Andrew McStay is Professor of Technology & Society at Bangor University, where he directs the Emotional AI Lab, an international research centre examining the social, ethical, and policy implications of artificial intelligence that interprets emotion and emulates empathy. This combines national polling, qualitative studies, law, politics, ethics, and technical inquiry to study and inform the responsible design and governance of empathic AI systems worldwide. Its recent projects span empirical, cross-cultural, and legal studies in the UK, US, Asia, Europe, and Africa.

McStay’s work sits at the intersection of AI law and governance, technology studies, and media and communications, focusing on how technologies that claim to “understand” or “feel” emotion are designed, deployed, and regulated. He chairs the IEEE P7014.1 Working Group on the Ethical Considerations of Emulated Empathy in Partner-based General-Purpose Artificial Intelligence Systems, which is developing global standards for empathic and companion AI.

He also advises regulators and policymakers internationally, including Ofcom, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

McStay’s research is supported by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and his most recent book, Automating Empathy (Oxford University Press, 2024), examines how modern AI systems are reshaping relations between people and technology. His recent papers explore soft law, cross-cultural AI policy, and AI companions.

Research interest keywords

Artificial intelligence, biometrics, emotional AI, empathy (automated), law, media (digital/AI), philosophy, politics, standards (soft law)

Administrative responsibilities

Current

Director of the Emotional AI Lab, Research Commitee (focusing on "Impact"), College grant review panel, School Research Theme lead, and EDI Athena Swan membership

Recent

Senate membership (2022-current), Deputy Head of School (2020-2022), School Director of Impact (2019-2021), College Research executive member Impact (2019-2021), Uni-wide research governance member Impact (2019-2021), Uni-wide Research Communication Strategy Group Impact (2017-2019), Uni. interdisciplinary research leader (2017-current), Director of Media and Persuasive Communication network (2014-current), Media Course Directorship (2014-2017), Examinations Officer (2015-2019), Innovation Strategy Group member (2013-2015).

Name: Andrew McStay

Position: Professor of Technology & Society

Email: mcstay@bangor.ac.uk

Phone: +44 (0)1248 382740

 

Current teaching:

AI Ethics (Year 2/3)

Privacy and the Media (Year 2/3) 

Digital Advertising (Year 2/3)

Introduction to Media, Journalism & Politics (Year 1)

PhD students:

  • Chiemezie Ugochukwu, Cultural and Political Determinants of AI Scam Culture In Nigeria
  • Laura Edwards, Policy and Experiences of Anti-Feminism and the Manosophere
  • Pujia CHEN, The Influence of Douyin on Users' Intimate Relationships in China
  • Tong Tong WU, Risk Communication on Social Media: Comparing Dissemination Models and Their Effects in China and the UK
  • Mashavu Mohamed, From High-Context to Low-Context: Social Media and Cultural Transition in Zanzibar
  • Qi QI. Citizen Journalism and Political Polarisation
  • Yiyang Zhao, Social Media and China's Networked Political Communication
  • Xin ZHAO, China-related economic responsibilities: Understanding China’s soft power projection through a critical discourse analysis of its transnational media institutions
  • Dyfrig Jones, Convergence and Public Service Broadcasting in the UK, Ireland, and North America 
  • Dita Legowo, Blurring Intimacy and Distance: An Online Webseries 
  • Aliah Nur Mansor, Marketing and Online Fan Communities 

Proposals for PhD-level projects in policy and AI, emotion and technology, science and technology studies, data ethics, and privacy, all welcome.

