience of Public Policies in Economic Development

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The Importance of Social and Government Learning in Ex Ante Policy Evaluation

We provide two methodological insights on ex ante policy evaluation for macro models of economic development. First, we show that...

The Importance of Social and Government Learning in Ex Ante Policy Evaluation

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Quantifying the Coherence of Development Policy Priorities

Over the last 30 years, the concept of policy coherence for development has received especial attention among academics, practitioners and...

Quantifying the Coherence of Development Policy Priorities

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Does Better Governance Guarantee Less Corruption?

Evidence of Loss in Effectiveness of the Rule of Law

Does Better Governance Guarantee Less Corruption?

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Uncovering Vote Trading through Networks and Computation

We develop a new methodological framework for the empirical study of legislative vote trading. Building on the concept of reciprocity...

Uncovering Vote Trading through Networks and Computation

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Decentralized markets and the emergence of housing wealth inequality

Recent studies suggest that the traditional determinants of housing wealth are insufficient to explain its current inequality levels. Thus, they...

Decentralized markets and the emergence of housing wealth inequality

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A Method for Emerging Empirical Age Structures in Agent-Based Models with Exogenous Survival Probabilities

For many applications of agent-based models (ABMs), an agent's age influences important decisions (e.g. their contribution to/withdrawal from pension funds...

A Method for Emerging Empirical Age Structures in Agent-Based Models with Exogenous Survival Probabilities

Online Safety

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Large language models can consistently generate high-quality content for election disinformation operations

Advances in large language models have raised concerns about their potential use in generating compelling election disinformation at scale. This...

Large language models can consistently generate high-quality content for election disinformation operations

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Behind the Deepfake: 8% Create; 90% Concerned

Surveying public exposure to and perceptions of deepfakes in the UK

Behind the Deepfake: 8% Create; 90% Concerned

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How do people protect themselves against online misinformation?

Attitudes, experiences and uptake of interventions amongst the UK adult population

How do people protect themselves against online misinformation?

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Understanding gender differences in experiences and concerns surrounding online harms: A nationally representative survey of UK adults

Online harms, such as hate speech, trolling and self-harm promotion, continue to be widespread. While some work suggests women are...

Understanding gender differences in experiences and concerns surrounding online harms: A nationally representative survey of UK adults

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Cheap Learning: Maximising Performance of Language Models for Social Data Science Using Minimal Data

The field of machine learning has recently made significant progress in reducing the requirements for labelled training data when building...

Cheap Learning: Maximising Performance of Language Models for Social Data Science Using Minimal Data

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Exploring responsible applications of synthetic data to advance online safety research and development

Data are the foundational components used to train, test, and validate machine learning applications. As demand for machine learning technologies...

Exploring responsible applications of synthetic data to advance online safety research and development

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DoDo Learning: DOmain-DemOgraphic Transfer in Language Models for Detecting Abuse Targeted at Public Figures

Public figures receive a disproportionate amount of abuse on social media, impacting their active participation in public life. Automated systems...

DoDo Learning: DOmain-DemOgraphic Transfer in Language Models for Detecting Abuse Targeted at Public Figures

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Understanding Counterspeech for Online Harm Mitigation

Counterspeech offers direct rebuttals to hateful speech by challenging perpetrators of hate and showing support to targets of abuse. It...

Understanding Counterspeech for Online Harm Mitigation

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Tracking abuse on Twitter against football players in the 2021-22 Premier League Season

Online abuse against prominent sportspeople, such as football players, is a growing concern. To help understand this issue, we have...

Tracking abuse on Twitter against football players in the 2021-22 Premier League Season

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How can we combat online misinformation? A systematic overview of current interventions and their efficacy

The spread of misinformation is a pressing global problem that has elicited a range of responses from researchers, policymakers, civil...

How can we combat online misinformation? A systematic overview of current interventions and their efficacy

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Is More Data Better? Re-thinking the Importance of Efficiency in Abusive Language Detection with Transformers-Based Active Learning

Annotating abusive language is expensive, logistically complex and creates a risk of psychological harm. However, most machine learning research has...

