Recognising the value of bringing academic expertise into the public domain, I am committed to contributing to the governance of emerging technologies — particularly those with intimate and sensitive implications for individuals and society. This page brings together my policy and standards work, invited talks, and press and media coverage.

Awards

• 2026 — IEEE SA Standards Medallion, awarded by the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE SA) Board of Governors, “For leadership in standardizing emulated empathy in AI systems spanning foundational scholarship, regulatory engagement, and public education.”

Policy & Standards

Advisory roles

• UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) — Technology Advisory Panel (biometrics)
• Ofcom — Making Sense of Media Research, Evidence, and Evaluation Working Group
• Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada — assessment of PIPEDA adequacy for child-focused emotional AI systems
• IEEE CertifAIEd — Authorized Lead Assessor for Autonomous Intelligent Systems

Standards development

• IEEE 7014.1-2026 (Chair) — Recommended Practice for Ethical Considerations of Emulated Empathy in Partner-based General-Purpose Artificial Intelligence Systems
• IEEE P7014 — Standard for Ethical Considerations in Emulated Empathy in Autonomous and Intelligent Systems
• IEEE P7700 — Responsible Design and Development of Neurotechnologies
• IEEE P7030 — Ethical Assessment of Extended Reality (XR) Technologies
• IEEE P2895 — Standard Taxonomy for Responsible Trading of Human-Generated Data
• W3C Open Metaverse Interoperability (OMI) Community Group

Policy reports and submissions (selected)

• Bakir, V., McStay, A. & Ugochukwu, C. (2026). Weaponised Empathy: AI Scams and the Nigeria–UK Response. Emotional AI Lab, Bangor University.
• McStay, A. & Bakir, V. (2026). Do AI Companions Understand? Most UK Teens Say Yes. Emotional AI Lab, Bangor University.
• Bakir et al. (2024). Can we live well with Emotional AI? It depends. Final Report.
• McStay, A. & Rosner, G. The Machine-Readable Child: Governance of Emotional AI Used with Canadian Children. Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
• McStay, A. & Rosner, G. (2022). Welsh Government Digital Ethics Report: Applying Digital Ethics to Government and Public Services.
• McStay et al. (2020). Comment on Children’s Rights in Relation to Emotional AI and the Digital Environment. UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
• UNICEF (2020). Policy Guidance on AI for Children (input on Emotional AI).
• Against Opacity, Outrage & Deception. House of Lords Select Committee on Democracy & Digital Technologies, 2019.
• The Right to Privacy in the Age of Emotional AI. UN Human Rights Council, 2018.
• And then there’s Emotional AI. House of Lords Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, 2017.
• Emotional AI and Insurance: Online Targeting and Bias in Algorithmic Decision Making. UK Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation, 2019.
• Datafied Bearbaiting and Emotional AI. DCMS parliamentary inquiry, 2019.
• Fake News: Media Economics and Emotional Button-Pushing. DCMS parliamentary inquiry, 2017.
• Changing Nature of Influence: Emotional Analytics, Automation and Advertising. UK Government Office for Science, 2015.

Talks (selected recent)

2027

• Automating Empathy: Emotion Recognition Systems, Chatbots and the Mediation of Feeling (title TBC) — Keynote, Research Network 11 (Sociology of Emotions), European Sociological Association (ESA), Paris, August 2027

2026

• Feeling Machines and the Public Sphere: Emotion Recognition, Chatbots and Interference in Public Media (title TBC) — Keynote, Annual Conference: Foreign Interference in the Context of Geopolitical and Technological Change, Brno, Czech Republic, November 2026
• In-to-me-see? Governing intimate technologies: Emotion Recognition Systems under the AI Act — Keynote, Open Universiteit and the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (Dutch Data Protection Authority)
• Privacy, Confidentiality and Human–Machine Communication — Privacy Symposium, Venice
• AI Companions and Online Safety — Ofcom, London
• Growing Up with Chatbots — Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum, London
• AI Companions and the Challenge of Governing Systems That Seem to Think and Feel — Utrecht University (Humanistic Studies), Utrecht
• Parasocial companions and data protection — UK National Association of Data Protection and Freedom of Information (NAPDO)