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2009

  • PublishedDigital Advertising
    McStay, A., 1 Jan 2009, Palgrave.
    Research output: Book/Report › Book

2025

  • AI Safety - Insafe/Inhope Joint Training Meeting, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Invited to participate in Insafe/Inhope Joint Training Meeting, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Annual meeting of 200 regulators and Childrens’ AI Safety officers from 30 European countries

    19 Mar 2025 – 20 Mar 2025

    Activity: Types of External academic engagement - Contribution to the work of national or international committees and working groups (Presenter)

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

  • Final Report - Emotional AI - Japan and UK. Final Report on a Conversation between cultures

    Funded by Economic & Social Research Council - Arts & Humanities Research Council - UK-Japan Social Sciences & Humanities Connections grant

    1 Nov 2019

    Links:

    Activity: Other (Contributor)
  • Workshop on emotional AI

    Multi-Stakeholder (government, NGO, company, regulator), multi-disciplinary (media, journalism, law, criminology, Ai ethics, robotics, big data) workshop to discuss UK-Japan elements of emotional AI

    9 Sep 2019

    Links:

    Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Public lecture/debate/seminar (Organiser)
  • CULTURE CHANGE: Incentivise political campaigners to run civil and informative election campaigns

    Based on our synthesis of research from academia, investigative journalism and regulatory and political inquiries, we find:

    - Extensive use of deception and emotion in campaigning for the 2016 ‘Brexit’ referendum.

    - Techniques for targeting citizens with emotive and deceptive information have intensified in terms of granularity of targeting; and remain hidden from the view of the wider community or nation.

    - False messages prompt reactions of fear, disgust and surprise, and have a propensity towards recirculation online.

    To address this, we recommend:

    - That there be incentives for digital political campaigners to act ethically, and for their behaviour to be critically and regularly reflected upon by society.

    - Specifically, we recommend the institution of publicly available self-evaluations by all political campaign groups post-elections to: Summarise which audiences were targeted, and with what success; Reflect upon which aspects of the campaign most succeeded in mobilising voters (e.g. specific adverts, messages, themes, memes); Reflect upon whether the campaign gave voters enough information with which to make an informed choice on which to base their electoral decision (i.e. was information true, complete, undistorted and relevant?); Reflect upon to what extent the campaign was civil.

    - We further recommend that this self-reporting be incentivised via: An independent panel (of diverse stakeholders, including fact-checkers, academics, and campaigners from opposing sides) to verify, and critically comment upon, the self-evaluations; A kite-mark system to brand the veracity and civility of the campaigning; Ensuring that this is covered by the media, post-election, and that the analysis is available online in a public archive.

    2 Aug 2019

    Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Media article or participation (Contributor)
  • Parliamentary submission: Datafied Bearbaiting and Emotional AI: Anticipating the Quantified Jeremy Kyle Show. Submission to DCMS Committee Inquiry into Reality TV

    The UK Parliament's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee launched the Reality TV inquiry in May 2019 following events leading up to the decision to axe The Jeremy Kyle Show. It is considering the duty of care offered by broadcasters and programme makers to participants of reality TV shows. 

    The Network for Media & Persuasive Communication submitted written evidence focusing on DCMS' question: What is the future for reality TV of this kind? How does it accord with our understanding of, and evolving attitudes to, mental health?

    The submission offers a cautionary note on a likely future of reality media - where the media industry makes use of data about emotions to add new layers of engagement through “emotional AI”. This emotional AI entails affective computing and AI techniques that read and react to emotions through text, voice, computer vision and biometric sensing. While usage of emotional AI has scope to enhance experience of media, there is scope for abuse when competing for audience attention, engagement and advertising revenue.

    The submission recommends that:

    - Regulators and policymakers are suitably aware of media and technological trends described in this document: namely, the potential dangers of a media environment in which emotion is quantified and utilised by the media industry.

    - Media companies and home technology providers understand that regulators and policymakers are aware of these developments and are willing to regulate if there is misuse,or if individual, collective or technological vulnerabilities (such as lack of awareness of “consent” to domestic profiling) are exploited.

    - There is further engagement with academics and other specialists on these questions.

    1 Jun 2019 – 1 Sep 2019

    Links:

    Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Media article or participation (Contributor)
  • Citation in EU Commissioned study: Disinformation and propaganda – impact on the functioning of the rule of law in the EU and its Member States

    The study ( Disinformation and propaganda – impact on the functioning of the rule of law in the EU and its Member States) was commissioned by the European Parliament's Policy Department for Citizen's Rights and Constitutional Affairs. It assesses the impact of disinformation and strategic political propaganda disseminated through social media sites.

