Laura Musgrave

AI researcher

I am a lead 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.

Learn about my work

Find out about me

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 socially-responsible 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
Responsible AI and privacy
Mixed methods research
User experience (UX) research

Leadership
Teamwork
Problem-solving
Insights and recommendations
Communication
Project management

Recent work

AI is increasingly – and often invisibly – embedded in technology used in daily life. This offers opportunities for society, yet also raises concerns about obvious and hidden risks. Researchers have proposed several initiatives on ethical, social and legal aspects of AI. However, with so many identified issues and approaches, how can we determine what the priorities should be?

To explore this, I am currently organising the ‘Priorities for AI ethics, law and governance‘ panel for the 2022 Royal Anthropological Institute conference. The theme of the conference is ‘Anthropology, AI and the future of human society’.

I was interviewed about my work for the February 2022 episode of the Response-ability Podcast. In it, I discuss my key areas of interest: Data, privacy and AI smart home technology. I previously chaired the ‘Data, privacy and responsibility’ panel for the 2021 Response-ability Summit.

In 2019, I studied privacy and convenience in the use of smart speakers in the UK. At the time, smart speaker ownership was growing rapidly, reducing the boundaries between corporations and consumers. Using mobile ethnography and surveys, I wanted to understand what, if anything, had changed since GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in 2018. What I learned was that there was a major gap between the principles of data privacy and participants’ real-life experiences.

As a result, I became passionate about maximising the benefits of AI, and reducing the risk of harms to people. This is at the core of my work towards socially-responsible AI today.