2025

• Empathic AI at the Edge of Law: Companions, Governance Gaps and the Role of Technical Standards — China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing
• A Nascent Standard for Social AI — Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, Cambridge
• Artificial Intimacy, Real Risks: From Public Concerns to Technical Standards — Microsoft, Cambridge
• Emotions and Digital Regulation and Strategy in the EU — European Parliament
• Emotional AI, Children, Companions and AI Empathy — European Commission, Better Internet for Kids, Amsterdam
• Moving Fast and Breaking People? Empathic AI companions and UK citizen perspectives — BRAID, University of Edinburgh; University of Sussex

2024

• Soft Law Standards for Technologies that Gauge Intimate Life — Infosys and British High Commission, Bengaluru
• Automating Empathy in Human-AI Partnerships: Issues, Ethics and Governance — IEEE Global Lecture
• AI companions and empathy — BBC AI/Machine Learning community
• Automating Empathy, Establishing Standards and Good Governance — FENS-Chen Neuroscience Summer School, University of Lausanne
• Automating Empathy: Developing Cross-Cultural Soft Law Standards for Artificial Partners — China University of Politics and Law, Beijing

2023

• Creating Trustworthy Human-Machine Interactions in Cars: The Case of Regulating Emotional AI — National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei
• Automating Empathy and the Public Good: The Unique Case of Health — Newcastle University
• Technomoral Conversation on Technologically Mediated Intimacy — Edinburgh Futures Institute

2022

• AI Ethics and Emotion Recognition — Keynote, Serbian National Internet Domain Name Registry Foundation (DIDS 2022)
• Intelligent Machines, Emotions and Our Planet — Keynote, Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences

2020

• A Principled Approach to the Emotion Economy — SxSW, Austin, USA
• Emotional AI and Empathic Technologies: Rights, Children and Domestication — CPDP, Brussels

Press & Media (selected)

2026

• McStay, A. & Bakir, V. (2026). Research featured on Woman’s Hour, BBC Radio 4, 6 February 2026 (AI companions segment at 33:50).
• McStay, A. & Bakir, V. (2026). Interview and TV package on the Emotional AI Lab’s AI companions report. BBC Wales News.
• McStay, A. (2026). Interview on AI companions. Global Radio — Heart FM and Capital Radio.
• McStay, A. (2026). Worried mother says ChatGPT is ‘fuelling son’s delusions’ — as expert warns of alarming rise in ‘AI psychosis’. LBC.

2025

• McStay, A. (2025). So gewinnen KI-Chatbots das Vertrauen junger Nutzer. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
• McStay, A. (2025). Mattel and OpenAI have partnered up — here’s why parents should be concerned about AI in toys. The Conversation.
• McStay, A. (2025). Microsoft boss troubled by rise in reports of ‘AI psychosis’. BBC News.
• McStay, A. (2025). On AI welfare and companions. The Agenda, Dubai Eye 103.8 FM.

2024

• McStay, A. (2024). Are you 80% angry and 2% sad? Why ’emotional AI’ is fraught with problems. The Guardian.
• McStay, A. (2024). These Smart Glasses Will Read Your Emotions and Watch What You Eat. Wired.
• McStay, A. (2024). A tour of “emotionally intelligent” AI. MPR Marketplace.
• McStay, A. (2024). Can AI Read Emotions? BBC Artificial Human (special guest).

2022

• McStay, A. (2022). Microsoft is removing emotion recognition features from its facial recognition tech. NBC News.
• McStay, A. (2022). Documents Reveal Advanced AI Tools Google Is Selling to Israel. The Intercept.
• McStay, A. (2022). Emotion recognition is mostly ineffective. Why are companies still investing in it? TechMonitor.

2021

• McStay, A. (2021). Emotion recognition: can AI detect human feelings from a face? Financial Times.
• McStay, A. (2021). China’s lonely hearts reboot online romance with artificial intelligence. Washington Post.
• McStay, A. (2021). The positive side of monitoring. ABC Australia, Future Tense.

2019

• McStay, A. (2019). AI can read your emotions. Should it? The Guardian.
• McStay, A. (2019). AI could be your wingman on your next first date. MIT Technology Review.

2018

• McStay, A. (2018). Alexa, What Are You Doing with My Family’s Personal Info? Scientific American.