Autonomous AI warfare – have we silently slipped into a new and frightening world. Reports suggest that fully autonomous drones have been deployed in the Ukraine. This is a crossing the Rubicon moment for AI warfare, which, like Hiroshima, will be hard to reverse. alandix.com/blog/2026/06...

Autonomous AI warfare – have we silently slipped into a new and frightening world

It was only a matter of time - Channel 4 and France 24 report that the first autonomous drones have been used in Ukraine. The world has entered a new age of warfare and it will be hard to draw back.

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Wonderful to attend the launch of "Stories at the Edge of Memory" at the Wales Millennium Centre last night, the culmination of an oral history project celebrating the diverse culture and community of the Bute Town area of Cardiff. figshare.cardiffmet.ac.uk/articles/boo...

The Abomination of AI – part 8 – summary and recap This final post recaps and reflects on how runaway AI industry undermines free markets and how we can make a difference. The core question is not what can AI do, but what should AI do? alandix.com/blog/2026/05...

The Abomination of AI – part 8 – summary and recap

This final post recaps what we’ve learnt about the runaway nature of the AI industry, how it undermines free markets, and how we can make a difference. The core question is not what can AI do, but wha...

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Facial recognition software in shops misidentifies innocent people as potential shoplifters. The company providing the service claims it is highly accurate ... but how accurate is accurate enough? alandix.com/blog/2026/05...

Facial recognition -- what does accuracy mean?

What does accuracy mean in practice? Is 99.98% good enough? Facial recognition is being rolled out at pace; how do we balance the risks and benefits, especially for a technology that is often biased...

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If you read beyond the headline, this points to near-horizon, highly appropriate and potentially life-saving use of AI as a second opinion that can find potentially important issues buried in voluminous medical notes. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

AI outperforms doctors in Harvard trial of emergency triage diagnoses

Researchers say results mark a really ‘profound change in technology that will reshape medicine’

theguardian.com

The Abomination of AI – part 7 – what can we do? It all seems too big, requiring national and international responses.  But we can make a difference using appropriately chosen small AI (including none). Plus, this good use of AI is good for business too. alandix.com/blog/2026/04...

The Abomination of AI – part 7 – what can we do?

It all seems too big, requiring national and international responses. But we can make a difference using appropriately chosen small AI (including none). Plus, this good use of AI is good for business...

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Last week I returned the final proofs for my chapter on Network-Based Interaction in the 4th edition of Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction edited by Julie Jacko. As a taster, I've made slides of my chapter structure and figures. alandix.com/academic/pap...

Network-Based Interaction

Networks pervade almost every computer system we use; indeed they are deeply enmeshed in the fabric of society. In some cases, such as making a video call, we are directly aware that we are using a ne...

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The Abomination of AI – part 6 – should we worry? Runaway growth of AI is not painless – opportunity costs of investment and human costs of lost jobs. Gains may be transitory – buy-now-pay-later tech risk tying users into spiralling costs. alandix.com/blog/2026/04...

The Abomination of AI – part 6 – should we worry?

Runaway growth of AI is not painless – opportunity costs of investment and human costs of lost jobs. Gains may be transitory – buy-now-pay-later tech risk tying users into spiralling costs.

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The Abomination of AI – part 5 – The very nature of digital technology and AI breaks free markets leading to runaway inequality, even with the best intentions of industry … but some tech companies further exploit these effects. alandix.com/blog/2026/04...

The Abomination of AI – part 5 – digital and AI breaks market economics

The very nature of digital technology and AI breaks free markets leading to runaway inequality, even with the best intentions of industry … but some tech companies further exploit these effects.

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Why do big applications such as MS Word and Gmail get new errors in heavily used parts that used to work? Is it poor coding, poor engineering or just AI? These are minor problems but multiplied by billions of users worldwide create huge societal costs. alandix.com/blog/2026/04...

Minor bugs in major applications

Why do big applications such as MS Word and Gmail get new errors in heavily used parts that used to work? Two have been annoying me lately: Gmail's disappearing send button and Word's phantom changes....

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I won’t be at CHI in Barcelona, but I'd like to highlight two events I would have been part of had I been there: the UXR POV Workshop and the panel on Reporting Standards and Checklists in the Age of AI. alandix.com/blog/2026/04...

The Abomination of AI – part 4 – why is this happening? Network externalities, the way one person’s use of AI and digital tech changes its value for others, creates positive feedback loops, leads to runaway growth and emergent monopolies, the nemesis of free markets. alandix.com/blog/2026/04...

The Abomination of AI – part 3 – a different kind of apocalypse. Doomsayers worry about the point when AI becomes sentient, outgrowing its creators. The real danger is more insidious: the massive financial and human impacts of AI seem almost obscene. alandix.com/blog/2026/04...

The Abomination of AI – part 3 – a different kind of apocalypse

Doomsayers worry about the point when AI becomes sentient, outgrowing its creators. The real danger is more insidious: the massive financial and human impacts of AI seem almost obscene.

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The Abomination of AI – part 2 – the impact of AI. The obvious impact of AI is in the things it does directly, but some technologies also change the very nature of society, affecting even those who do not use them. Cars are one example, AI is also. alandix.com/blog/2026/03...

The Abomination of AI – part 2 – the impact of AI

The obvious impact of AI is in the things it does directly. Some technologies also change the very nature of society, affecting even those who do not use them. Cars are an obvious example. AI is su...

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The Abomination of AI – part 1 – setting the scene. First of a series of posts based on my ICoSCI 2026 keynote. The AI industry seems out of control as digital tech and AI undermine the assumptions of market economics driving massive inequality. alandix.com/blog/2026/03...