    The report references McStay and Bakir's work several times, and discusses it in the text, citing the definition of fake news proposed by McStay and Bakir in 2018.

    28 Feb 2019

    Activity: Other (Contributor)

2018

2017

2016

  • Membership of AHRC peer review college

    Membership of AHRC peer review college

    18 Nov 2016

    Activity: Types of External academic engagement - Membership of peer review panel or committee (Member)

Consultancy: Inter-governmental, Government and Industry (recent/significant)

  • 2024-ongoing: Ofcom Media Literacy Group
  • 2024 IEEE CertifAIEd Authorized Lead Assessor for Autonomous Intelligent Systems
  • 2024 ‘CreaTech’ delegate for The Royal Anniversary Trust and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport
  • 2024-ongoing: Information Commissioner’s Office, Technology Advisory Panel
  • 2024 qualification for IEEE CertifAIEd Authorized Lead Assessor for Autonomous Intelligent Systems.
  • McStay, A. (2022) ‘Overview of emotion recognition trends, applications and issues of scientific validity’ Ada Lovelace Workshop on AI Act and Emotion Recognition.
  • McStay, A. (2022-23) UK ICO’s Technology Advisory Panel member (biometrics)
  • McStay, A. & Urquhart, l. (2022) UK ICO Technology and Innovation Foresight on future of transport (invited contribution).
  • McStay, A. & Urquhart, l. (2022) UK ICO Technology and Innovation Foresight on biometrics (invited contribution).
  • McStay, A. & Rosner, G. (2022) Welsh Government Digital Ethics Report Applying digital ethics to government and public services.
  • McStay, A., Rosner, G., Miyashita, H. and Urquhart, l. (2020) Comment on Children’s Rights In Relation To Emotional AI And The Digital Environment for UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
  • Bakir, V. and McStay, A. (2020) Inquiry into the Impact of Social Media on Elections & Electoral Administration, INVITED submission to the Electoral Matters Committee, Parliament of Victoria, Australia.
  • McStay cited/discussed in UNICEF (2020) Policy guidance on AI for children(input from McStay on Emotional AI) 
  • Bakir, V., & McStay, A. 2020.invited report, Inquiry into the Impact of Social Media on Elections & Electoral Administration, Electoral Matters Committee, Parliament of Victoria (Australia)  
  • McStay, A. and Rosner, G. (2020) Emotional AI and children: ethics, parents, governance (2020 Report).
  • AGAINST OPACITY, OUTRAGE & DECEPTION: Towards an ethical code of conduct for transparent, explainable, civil & informative digital political campaigns (House of Lords Select Committee on Democracy & Digital Technologies, 2019).
  • CULTURE CHANGE Incentivise political campaigners to run civil and informative election campaigns. (All-Party Parliamentary Group on Electoral Campaigning Transparency, 2019).
  • Centre for data ethics and innovation (2020) Snapshot Series: Facial Recognition Technology (interview input from mcstay)
  • Datafied Bearbaiting and Emotional AI: Anticipating the Quantified Jeremy Kyle Show (DCMS parliamentary inquiry into reality media, 2019)
  • Emotional AI and Insurance: Online Targeting and Bias in Algorithmic Decision Making (UK Government, Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation, 2019)
  • 2019 UK Government Center for Data Ethics and Innovation (advisor on facial recognition technology)  
  • 2019 Royal United Services Institute (UK Gov’ policing/defense think tank), workshop on shaping the state of machine learning algorithms within law enforcement  
  • 2019 Advising UK Government, Open Innovation Group, on online targeting  
  • 2019 Nexus Studio in AI ethics installation at London’s Barbican art centre  
  • 2019 Advertising Standards Authority, advisor on biometrics.  
  • 2019 CognitionX expert advisor
  • 2018 Report on The Right To Privacy In The Age Of Emotional AI (for The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights)
  • 2018 Invited participant: United Nations expert workshop on right to privacy in the digital age.
  • 2018 Invited witness at UK Parliament, DCMS Committee's oral evidence session on Fake News.
  • 2018 Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers Working Group voting member (P7000 on ethical design and P70002 on data privacy).
  • 2018 Expert input on Re-Work AI white paper on Ethical Implications of AI.
  • 2017 Report on Written Submissions On How To Combat Fake News (UK Parliament fake news inquiry).
  • 2017 Report: And then there’s Emotional AI (For House of Lords Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence.
  • 2017 Report: Fake News: Media Economics & Emotional Button-Pushing (UK Parliament fake news inquiry).
  • 2017 House of Parliament presentation on development of fake news and branded content.
  • 2016 Open Rights Group, academic advisor on data protection.
  • 2016-2018 Advisory Board Member for Sensing Feeling (a retail consortia project exploring Emotional AI).
  • 2015 UK Government, Office for Science, ‘Understanding Influence’ workshop/1000 word report.
  • 2015 Information Commissioner’s Office, advisor and member of the Policy Delivery department.
  • 2015 Committee of Advertising Practice, advisor on ethics of emotion-sensitive technology.
  • 2015 Internet Advertising Bureau (Europe), advisor on ethics in digital advertising.

