Professor Drew Hemment (he/him) has been a leading figure in the emergence of digital culture in Europe for close to four decades. As Theme Lead in Interpretive Technologies for Sustainability at The Alan Turing Institute and Professor of Data Arts and Society at the University of Edinburgh, he leads Doing AI Differently, an international initiative advancing a fundamental shift in AI development – one that positions the humanities and arts as integral, rather than supplemental, to technical innovation. He directs the Artificial Intelligence Humanities Sandpits for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and leads The New Real centre for AI, Arts and Futures research and Festival Futures at Edinburgh Futures Institute.
His research develops anticipatory methods for shaping technological emergence through artistic and collective inquiry. He investigates how interpretive approaches from the arts and humanities can inform AI systems capable of engaging meaningfully with cultural complexity. He originated and has led the development of experiential AI, developing systems that enhance, rather than replace, human interpretive capacity.
Hemment works at the intersection of emerging technology, artistic practice, and critical research. In 1995, he founded FutureEverything, named by The Guardian one of the top ten ideas festivals worldwide, and by Arts Council England as “one of the key touch-point organisations” connecting research and creative communities. In 2016, he founded GROW Observatory, the world’s first continental-scale citizens’ observatory. Between 1988 and 1992, he was a DJ and organiser of seminal events cited by The Observer as one of the five most influential moments in early UK electronic dance culture.
A Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and a member of the Editorial Board at Leonardo, Hemment is a frequent public speaker and media contributor. He has been an expert witness on AI for BBC’s Moral Maze and a film critic for BBC Radio Scotland’s Afternoon Show. His work has received 14 international awards, including the Soil Award (Winner), STARTS Prize (Honorary Mention), Lever Prize (Winner), and Prix Ars Electronica (Honorary Mention).
