Laura Musgrave

AI researcher

I am a senior researcher and research scholar, studying the relationship between people and online technology. I help organisations to build and use emerging technologies and artificial intelligence in a socially-responsible way.

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About me

My work has always focused on connecting with people. I started out in public engagement, before moving into user research and participatory design. My experience includes projects across the private, public and charitable sectors. Today, I’m based at a leading global design and innovation consultancy. I’m also a research scholar in digital anthropology and user experience at the Ronin Institute.

My research specialism is artificial intelligence (AI), particularly data and privacy. I was honoured to be named one of 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics™ for 2022. In 2021, I was a mentor for All Tech is Human’s Responsible Technology Mentorship Programme. Previously, I studied the exchange of privacy and convenience in the use of smart speakers in the UK.

Member of the Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Community (EPIC)

**Member** of the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST)

**Affiliated Member** of the EASA Applied Anthropology Network

Key skills

Corporate digital responsibility
Qualitative research and analysis
AI ethics and privacy
Mixed methods research
User experience (UX) research

Leadership
Teamwork
Problem-solving
Insights and recommendations
Communication
Project management

Recent work

Smart speaker ownership continues to grow, reducing the boundaries between corporations and consumers. More than one in five people in the UK now have access to at least one artificially intelligent (AI) smart speaker in their home (Quadrangle, 2020). For the people living with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple Siri, smart speaker assistants offer convenience in many aspects of home-life. However, what are the dangers of having a smart speaker in your home that’s always listening?

Using mobile ethnography and surveys, I am looking at how privacy and convenience are being exchanged. I aim to understand what, if anything, has changed since GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). How do the themes of privacy and convenience affect how people interact with their AI smart speakers?