Consultancy: Academic

  • 2024/5 AHRC Panel Member for AI & Society awards
  • 2021: Ada Love Lace/RCA workshop on responsible and ethical AI to formulate next round of AHRC AI funding.
  • 2020-2022: Advisory Board for PATH-AI (The Alan Turing Institute, University of Edinburgh and RIKEN in Japan)
  • 2018: co-production of white paper to shape European Commission’s (EC) research agenda on the internet's impact on echo chambers, fake news and populism (H2020 framework and FP9). 
  • 2017-current: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) reviewer
  • 2016-current: Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Peer College member
  • 2017-current: External Examiner, Goldsmiths (Univ. of London), MA Advertising & Promotional Culture
  • 2016-2017: MSA (Egypt)/Univ. of Bedfordshire, BA Mass Comms, Advertising & PR
  • 2014-current: External Examiner: Falmouth University, BA Creative Advertising
  • 2012-2015: External Examiner: Middlesex Univ., MSc Media Management
  • 2013-current: International Assessor: Research Foundation Flanders.

Reviewing:

Journals: New Media & Society (Editor), Big Data & Society (Guest Editor), Theory, Culture & Society, Digital Journalism, International Journal of Communication, Journal of Cultural Economy, Telematics and Informatics, Social Science Computer Review, Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers Communications, Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI).

Subject Associations: Association of Internet Researchers, International Association for Media and Communication Research.

Book publishers: Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Emerald, Continuum, Routledge, Sage and Palgrave MacMillan.

Funders: AHRC (panel member), ESRC, EPSRC (as privacy expert), Research Foundation Flanders.

 

Invited presentations/keynotes (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.
  • 2025: A nascent standard for Social AI – P7014.1, Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, Cambridge UK.
  • 2025: Artificial Intimacy, Real Risks: From Public Concerns to Technical Standards, Microsoft, Cambridge UK.
  • 2025: Emotions and Digital Regulation and Strategy in the EU, EUDTP, European Parliament.
  • 2025: The Ethical Implications of Empathic AI: Governance, Standards, and Public Trust, University of Swansea.
  • 2025: Emotional AI Children, Companions and AI Empathy, Better Internet for Kids, European Commission, Amsterdam.
  • 2025: Moving fast and breaking people, BRAID, University of Edinburgh.
  • McStay, A. (2024) Soft Law Standards for Technologies that Gauge Intimate Life, Infosys and British High Commission, Bengaluru.
  • McStay, A. (2024) When is Deception OK? Ethical Considerations of Emulated Empathy in AI (IEEE P7014.1). ISTAS, IEEE.
  • McStay, A. (2024) Automating Empathy in Human-AI Partnerships: Issues, Ethics and Governance, IEEE Global lecture.
  • McStay, A. (2024) BBC AI/Machine Learning community on AI companions and empathy.
  • McStay, A. (2024) Automating Empathy, Establishing Standards and Good Governance, FENS-Chen Neuroscience Summer School, University of Lausanne.
  • McStay, A. (2024) Automating Empathy: Developing Cross-Cultural Soft Law Standards for Artificial Partners based on Foundational AI, China University of Politics and Law, Beijing.
  • McStay, A. (2023) Creating Trustworthy Human Machine Interactions in Cars: The Case of Regulating Emotional Artificial Intelligence, 2023 Law and Technology Conference – National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan.
  • McStay, A. (2023) Automating Empathy and the Public Good: The Unique Case of Health. Artificial ntelligence, health care, and ethics conference. Newcastle University.
  • McStay, A. (2023) Replika in The Metaverse. MMU/DCMS/DSIT.
  • McStay, A. (2023) Edinburgh Futures Institute. Technomoral Conversation on Technologically Mediated Intimacy.
  • McStay, A. (2022) AI Ethics and Emotion Recognition. Keynote. Serbian National Internet Domain Name Registry Foundation (DIDS 2022 conference).
  • McStay, A. (2022) Intelligent Machines, Emotions and Our Planet. Keynote. Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences.
  • McStay, A. (2021) Emotional Artificial Intelligence and Regulation of Content Recommendation Systems, Digital Society Lab. Belgrade.
  • McStay, A. (2021) Gauging civic feeling of emotion recognition: ethics, policy, and citizen opinion, UCLIC, University College London.
  • McStay, A. (2021) Automating Empathy: Trajectory, Implications and Citizen Views, University of Edinburgh.
  • McStay, A. (2021) Automating Empathy: Social Impact, Mediated Emotion and Subjectivity, IEEE SSIT Special lecture.

