When Generative AI Makes Us Smart vs. Average

It has been noted by many different people that large language models (LLMs) can, to a certain extent, democratise access to information. Because these models are trained on massive datasets, and use an intuitive prompt-and-response format, they enable users to quickly learn the basics on a given topic or, conversely, do a deep dive on narrow … Continue reading When Generative AI Makes Us Smart vs. Average

July and August 2025 round-up

This summer was mostly about celebrating several milestones in the kiddo’s life: end of school celebration, leavers’ ball, 18th birthday, A-level results’ day, driving test… But I also enjoyed catching up with friends, reading various fiction and non-fiction books, and swimming lots and lots and lots. Research We finished analysing the first stage of data collection … Continue reading July and August 2025 round-up

Interviewed for the podcast “Business Talk”

Recently, I was a guest in the podcast “Business Talk”, hosted by Deepak Bhatt. We explored why digital technology is sometimes helpful and sometimes a hindrance, based on the paper “The impact of technology: how features, resources and task demands shape digital well-being”. You can read the blog post about that paper, here. It was … Continue reading Interviewed for the podcast “Business Talk”

Using Generative AI to Produce and Analysing Qualitative Data (video)

Joss Winn and I delivered a session on “Using Generative AI to Produce and Analysing Qualitative Data”, as part of the SeNSS/ SENSS doctoral training partnership’s Generative AI in research scholar series. In this session, we explored: The role of Generative AI in developing interview questions The potential of Generative AI for conducting interviews Approaches … Continue reading Using Generative AI to Produce and Analysing Qualitative Data (video)

June 2025 round-up

This was the “I should be more intentional” month. Child 1’s birthday and child 2’s end of school exams made me kick myself for not being more intentional about doing things with them over the years (as opposed to just doing things for them). Then, some pains and aches were stark reminders that I need … Continue reading June 2025 round-up

More Purchases but Less Viewing – The Impact of Smart Speakers on the consumption of video on demand

The news that Amazon’s Alexa+ has reached 1 million users inspired me to read a paper that has been on my TBR list for quite some time: “The Voice Of Commerce: How Smart Speakers Reshape Digital Content Consumption And Preferences”. This paper, co-authored by Yoonseock Son, Wonseok Oh and Il Im, and published in the … Continue reading More Purchases but Less Viewing – The Impact of Smart Speakers on the consumption of video on demand

Ten Years of Sharenting: How are the kids doing?

This week marks ten years since I sat on a panel about sharenting - the practice of parents sharing content about their children online - at a blogging event. The panel was hosted by Monika Roozen, then known for her blog Mum on the Brink, and my talk back then focused on how the data and metadata shared by parents … Continue reading Ten Years of Sharenting: How are the kids doing?

New paper: How features, resources and task demands shape digital wellbeing (or why digital technology helps some people some times, but not everybody all of the time)

We know from personal experience that digital technology can shape our wellbeing. On the one hand, it offers speed, convenience, and greater access to services. On the other hand, it can feel cold, confusing, or even overwhelming — especially for people facing challenging life circumstances. What’s less clear, however, is why the same technology can … Continue reading New paper: How features, resources and task demands shape digital wellbeing (or why digital technology helps some people some times, but not everybody all of the time)

May 2025 round-up

If April was a month of the new beginnings, May was all about gathering speed, as detailed below. On the personal front, the month included a jazz concert, Star Wars’ day, coffee with a friend, lots of fresh asparagus and the kiddo’s last day of school ever (and, thus, my last school drop-off / pick-up). … Continue reading May 2025 round-up

When things go wrong we forgive AI more easily than humans; but empathy saves the day

As AI agents increasingly handle customer service interactions, it's natural to ask: How do users respond when a service failure is caused by an AI agent versus a human one? A study by Yibo Xie, Zelin Tong, and Zhuorong Wu explored just that. Through a series of experiments, where participants were asked to imagine that … Continue reading When things go wrong we forgive AI more easily than humans; but empathy saves the day