Is More Data Better? Re-thinking the Importance of Efficiency in Abusive Language Detection with Transformers-Based Active Learning

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Misinformation and professional news on largely unmoderated platforms: the case of telegram

To date, there is little research to measure the scale of misinformation and understand how it spreads on largely unmoderated...

Misinformation and professional news on largely unmoderated platforms: the case of telegram

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Tracking experiences of online harms and attitudes towards online safety interventions

Findings from a large-scale, nationally representative survey of the British public

Tracking experiences of online harms and attitudes towards online safety interventions

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Multidisciplinary Approaches to Mis- and Disinformation Studies

Misleading and false information distributed online, often conceptualized as misinformation and disinformation, are subjects of increasing contemporary concern. Mis/disinformation is...

Multidisciplinary Approaches to Mis- and Disinformation Studies

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Animalistic slurs increase harm by changing perceptions of social desirability

In propaganda and hate speech, target groups are often compared to dangerous and disgusting animals. Exposure to these animalistic slurs...

Animalistic slurs increase harm by changing perceptions of social desirability

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How Do Climate Change Skeptics Engage with Opposing Views Online? Evidence from a Major Climate Change Skeptic Forum on Reddit

Does exposure to opposing views contribute to breaking down science skepticism? In this study, we contribute to the debate by...

How Do Climate Change Skeptics Engage with Opposing Views Online? Evidence from a Major Climate Change Skeptic Forum on Reddit

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History under attack: Holocaust denial and distortion on social media

History under attack: Holocaust denial and distortion on social media

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How can we combat online misinformation? A systematic overview of current interventions and their efficacy

The spread of misinformation is a pressing global problem that has elicited a range of responses from researchers, policymakers, civil...

How can we combat online misinformation? A systematic overview of current interventions and their efficacy

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Reduced helping intentions are better explained by the attribution of antisocial emotions than by ‘infrahumanization’

We challenge the explanatory value of one of the most prominent psychological models of dehumanization—infrahumanization theory—which holds that outgroup members...

Reduced helping intentions are better explained by the attribution of antisocial emotions than by ‘infrahumanization’

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Understanding Counterspeech for Online Harm Mitigation

Counterspeech offers direct rebuttals to hateful speech by challenging perpetrators of hate and showing support to targets of abuse. It...

Understanding Counterspeech for Online Harm Mitigation

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Response to the Ofcom Call for Evidence on the first phase of Online Safety Regulation

The Alan Turing Institute welcomed the opportunity to respond to Ofcom’s Call for Evidence regarding the forthcoming Online Safety Regulation...

Response to the Ofcom Call for Evidence on the first phase of Online Safety Regulation

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An actor-based approach to understanding radical right viral tweets in the UK

Radical right actors routinely use social media to spread highly divisive, disruptive, and anti-democratic messages. Assessing and countering such content...

An actor-based approach to understanding radical right viral tweets in the UK

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Two Contrasting Data Annotation Paradigms for Subjective NLP Tasks

Labelled data is the foundation of most natural language processing tasks. However, labelling data is difficult and there often are...

Two Contrasting Data Annotation Paradigms for Subjective NLP Tasks

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Multidisciplinary Approaches to Mis- and Disinformation Studies

Misleading and false information distributed online, often conceptualized as misinformation and disinformation, are subjects of increasing contemporary concern. Mis/disinformation is...

Multidisciplinary Approaches to Mis- and Disinformation Studies

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An agenda for research into online hate

Online hate is a ‘wicked problem’ in the truest sense: it is difficult to define, knowledge is incomplete and contradictory...

An agenda for research into online hate

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DCMS consultation on the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation

Consultation The creation of the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation was announced in late 2017. The Government launched its...

DCMS consultation on the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation

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DCMS and Home Office consultation on the Online Harms White Paper

Consultation In April 2019, the Department of Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and the Home Office released the Online Harms...

