Kelly Webb-Davies

Losing My Marbles The fragility of thought and the weight of words.

I thought of this analogy when preparing the talk I'm giving at the Cambridge GenAI in Education conference next week. So if you're there, you'll hear me give a version of it when I describe all the ways in which generative AI enables me as a writer with ADHD.

open.substack.com/pub/kellyweb...

Proof or it didn’t happen: Assess it like it’s research The views expressed here are my own and do not represent those of the University of Oxford.

New blog alert. With “what are we even doing” vibes intended.
open.substack.com/pub/kellyweb...

Kane on best form here: “If you don't like this argument, there are plenty more there waiting to (metaphorically) punch you in the face.”

WELL THEN IT'S NOT MEANINGFUL IS IT, NICK www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Excellent and comprehensive! I’m going to insist all educators read this.

Promotional poster for the Oxford–UWA GenAI in Academia Series Launch Seminar, jointly hosted by the University of Oxford and the University of Western Australia. The top half features images of iconic university buildings from both institutions: Oxford’s Radcliffe Camera on the left and UWA’s Winthrop Hall on the right. The event details read: Oxford–UWA GenAI in Academia Series Launch Seminar UWA’s GenAI Think Tank and Oxford’s AI Competency Centre invite participants to the launch of a new collaborative series exploring the opportunities and challenges of generative AI in higher education. Keynote presentations: • Kelly Webb-Davies (Oxford University AI Competency Centre) — Reframing AI in Academic Practice • Associate Professor Celeste Rodríguez Louro (Deputy Chair, UWA GenAI Think Tank) — Beyond the Calculator Analogy: Why GenAI Demands Critical Engagement Date: Thursday 4 December Time: 8–10am Oxford / 4–6pm Perth Venue: Online via Zoom Text at the bottom invites registration at uwa.au/OxfordUWA-GenAI-launch, accompanied by a QR code. Logos of the University of Oxford and UWA appear at the top right.

Register to attend this joint Oxford-UWA seminar where both I and @celesterl.bsky.social will be speaking about GenAI in Academia.
I'm so excited to be collaborating with my alma mater!
Register here: www.eventbrite.com/e/oxforduwa-...

Just know that whenever you say AI or GenAI, the phonetician in me is always clocking whether you pronounce it [ejaɪ] or [eɪʔaɪ].

I don't care which you use. But I always notice.

AI disclosure? Maybe it's nunya. An argument against AI disclosure

For a while now I’ve discussed my complicated feelings about AI transparency and disclosure when asked in my workshops, but never fleshed it out in writing.

So here is that – a counterargument to the idea that AI disclosure is always necessary.

kellywebbdavies.substack.com/p/ai-disclos...

A screengrab shows "ChatGPT 5 Thinking". The user has typed "you're checking the wrong reference". The chatbot response is "stopped thinking"

Chatbot interactions for the ages.

The Degrading Scale — Grow Beyond Grades In her essay, Sharlyn Barrett recalls how the pursuit of perfection—whether on a scale or on a report card—stripped joy from both learning and life, and how messages about perfection left her exhauste...

I am too exhausted to care about other standards of perfection, like grades. Insecure in my personal life, I give up trying at school because I can’t bear being judged anymore. @GBGEdu @growbeyondgrades.org growbeyondgrades.org/blog/degradi...

Bangor Cathedral choir suspended after singing ‘inappropriate’ hymn In latest scandal embroiling the Welsh cathedral, choir performed piece during holy communion to protest about job losses

This is brillaint, up the Choristers www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

An unpleasant scene in central Oxford. On the left, anti-immigrant shouts of 'send them back' and (I'm pretty sure) 'shoot the f**kers'. On the right, singing of 'stop the hate/ stop the fear' through a tannoy. Crowd on the right about double the size of that on the left.

Just looked at the cast for the upcoming Harry Potter audiobook - upsetting to see Hugh Laurie, Riz Ahmed, Matthew Macfadyen, and Michelle Gomez selling out the same damn week Rowling leads a bullying harassment campaign of a single M&S employee just doing her job because she MIGHT be trans.

Llongyfarchiadau i Peredur Glyn, enillydd Gwobr Goffa Daniel Owen yn Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Wrecsam 2025 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

The winner of the Daniel Owen Memorial Prize at the 2025 Eisteddfod is Peredur Glyn. Congratulations! 👏

#Steddfod2025

This has always annoyed me.

IMO, the existence of LLMs calls for more, not less engagement, and this engagement ideally comes in the form of increased community and collaboration among humans. One group professors can always collaborate with is students. I started doing this out of desperation so I could stay engaged...

Ooh that’s so interesting! Thanks for sharing - I’ll be using this one!!

You are a "citizen of nowhere", they said.

A "queue-jumper", they said.

Now I am a "squalid chapter", they say.

A risk as I might make this an "island of strangers", they say.

