UNDERSTANDING AI:
BEYOND THE HYPE

Dr. Alice C. Helliwell

Assistant Professor in Philosophy, Northeastern University

Alice Helliwell is an Assistant Professor in Philosophy at Northeastern University, London. Alice’s research is focussed on AI art and computational creativity. She is particularly interested in developing theories of machine creativity, the interaction between art and AI, and the aesthetics of AI images.

Alice holds an MA(Hons) in philosophy and psychology from the University of Edinburgh, and an MA in History and philosophy of art from the University of Kent, having received a Paris Scholarship to study in the University’s Paris School of Arts and Culture. Alice went on to gain her PhD from the University of Kent, receiving a Vice Chancellor’s Scholarship. Alice’s PhD project, titled “Art-ificial: The Philosophy of AI Art” explored AI creativity and the capacity of AI systems to create art. She taught throughout her PhD and joined NU London (then New College of the Humanities) in 2021. Alice was Associate Director, then Interim Director of the Doctoral Research School at NU London from 2023-24. Alice is involved in several active research projects, including collaborative projects on the landscape of AI ethics, AI in the creative industries, and AI arts and the human body. In summer 2025, Alice undertook a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Philosophy and AI Research (PAIR) at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität. Her project will research “The Praise Gap: AI Responsibility Beyond Accountability”.

Dr. Brian Ball

Professor in Philosophy, Northeastern University

Brian Ball is Professor of Philosophy at Northeastern University, London. His research concerns the philosophy of AI and cognitive science – broadly construed so as to include mind and language, as well as the theory of knowledge. His computational philosophy project, PolyGraphs, has been supported by the Royal Society and others; and he received a Talent Development Award from the British Academy for the follow-up Human and Network Sciences. He is widely published and in 2016 his ‘Knowledge, Safety, and Questions’ won the Philosophy South international essay prize. A member of Steering Group for the 695th Lord Mayor of London’s Ethical AI Initiative, he has acted as a consultant for the British Computer Society. He is a DISKAH Fellow during 2025-26, working on Digital Research Infrastructure and High Performance Computing to support Arts and Humanities research.

Dr. David Freeborn

Assistant Professor in Philosophy, Northeastern University

David Peter Wallis Freeborn is Assistant Professor in Philosophy at Northeastern University, London. He works on the philosophy of AI, social and formal epistemology, philosophy of science, and philosophy of physics. He began his research career as a particle physicist at the University of Oxford, conducting research at CERN, and receiving a PhD from University College London in 2016. He also holds an MSc in the Philosophy of Science from the London School of Economics and attained a second PhD in the Philosophy of Science from the University of California, Irvine in 2023.

He is interested in both scientifically-informed-philosophy and philosophically-informed-science. His research focuses on artificial intelligence, Bayesian formal and social epistemology, the philosophy of physics, computational modelling, and network theory.

Dr. Ioannis Votsis

Professor in Philosophy, Northeastern University

Ioannis Votsis is Professor in Philosophy at Northeastern University, London. He is a member of the Turing Institute’s Humanities and Data Science Special Interest Group as well as a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science at the London School of Economics. His research interests primarily fall within the philosophy of science and the philosophy of AI. Of late, he is working on projects relating to grounded empiricism, how to model analogical reasoning, a neuro-symbolic approach to automating scientific discovery, the epistemology of machine learning, automated theorem proving, and prompt engineering. In his spare time, he likes to dabble in coding and has developed The Logic Calculator app.

Lee O’Brien

Senior Data, AI, and Technology Leader, ex-Investec

Lee O’Brien is an AI and data professional with over 15 years’ experience in financial services, including roles as Chief AI Officer and Chief Technology Officer at Investec. He has led transformational change through data and AI strategies, and cloud adoption. Lee has completed postgraduate study in Artificial Intelligence, Behavioural Decision Science, and Data Science. His current research, alongside his AI startup EdgeLayer™, explores graph neural networks on SQL-integrated systems, bridging relational databases, and deep learning.

Gillian Magee

Senior Director – Programme Delivery, AstraZeneca

Gillian Magee has a 30-year track record in project, programme and portfolio management, spanning many sectors and functions. She is accountable for governance, quality, and risk management across Finance, HR, Legal, and Compliance systems. She is currently studying for a master’s at Cambridge University in AI Ethics and Society, with a particular interest in the impact on labour markets and governance of risk. Gillian is also a member of the AI and Data Analysis Group for the Association for Project Management.

Amaritpal Singh Saini

Gen AI Product Lead, News UK Technology

Amaritpal Singh Saini is the Gen AI Product Lead at News UK, where they lead the development of cutting-edge AI solutions. With experience working in Data Science, they have played a pivotal role in building innovative Data Science and AI products tailored for content creators and newsrooms across brands. Amaritpal is passionate about leveraging AI to transform the media landscape and empower creators.

Chris Paterson 

Technology Risk Leader

Chris Paterson is a technology risk leader who has spent the last 10 years in Financial Services identifying, assessing, controlling, remediating, and learning from risks that have impacted or could potentially impact the institutions. He has taken this experience and narrowed his focus to AI technologies, looking for opportunities to invigorate organisations’ existing risk culture, frameworks, and energy to minimize the risks, maximise compliance, and enable the potential of AI. Chris served in the British Army for 29 years in a range of leadership roles, including the UK’s Chief Information Officer on military operations in Afghanistan.

Matt White

Technology and Engineering Leader, ex-Sainsbury’s

Matt White has been working in tech since the mid-1990s. Since then, he has led teams of all sizes to deliver technology that solves complex business problems. Most recently, as Director of Engineering at Sainsbury’s, he drove large-scale digital transformation in supply chain and logistics, scaling the engineering team from 20 to more than 300 people. Today, Matt helps organisations navigate AI and emerging technologies in the real world, whilst continuing his passion for mentoring the next generation of engineering leaders.

Naomi Bowman

Global Banking Client Lead Partner, Baringa 

Naomi is a Global Banking Client Lead Partner for Baringa. She has a 20-year track record of transforming how global banks operate and she has seen how the financial services industry is being reshaped by technology, regulation, and shifting customer expectations. Naomi recently completed Said Business School Executive Programme in Artificial Intelligence and now works with her banking clients to develop use cases to deploy “AI for good,” with particular focus on leveraging emerging technology to enhance customer experience and reduce bias.