DCMS and Home Office consultation on the Online Harms White Paper

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DoDo Learning: DOmain-DemOgraphic Transfer in Language Models for Detecting Abuse Targeted at Public Figures

Public figures receive a disproportionate amount of abuse on social media, impacting their active participation in public life. Automated systems...

DoDo Learning: DOmain-DemOgraphic Transfer in Language Models for Detecting Abuse Targeted at Public Figures

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The political economy of digital profiteering:

Communication resource mobilization by anti-vaccination actors

The political economy of digital profiteering:

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How do individuals in a radical echo chamber react to opposing views? Evidence from a content analysis of Stormfront

Calls to “break up” radical echo chambers by injecting them with alternative viewpoints are common. Yet, thus far there is...

How do individuals in a radical echo chamber react to opposing views? Evidence from a content analysis of Stormfront

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Is More Data Better? Re-thinking the Importance of Efficiency in Abusive Language Detection with Transformers-Based Active Learning

Annotating abusive language is expensive, logistically complex and creates a risk of psychological harm. However, most machine learning research has...

Is More Data Better? Re-thinking the Importance of Efficiency in Abusive Language Detection with Transformers-Based Active Learning

Publication

An actor-based approach to understanding radical right viral tweets in the UK

Radical right actors routinely use social media to spread highly divisive, disruptive, and anti-democratic messages. Assessing and countering such content...

An actor-based approach to understanding radical right viral tweets in the UK

Publication

Two Contrasting Data Annotation Paradigms for Subjective NLP Tasks

Labelled data is the foundation of most natural language processing tasks. However, labelling data is difficult and there often are...

Two Contrasting Data Annotation Paradigms for Subjective NLP Tasks

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Handling and Presenting Harmful Text in NLP Research

Text data can pose a risk of harm. However, the risks are not fully understood, and how to handle, present...

Handling and Presenting Harmful Text in NLP Research

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Tackling racial bias in automated online hate detection

Towards fair and accurate detection of hateful users with geometric deep learning

Tackling racial bias in automated online hate detection

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Deciphering Implicit Hate: Evaluating Automated Detection Algorithms for Multimodal Hate

Accurate detection and classification of online hate is a difficult task.Implicit hate is particularly challenging as such content tends to...

Deciphering Implicit Hate: Evaluating Automated Detection Algorithms for Multimodal Hate

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An Expert Annotated Dataset for the Detection of Online Misogyny

Online misogyny is a pernicious social problem that risks making online platforms toxic and unwelcoming to women. We present a...

An Expert Annotated Dataset for the Detection of Online Misogyny

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Hatemoji: A Test Suite and Adversarially-Generated Dataset for Benchmarking and Detecting Emoji-Based Hate

Detecting online hate is a complex task, and low-performing models have harmful consequences when used for sensitive applications such as...

Hatemoji: A Test Suite and Adversarially-Generated Dataset for Benchmarking and Detecting Emoji-Based Hate

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Findings of the WOAH 5 Shared Task on Fine Grained Hateful Memes Detection

We present the results and main findings of the shared task at WOAH 5 on hateful memes detection. The task...

Findings of the WOAH 5 Shared Task on Fine Grained Hateful Memes Detection

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HateCheck: Functional Tests for Hate Speech Detection Models

Detecting online hate is a difficult task that even state-of-the-art models struggle with. Typically, hate speech detection models are evaluated...

HateCheck: Functional Tests for Hate Speech Detection Models

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Introducing CAD: the Contextual Abuse Dataset

Online abuse can inflict harm on users and communities, making online spaces unsafe and toxic. Progress in automatically detecting and...

Introducing CAD: the Contextual Abuse Dataset

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Islamophobes are not all the same! A study of far right actors on Twitter

Far-right actors are often purveyors of Islamophobic hate speech online, using social media to spread divisive and prejudiced messages which...

Islamophobes are not all the same! A study of far right actors on Twitter

Detecting East Asian prejudice on social media

Evidence suggests that there has been an uptick in the amount of prejudice against East Asia during the COVID-19 pandemic

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Recalibrating classifiers for interpretable abusive content detection

We investigate the use of machine learning classifiers for detecting online abuse in empirical research. We show that uncalibrated classifiers...

