As Head of Tech Research, Oliver leads our research work and partnerships on policy areas including the Digital Services Act and the AI Act. He is also responsible for integrating our research strategy into campaigning and advocacy. Oliver previously worked on platform and data governance as an official in Downing Street in the UK, and as an analyst of online harms for CASM Technology, The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, Demos, and The Tony Blair Institute. He holds a PhD in sociology of social media from University College London and a degree in Natural Sciences & History and Philosophy of Science from Cambridge University.
On 3 June, Meta released an EU election monitoring dashboard, responding to investigations by the EU Commission under the Digital Services Act. It is riddled with basic errors, raising severe concerns about Meta’s engagement with risks of electoral interference.
2024 is an important election year. While citizens all over the world get ready to cast their ballot, many people worry about AI: Are chatbots and fake images a threat to democracy? Can we still trust what we see online? We explain why the hype around AI and elections is somewhat overblown and which real risks we need to watch out for instead.
The UK did not need to throw its full weight behind the Frontier Risks narrative - there are other approaches it could have taken.