I am delighted to be taking on this role. My priority is to foster new and exciting connections across College. When policymakers, the media, and civil society, turn to King’s with big questions about what’s next for humanity, the Digital Futures Institute will be able to offer answers that represent work across the whole of the university.
Professor Kate Devlin, Chair-Director, Digital Futures Institute
11 December 2024
Professor Kate Devlin appointed Chair-Director of the Digital Futures Institute
Professor Kate Devlin, Professor of Artificial Intelligence & Society at King’s, succeeds Professor Marion Thain as Chair-Director of the Digital Futures Institute.
Professor Kate Devlin has been appointed the new Chair-Director of the Digital Futures Institute.
Kate Devlin is Professor of Artificial Intelligence & Society in the Department of Digital Humanities and will start the role on 1 January 2025, having received one of the inaugural Institute Fellowships in 2023.
Professor Marion Thain, who founded and led the Digital Futures Institute at King’s from 2022 to 2024, will go on to lead the Edinburgh Futures Institute at the University of Edinburgh in 2025.
I have every confidence that the Digital Futures Institute will continue to thrive under Professor Kate Devlin’s leadership. Her ability to develop a clear and broad perspective on research, education, and innovation will play an important role in leading and developing the Digital Futures Institute over the next three years.
Professor Marion Thain, Chair-Director (2023-2024), Digital Futures Institute
Professor Devlin’s research investigates how – and why – people interact with and react to technologies, both past and future.
Professor Kate Devlin is also King’s investigator on the UKRI’s £31 million Responsible AI UK programme, which brings together researchers from across the UK to understand how to 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.
Professor Devlin 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.
The 2023-2024 Digital Futures Institute Annual Report, published in December 2024, highlights the main achievements of the Institute since its launch.
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Professor of Artificial Intelligence & Society