Recalibrating classifiers for interpretable abusive content detection

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Challenges and frontiers in abusive content detection

Online abusive content detection is an inherently difficult task. It has received considerable attention from academia, particularly within the computational...

Challenges and frontiers in abusive content detection

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Detecting weak dependence in computer network traffic patterns using higher criticism

To perform robust statistical anomaly detection in cyber-security, we must build realistic models of the traffic patterns within a computer...

Detecting weak dependence in computer network traffic patterns using higher criticism

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Understanding RT’s Audiences: Exposure Not Endorsement for Twitter Followers of Russian State-Sponsored Media

The Russian state-funded international broadcaster RT (formerly Russia Today) has attracted much attention as a purveyor of Russian propaganda. To...

Understanding RT’s Audiences: Exposure Not Endorsement for Twitter Followers of Russian State-Sponsored Media

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Directions in abusive language training data, a systematic review: Garbage in, garbage out

Data-driven and machine learning based approaches for detecting, categorising and measuring abusive content such as hate speech and harassment have...

Directions in abusive language training data, a systematic review: Garbage in, garbage out

AI Governance & Regulatory Innovation

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Common Regulatory Capacity for AI

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is increasing across all sectors of the economy, which raises important and pressing questions...

Common Regulatory Capacity for AI

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AI in financial services

Artificial intelligence (AI) plays a central role in current processes of technological change in financial services. Its prominent place on...

AI in financial services

Women in Data Science and AI

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Report: Where are the women? Mapping the gender job gap in AI

As AI becomes ubiquitous in everyday life, closing the gender gap in the AI and data science workforce matters. The...

Report: Where are the women? Mapping the gender job gap in AI

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Rebalancing Innovation: Women, AI and Venture Capital in the UK

Rebalancing Innovation: Women, AI and Venture Capital in the UK presents a unique picture of gender diversity in AI-focused venture...

Rebalancing Innovation: Women, AI and Venture Capital in the UK

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Mind the gender gap: Inequalities in the emergent professions of artificial intelligence (AI) and data science

The emergence of new prestigious professions in data science and artificial intelligence (AI) provide a rare opportunity to explore the...

Mind the gender gap: Inequalities in the emergent professions of artificial intelligence (AI) and data science

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Feminism Confronts AI: The Gender Relations of Digitalisation

This essay locates and unveils workforce injustices in key figures and analyses, breaking down the reasons why women are still...

Feminism Confronts AI: The Gender Relations of Digitalisation

More publications

Publication

How to Build Progressive Public Services with Data Science and Artificial Intelligence

The new government faces an urgent challenge: revitalising the UK's crumbling public services without major increases in public spending. While...

How to Build Progressive Public Services with Data Science and Artificial Intelligence

Publication

How do people feel about AI?

A nationally representative survey of the British public

How do people feel about AI?

Publication

Source code disclosure: A primer for trade negotiators

Software is embedded into more and more products and services. Lines of code lie behind devices in our homes and...

Source code disclosure: A primer for trade negotiators

Publication

Response to the Ofcom Call for Evidence on the first phase of Online Safety Regulation

The Alan Turing Institute welcomed the opportunity to respond to Ofcom’s Call for Evidence regarding the forthcoming Online Safety Regulation...

Response to the Ofcom Call for Evidence on the first phase of Online Safety Regulation

Publication

Digital Psychiatry: Risks and Opportunities for Public Health and Wellbeing

Common mental health disorders are rising globally, creating a strain on public healthcare systems. This has led to a renewed...

Digital Psychiatry: Risks and Opportunities for Public Health and Wellbeing

Publication

House of Lords Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence

Call for Evidence The Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence was appointed to consider the economic, ethical and social implications of...

House of Lords Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence

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Rethink government with AI

Policymakers should harness data to deliver public services that are responsive, efficient and fair, urge Helen Margetts and Cosmina Dorobantu.

Rethink government with AI