AI Companions: Ethical Challenges, Interaction Design Standards, and Regulatory Horizons

Tue 28 October 2025

Lucy Cavendish College

This lecture, affiliated with the College's Skills Programme, is open to all members of the University and the wider community.

Dr Hollanek is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (LCFI) and an Affiliated Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and Technology at the University of Cambridge, working at the intersection of AI ethics and critical design.

His ongoing research explores the possibility of applying critical design methods – prioritising the goals of social justice and environmental sustainability – in the governance, development, and deployment of AI systems. This includes work on the ethics of human-AI interaction design (in particular, the design of companion chatbots and griefbots) and the In-depth EU AI Act Toolkit, helping developers translate the requirements of the European Union’s AI Act into design practice. At LCFI, he also leads the research stream dedicated to AI, Journalism, and Communications.

Previously, Dr Hollanek was a Vice-Chancellor’s PhD Scholar at Cambridge and a Visiting Research Fellow at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. He has contributed to numerous research projects, including the Global AI Narratives Project at LCFI and the Ethics of Digitalization research program at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard.

Cost: Free