Personal Biography
Having completed his BA at Birmingham University and his BPhil at Oxford, Thomas studied for his PhD in philosophy at St Andrews University, where his thesis was on the nature and rationality of trust and trustworthiness. He completed his doctorate in 2022 and took up a position as Research Fellow in the Ethics of Persuasive Digital Technologies at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics (now the Uehiro Oxford Institute). He began at the Institute for Ethics in AI in January 2025, at the same time as he joined Corpus Christi College.
Alongside his academic interests, Thomas enjoys running, reading, and cycling.
Research and Teaching
Thomas has worked previously in the ethics of influence, particularly technologically-enhanced methods of influence, as well as the philosophy of trust and trustworthiness. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Ethics in AI, where he is researching the topic of trustworthy AI. Some key questions include whether it is possible for the outputs of AIs to be assertions and whether the limited autonomy of an AI could allow it change its own function.
Thomas provides tutorials for the Ethics and Practical Ethics papers at Corpus Christi College and for the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technology paper at the Institute for Ethics in AI.