Alexander Laffer

Biography

Dr Alexander Laffer joined the School of Media and Film in 2023. He teaches on the BA (hons) in Media and Communication, across a range of subjects, including Media Theory, and Big Data and Digital Cultures. He was programme lead for two new MAs in Media Management and Social Media Management.

Previously, as a Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh and at the Emotional AI Lab, Bangor University, he worked on numerous projects exploring the ethics of implementing emergent technology in a range of personal, civic, and security contexts. He has an interest in user awareness of new technologies and integrating marginalised voices into debates on technology.

He is currently a Co-I on the Responsible AI/UKRI-funded project Automated Empathy – Globalising International Standards (AEGIS) which is developing an ethical standard (P7014.1) for the development and use of Emulated Empathy in General-purpose AI Systems and Human-AI Partnering.

Alongside expertise in Artificial Intelligence and Digital Media, he has a background in discourse analysis and stylistics. He completed an ESRC-funded PhD in Literary Linguistics, exploring empathy, reading groups, and narratives of migration. 

He has published across media and linguistics, as well as creative pieces which further explore his research concerns. His creative practice centres on digital and design fiction and interrogates the role of empathy and narrative in digital media.

He has previously worked in publishing, for companies including Hodder & Stoughton and Macmillan, and as a research consultant, with clients including the Southbank Centre, the UK’s largest arts centre. 

Areas of expertise

Research Projects

Automated Empathy – Globalising International Standards (AEGIS) (Supported by RAI UK/UKRI)

Critically Envisioning Biometric AI Futures, The University of Edinburgh and UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Hub (Supported by UKRI).

Artificial Intelligence (AI), Ethics & Policing in North Wales: Establishing Citizens’ Perspectives, Bangor University. (Supported by BU Impact Accelerator)

Asset-based Storytelling in Kingston, Kingston University and Kingston Libraries. (Supported by Arts Council England)

Emotional AI in Cities: Cross Cultural Lessons from UK and Japan on Designing for An Ethical Life, Bangor University. (Supported by the Economic and Social Research Council, ES/T00696X/1, in conjunction with the Japan Science and Technology fund)

Taking Back Control of Our Personal Data: An ethical impact assessment of personal data storage apps, Bangor University. (Supported by Innovate UK)

Living with Uncertainty, The Open University, (Supported by the Economic and Social Research Council)

Publications

Bakir, V., Laffer, A. & McStay, A. (2024). Combatting the Digital Influence Industry within Surveillance Capitalism: the Potentials and Pitfalls of Personal Information Management Systems. In Briant, E.L. & Bakir, V. (eds.) Routledge Handbook of the Influence Industry. Routledge.

Bakir, V. A.Laffer, A.McStay, D. Miranda & L.Urquhart (2024). On Manipulation by Emotional AI: UK Adults’ Views and Governance Implications. Frontiers in Sociology, Sec. Sociology of Emotion, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2024.1339834

Bakir, V., Laffer, A. & McStay, A. (2023) Blurring the moral limits of data markets: biometrics, emotion and data dividends. AI & Society https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-023-01739-5

Bakir, V., Laffer, A., & McStay, A. (2023). Human-First, Please: Assessing Citizen Views and Industrial Ambition for Emotional AI in Recommender Systems. Surveillance & Society, 21(2): 205-222. https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/index|

Laffer, A. (2023). Using citizen focus groups to examine attitudes towards emotional AI: design, diversity and ethics [Video]. Sage Research Methods. SAGE https://doi.org/10.4135/9781529627848

Laffer, A. (2022). Using an online narrative approach to explore diverse participants' understanding of emerging technology: Citizen’s perspectives on living with emotional AI. SAGE Research Methods: Doing online research. SAGE.

https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781529604122

Bakir, V., Ghotbi, N., Ho, T. M., Laffer, A., Mantello, P., McStay, A., Miranda, D., Miyashita, H., Podoletz, L., Tanaka, H., & Urquhart, L. (2022). Emotional AI in Cities: Cross-cultural Lessons from the UK and Japan on Designing for an Ethical Life. In Machine Learning and the City: Applications in Architecture and Urban Design (pp. 621–624). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119815075.ch51

Urquhart, L., Laffer, A., & Miranda, D. (2022). Working with Affective Computing: Exploring UK Public Perceptions of AI enabled Workplace Surveillance. In Proceedings of Ethicomp 2022, University of Turku. Pp. 164-177. (ISBN 978-951-29-8989-8)

Laffer, A. (2021). When readers talk about characters as if they were real, how do they talk about them? Empathy and gossip in reading group discourse. Poetics, 85 (101503). pp. 1-21. [Available online at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2020.101503]

Laffer, A. (2021). (Im/E)Migration: A Critical making Project. The Digital Review, 1. [Available online at: https://doi.org/10.7273/82k7-cc75]