The Abomination of AI – part 1 – setting the scene

AI can be used for good or ill, but the AI industry seems out of control. Digital tech and AI undermine the assumptions of market economics, driving massive inequality. What drives this and what can w...

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Just finished my response to UK gov consultation on the BBC charter. Really important to ensure independent and high quality BBC available to all. Not perfect, but amongst the best in the world, despite so much external pressure. www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...

The BBC Charter Review is time for bold choices to secure benefits of public service media for generations

The BBC warns this Charter Review is the moment to make clear choices to back the organisation and support all that it delivers for the UK

bbc.co.uk

Manuscript of Human–Computer Interaction the Basics sent to the publisher at the end of last week. It is a succinct ~30K word overview of #HCI that tries to open up the area to the newcomer, and along the way offer some fresh insights for the experienced UXer. basics.hcibook.com

Video and slides now online for my talk last week "Beyond the Algorithm: Designing Human-Centric Public Service with AI" – How can AI truly serve the community? HCI and human ethics at the heart of digital transformation and public sector innovation. alandix.com/academic/tal...

Beyond the Algorithm: Designing Human-Centric Public Service with AI

How can AI truly serve the community? A dialogue on the potential of HCI in designing smart public services, placing human ethics at the heart of digital transformation and public sector innovation.

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Looking forward to "Beyond the Algorithm: Designing Human-Centric Public Services with AI", tomorrow. "A dialogue on the potential of HCI in designing smart public services, placing human ethics at the heart of digital transformation and public sector innovation." www.linkedin.com/posts/phd-sd...

Lightly edited video now available of "The Abomination of AI" my keynote at ICoSCI. How the intrinsic nature of AI technology interacts with market economics, to create self-feeding loops and runaway effects that fundamental change the world we live in. alandix.com/academic/tal...

The Abomination of AI

AI can be used for tremendous good, not least in medicine, as well as frivolous and dangerous uses, such as exploitative online pornography. However, it also has large scale structural impacts on the...

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The Abomination of AI – keynote at ICoSCI yesterday, slides uploaded now. While AI can be used for good or ill, far more critical are the structural impacts of AI on society, global economics and the environment. @cardiffmet.bsky.social alandix.com/academic/tal...

The Abomination of AI

AI can be used for tremendous good, not least in medicine, as well as frivolous and dangerous uses, such as exploitative online pornography. However, it also has large scale structural impacts on the...

alandix.com

Where does £1m of research spend create the greatest amount of high-quality research? UK REF 2021 data includes both income and research quality, so you can work it out. Value-for-money research league tables look a little different from the usual ones! alandix.com/ref2021/

REF 2021 – Assessing Value for Money

This microsite presents the results of a value for money exercise based on an analysis of public domain data from the UK REF 2021 Research Assessment Exercise.  Note this analysis focuses solely on Un...

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Great to see Proper Maps, my stimulated paper in IxD&A Journal. The paper explores maps of varying levels of propriety to explore the theoretical and practical world of cartography and suggest how digital technology can enable a diverse ecology of improper mapping doi.org/10.55612/s-5...

I’ve sent the manuscript of AI for Human-Computer Interaction to @routledgebooks.bsky.social. It explores the rich human side of AI including how AI can help in user experience design and how effective interfaces can help make AI usable and useful. Due out early 2026.

alandix.com/ai4hci/2025/...

AI for HCI manuscript sent to publisher

Sent the manuscript of AI for Human-Computer Interaction to the publisher. It explores the rich human side of AI including how AI can help in user experience design and how effective interfaces can he...

alandix.com

UK academics: during the REF pause a question to ponder ... REF is designed to allocate money. If you had a million to spend where would you invest it to maximise REF 4*/3* outcomes? (for non UK academics, REF is 7 yearly exercise to measure uni research quality) Teaser: answer coming soon ....

Yay, the new edition of Statistics for HCI has been sent to Springer !  All on track to be published in first half of 2026. New chapters on big data, AI and computation heavy stats. Post-its in marked up 1st ed made me feel like a PhD student in a viva again :-/ alandix.com/statistics/s...

Statistics for HCI – second edition

A new edition of Stats of HCI in prep for 2026 including new chapters on Empirical and Simulation Methods, Big Data and AI.

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Explaining Ourselves - people, computers and AI – slides of talk at University of Bath on Wednesday. Exploring the rich space of communications between humans, AI and plain old computers. From epistemic interaction and coherent XAI to explainable user interfaces (XUI) alandix.com/academic/tal...

Explaining ourselves - people, computers and AI

As humans we constantly act and speak so that implicitly or explicitly we make our intentions more understandable by others. This talk explores a number of ways in which this can also be possible in o...

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Personal Data Sovereignty — anonymisation and aggregation is not enough. Today's news emphasises that big computation and data mean we need to look further than standard ideas of privacy. alandix.com/blog/2025/11...

Personal data sovereignty -- anonymisation and aggregation is not enough

Data that has been anonymised and aggregated it is often regarded as safe and outside privacy laws, but as todays news shows this is not the case, it can still violate personal data sovereignty.

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Yesterday I finished the first draft text of "Human–Computer Interaction the Basics", a short overview of HCI for the @routledgebooks 'the Basics' series. Loads of work still to do, but a milestone. Draft ToC at: basics.hcibook.com

Notes and slides for "Why AI?" my keynote yesterday at the Wales User Experience Research Summit 2025. Thanks to Admiral for organising a wonderful day. alandix.com/academic/tal...

Why AI?

In some ways AI is just another technology we still need to understand users and their contexts, and match the appropriate technology with user needs even if that sometimes means not using technology ...

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