Tech philosopher, author, dad. Critical thinking, AI ethics, future skills. Latest book: Wise Animals (Picador) https://tinyurl.com/WiseAnimals Views minehttps://bsky.app/profile/tomchatfield.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/tomchatfield.bsky.social/post/3m56zaxf3d22y"AI’s power must not be allowed to hollow out the very skills required to navigate an AI age successfully." After six months of writing and research, my white paper on AI and pedagogy is finally out! https://sagepub.com/explore-our-content/white-papers/2025/11/03/ai-and-the-future-of-pedagogy Do share; do join the conversation.09 Nov 2025 11:34 +0000at://did:plc:5ywyfm2pc4mbhixkmhrsofdy/app.bsky.feed.post/3m56zaxf3d22yhttps://bsky.app/profile/tomchatfield.bsky.social/post/3llqhzuy3t22pI've spent the last six months writing and researching this white paper about why our greatest challenges are human, not technological. Do take a look. https://www.sagepub.com/explore-our-content/press-office/2025/03/13/human-skills-for-an-ai-age01 Apr 2025 08:41 +0000at://did:plc:5ywyfm2pc4mbhixkmhrsofdy/app.bsky.feed.post/3llqhzuy3t22phttps://bsky.app/profile/tomchatfield.bsky.social/post/3lhebaomhi226A newsletter on the usefulness of hasty, heartfelt writing; plus some suitably speedy thoughts on AI, critical thinking and the future of literature. https://open.substack.com/pub/tomchatfield/p/thinking-out-loud-onscreen?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=14blz04 Feb 2025 14:26 +0000at://did:plc:5ywyfm2pc4mbhixkmhrsofdy/app.bsky.feed.post/3lhebaomhi226https://bsky.app/profile/tomchatfield.bsky.social/post/3lgxmdlv3yk2s"If you think you might have something to contribute, don’t you have some kind of duty to move forward at 70%, instead of depriving us of your contribution thanks to your finicky and frankly rather self-indulgent insistence on perfection?" https://ckarchive.com/b/wvu2hghk5m82zf9r552rqtn34kzxxc830 Jan 2025 13:40 +0000at://did:plc:5ywyfm2pc4mbhixkmhrsofdy/app.bsky.feed.post/3lgxmdlv3yk2shttps://bsky.app/profile/tomchatfield.bsky.social/post/3lgvz4tsbm22xPerfection, of a kind.29 Jan 2025 22:24 +0000at://did:plc:5ywyfm2pc4mbhixkmhrsofdy/app.bsky.feed.post/3lgvz4tsbm22xhttps://bsky.app/profile/tomchatfield.bsky.social/post/3lgb24degec2kFirst glimpses of Wise Animals in its paperback incarnation, out on 13th February. Please do consider picking one up! I'm very proud of this book. https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/tom-chatfield/wise-animals/978152907976021 Jan 2025 14:16 +0000at://did:plc:5ywyfm2pc4mbhixkmhrsofdy/app.bsky.feed.post/3lgb24degec2khttps://bsky.app/profile/tomchatfield.bsky.social/post/3lg6hccd2rs2xGiven that AIs will in due course be trained upon all the papers currently being written about AI—including about ethics, deception and alignment, and how to test and explore such things—is there a genuine risk that today's scholarship will help improve tomorrow's automated manipulators?20 Jan 2025 13:34 +0000at://did:plc:5ywyfm2pc4mbhixkmhrsofdy/app.bsky.feed.post/3lg6hccd2rs2xhttps://bsky.app/profile/tomchatfield.bsky.social/post/3lg6cwloq4k2xVery much looking forward to this: do join us! [contains quote post or other embedded content]20 Jan 2025 12:15 +0000at://did:plc:5ywyfm2pc4mbhixkmhrsofdy/app.bsky.feed.post/3lg6cwloq4k2xhttps://bsky.app/profile/tomchatfield.bsky.social/post/3leojreqwjc2fCrept into new days, Dodging old futures, sly looks From rickety dreams.01 Jan 2025 12:10 +0000at://did:plc:5ywyfm2pc4mbhixkmhrsofdy/app.bsky.feed.post/3leojreqwjc2fhttps://bsky.app/profile/tomchatfield.bsky.social/post/3ld7exvuxhc2aA moral milestone. My children are old enough to have learned the golden rule: do unto others whatever they'll let you get away with.13 Dec 2024 18:09 +0000at://did:plc:5ywyfm2pc4mbhixkmhrsofdy/app.bsky.feed.post/3ld7exvuxhc2ahttps://bsky.app/profile/tomchatfield.bsky.social/post/3lczpjxilyc2yThe notion that we may be glimpsing the nature and properties of a multiverse via quantum computation is rather beautiful https://blog.google/technology/research/google-willow-quantum-chip/ the most fundamental informational properties of existence as we know it, shedding light on its unimagined other echoes11 Dec 2024 12:02 +0000at://did:plc:5ywyfm2pc4mbhixkmhrsofdy/app.bsky.feed.post/3lczpjxilyc2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/tomchatfield.bsky.social/post/3lcqp54nszk2rFront-line reportage from the school Christmas fair's darker peripheries...07 Dec 2024 22:01 +0000at://did:plc:5ywyfm2pc4mbhixkmhrsofdy/app.bsky.feed.post/3lcqp54nszk2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/tomchatfield.bsky.social/post/3lckennwnsk2wMorning tea brewing: A rope ladder dangled down The deep well of sleep.05 Dec 2024 09:37 +0000at://did:plc:5ywyfm2pc4mbhixkmhrsofdy/app.bsky.feed.post/3lckennwnsk2whttps://bsky.app/profile/tomchatfield.bsky.social/post/3lccogjixec26Confirmation bias can sound so (laughably!) easy to avoid. And yet. To carefully ask what the evidence does and does not show, and how and why, is not only hard but can also be painful and thankless. So much simpler first to pick your side, then your story, then your evidence.02 Dec 2024 08:11 +0000at://did:plc:5ywyfm2pc4mbhixkmhrsofdy/app.bsky.feed.post/3lccogjixec26https://bsky.app/profile/tomchatfield.bsky.social/post/3lc3ycnqci22eThe season's sweet mulch Rots into a thousand lives. Hope, but not for you.29 Nov 2024 16:19 +0000at://did:plc:5ywyfm2pc4mbhixkmhrsofdy/app.bsky.feed.post/3lc3ycnqci22ehttps://bsky.app/profile/tomchatfield.bsky.social/post/3lc3vqo4kik23I'm very much looking forward to discussing Wise Animals with the great Adam Rutherford this Saturday afternoon in Hay. If you're there, do come! https://www.hayfestival.com/p-22707-tom-chatfield-talks-to-adam-rutherford.aspx29 Nov 2024 15:33 +0000at://did:plc:5ywyfm2pc4mbhixkmhrsofdy/app.bsky.feed.post/3lc3vqo4kik23https://bsky.app/profile/tomchatfield.bsky.social/post/3lbzxqcvr522mEasy to overlook the simple fact that people are above all interested in other people and even the choicest AI-generated content won't sustain a platform of engaged, curious humans. In the short term, people are easily duped. In the long term they get wise (and bored, and angry).28 Nov 2024 21:04 +0000at://did:plc:5ywyfm2pc4mbhixkmhrsofdy/app.bsky.feed.post/3lbzxqcvr522mhttps://bsky.app/profile/tomchatfield.bsky.social/post/3lbzo7qdul22cMiles slip past my feet Like a younger life lived well. There, almost in sight!28 Nov 2024 18:13 +0000at://did:plc:5ywyfm2pc4mbhixkmhrsofdy/app.bsky.feed.post/3lbzo7qdul22chttps://bsky.app/profile/tomchatfield.bsky.social/post/3lbs62us3bk23A sudden, sad thought that we may end up looking at today's LLMs like this if, rather than the mad/flaky/amazing business of chatting to them to try to work out what on earth they can (and can't) do we end up with endless streams of templates and productivity-enhancing tools doing pseudo work for us [contains quote post or other embedded content]25 Nov 2024 18:36 +0000at://did:plc:5ywyfm2pc4mbhixkmhrsofdy/app.bsky.feed.post/3lbs62us3bk23https://bsky.app/profile/tomchatfield.bsky.social/post/3lbs2az3y322gICYMI, an extract from Wise Animals, which came out in Feb and explores our co-evolution with technology. "To love something is to be obliged to worry about its history, purposes and imperfections; to want it to be better; to say no as well as yes to its offerings." https://open.substack.com/pub/tomchatfield/p/how-technology-has-made-us-what-we?r=14blz&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web25 Nov 2024 17:28 +0000at://did:plc:5ywyfm2pc4mbhixkmhrsofdy/app.bsky.feed.post/3lbs2az3y322g