Funding (see projects)

Visiting Professorships

2026/forthcoming, China University of Political Science and Law

 

Fellowships

  • 2025/6 (forthcoming) University of Berkeley, California, USA.
  • 2019 Visiting Fellow at the Flemish Expert Centre on Data & Society, Uni. of Leuven, Belgium.
  • 2019 William Evans Fellowship, of Otago in New Zealand.

Artwork   

  • Automating Empathy – A Short Film (Academic advisor & co-producer, McStay; written and narrated by Ben Bland; hand-crafted filmmaking, blending paper art, stop motion, time lapse and live action by Conor Flanagan & Maria Figueiredo, with original foley & music by Steve & Dave Elton).
  • Aura (2019): Academic advisor & co-producer, McStay. Lead artist,Ronan Devlin. Based on McStay’s emotional AI work, this is been shown in Leeds, Salford, Lancaster and London (Canary Wharf). Approx. 100,000 in-person views.
  • Veillance (2017): Team McStay, Ronan Devlin (lead artist), Vian Bakir (academic), Ant Dickinson (sound), Carwyn Edwards (software), Michael Flückiger (graphics) and Gillian Jein (academic).

Media appearances and public engagement:

  • Interviews: MIT tech Review, Buzzfeed, Scientific American, The Sun, New York Post, The Guardian, The Register, ABC Radio (Australia), Studio City for RTV Slovenija, Canal+ (France), BBC Futures (USA), BBC Radio 4, BBC Wales, BBC Worldwide to discuss technology. Writing for industry outlets includes: Information Week, Information Age, WPP, ESOMAR, Privacy & Business Law and The Conversation. Documentary appearances: ‘Drawing the Line’ (Sensum) on emotional AI, ‘Political Economy of Media’ (Sage), and ‘Advertising’ (Lambert Productions).

  • Journalism: I write for The Conversation on matters involving advertising, technology and privacy. All articles available here. I have have also written for Sparksheet/WPP, an advertising industry publication. See here.

  • Salon: invited discussion member at Privacy, Protection, Publicity: Does your Freedom have Boundaries? Dialogue, Shoreditch, London.

Teaching awards:

  • Learning & Teaching Award (2008) from HEFCE/TQEF recognising excellence in teaching and learning support.
  • Learning & Teaching Award (2007) from HEFCE/TQEF recognising excellence in teaching and learning support.

Memberships:

Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers; International Communication Association; Media, Communications & Cultural Studies Association; Association of Internet Researchers; International Association for Media & Communication Research; Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society; Personal Data Trust Network (Digital Catapult).

Blog

Various lapsed blogs can be found online, but I'm active on Twitter @digi-ad.