I am "pulling the country apart", they say.

a society where "bad immigrants" are demonised is a society where no immigrant can truly feel welcome, because aren't we all just one wrong turn or accident away from being unemployed? on disability benefits? unable to care for our children without state help? just no such thing as a safe immigrant

"oh but they don't mean you" - sure, yeah, because I have a job and I'm physically fit, yeah? what if I were to become one of those immigrants who has to be on the dole? what if I end up disabled for whatever reason? what if I end up having a ton of kids with another immigrant? what if? what if?

christ, what a day to be an immigrant cursed with the ability to read

Slightly amended so I can fit this here: I am writing to you as an immigrant who chose to make the UK my home. As someone who is now also a British citizen. And as a German-born historian who understands where the complete normalisation of the far right can end. I write to say: For shame! I first came to the UK in the 1990s for a visit with my grandmother. Objectively, much was backwards here. No mixer taps in the bathroom; awful ‘bread’; and strings had to be pulled to switch on lights. But however I felt about this, my own string had been pulled: I loved this Cool Britannia. It was quite possibly then that I decided that the UK was to be my home. When I arrived to settle here permanently, I made a choice: to contribute my skills, my knowledge—all I have to offer—to this country rather than another one. I am deeply disgusted by your comment today that immigration has done ‘incalculable damage’ to the country. This is the language of the far right. It is insulting, hateful & will fuel xenophobia. And it is just wrong. Migration is a normal part of the human existence. None of us would be where we are without it. Open your fridge and you will see migration. Immigrants help make the UK tick every single day, whether we clean toilets in our hospitals or provide care for the elderly; whether we empty our bins or carry out cancer research. We are mothers, sons-in-law, aunts and uncles, friends, neighbours and colleagues. I ask you not tell me that you do not mean me. I know that you do not—at least not primarily—mean a white woman from Europe who has a PhD. But who do you mean? And, much more importantly, who do you think those racists who were engaged in riots on our streets last summer think you mean? Anti-immigration narratives have defined UK policymaking for the best part of two decades. And fundamentally so. They were the key driver in delivering Brexit, for example, and, as such, have directly limited the rights and opportunities of British citizens.

This obsessive focus on immigration as the ‘problem’—that is the real problem. And it is consistently delivering poor outcomes for the UK. Instead of tackling this, you are choosing to consolidate it, sowing divisions along the way. You may point me to polling and tell me that this is what voters want. Do they? I am not surprised at all that over 50% of voters might say they want to see immigration reduced if that is the question they are being asked. What we need to know is what they would answer to the question: “Would you like to see immigration reduced? What this would mean for you and your local community is XYZ.” That is not how surveys can ask questions, but governments absolutely can choose to make policy using such a more informed position. Prime Minister, you continue to talk a lot about making the tough choices. But let’s be clear: setting immigrants up as the ‘other’, as a scapegoat—describing us as a threat ‘pulling the country apart’, a ‘squalid chapter’, a risk that might make the UK an ‘island of strangers’—these are not tough choices at all. These are the easy choices. They are the choices that populists make who have no solutions to the real problems a country faces. What I would like to know, Prime Minister, is what you will do when your policies lead to the implosion of the UK’s Higher Education sector. What you will tell communities when they can no longer provide any care for the elderly. The policies you announced today will not solve anything at all. They will have exclusively negative impacts. For those immediately affected; for our communities; and for our economy. Being pro-immigration—it is progressive, yes, but the much more crucial point is that it is also the most pro-UK policy approach that any politician in the country can pursue. And you are choosing to do the opposite. This, Prime Minister, is the real damage—and it will be very calculable indeed. Tanja Bueltmann

My letter to the Prime Minister. #immigration

Just Because I Didn't Type It Doesn't Mean They're Not My Own Ideas The panic when most educators hear "ChatGPT" results in them reaching for their plagiarism policies. Students submitting work they didn't write! The collapse of critical thinking! The end of education...

A blog about how we’ve long needed to stop treating academic English as a proxy for intelligence and how generative AI is finally forcing us to confront that: www.linkedin.com/pulse/just-b...

AI systems are built on English – but not the kind most of the world speaks AI models too often produce a monolithic version of English that erases variation.

Worth a read for the World Englishes part of Lang Diversity.
theconversation.com/ai-systems-a...

Thanks for sharing, James. So glad you enjoyed it!!

My work focuses on how beneficial they can be for marginalised groups: people who are speakers of stigmatised English, speakers of English as an additional language, and neurodivergent folk. Loads of use in terms of accessibility there.

Unlocking Academia | Kelly Webb-Davies Language is often the key to entering higher education — but not everyone’s key fits the lock. In this post, I reflect on what it meant to teach students how to cut the right kind of key, and how gen...

And while I'm here, this is something else I wrote about language being the key to academia, and the role of EAP teachers and AI:

www.linkedin.com/posts/kelly-...

No one wants to watch robots play basketball. #movie #theater #ai #art #hollywood #poetry TikTok video by rafaelcasal

And then today @rafaelcasal.bsky.social posted this great video that shares some of the same sentiments (but he does it much better, as an artist should): www.tiktok.com/@rafaelcasal...

Recognising the Necessity of Human Imperfection in an AI World | Kelly Webb-Davies | 10 comments I've been thinking about how generative AI produces grammatically "perfect" language while humans are inherently messy and a bit chaotic. It’s vital we recognised the value of the &quo...

Forgot to share this post I wrote about recognising that humanity exists in the imperfections:
www.linkedin.com/posts/kelly-...

YouTube video by Kelly Webb-Davies: Accessible Language & Academia Beyond Text: Multimodal Literacy in the Era of AI

Last week I was invited by OUP to #IATEFL2025 where I spoke about how GenAI's multimodal capabilities can improve communication accessibility. Here is the audio and slides of the 15 minute pop-up talk: youtu.be/lCpyZG3pJ98?...