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.

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)

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.