Kelly Webb-Davies

VFWA: Voice-First Written Assessment This post was created in true VFWA style. I practice what I preach.

Thanks for coming Carol! I made it into a blog post: open.substack.com/pub/kellyweb...

VFWA: Voice-First Written Assessment This post was created in true VFWA style. I practice what I preach.

I finally debuted the passion project I’ve been working on: Voice-First Written Assessment.

It’s a structural redesign of written assessment to increase security, accessibility, authenticity and as a result - validity.

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

They tell students papers sound like AI — even when they're the students' own writing — so the company can scare them and sell them a product.

This goes beyond the general problem that even good AI detectors aren't perfect and shouldn't be the sole reason to accuse someone of writing with AI.

Yesterday, I interviewed a tech guy who told me something too important for me to wait until the podcast comes out for you to hear it:

Many free AI detectors have especially high false positive rates because they make money selling software that "humanizes" writing. 1/2

A6 - more talking, less writing #LTHEchat

A3 - truly breaking down what it is you’re trying to measure and having that happen in a secured, digitally unassisted way. Too often we say we’re trying to assessment thinking or reasoning and conflate that with linguistic form and mode #LTHEchat

Really grateful to be part of this panel and to what I fully expect to be a fascinating discussion. Especially looking forward to hearing from the other panellists and how their views will challenge many of the assumptions we often take for granted in both AI and education.

I train people at Oxford how to use AI, and this is precisely what I tell them to do, even including the term “grunt work”!

Less than a week to go and I've heard we're up to 400 registrations now, so very much the more the merrier!

Registration details:

📅 Thursday, 4 December 2025
🕗 8–10am Oxford (UTC/GMT +1)
🕓 4–6pm Perth (UTC/GMT +8)
💻 Venue: Online via Zoom
👉 Register here: www.eventbrite.com/e/oxforduwa-...

Vaccines do not cause autism.

Keep saying things that have been demonstrated by robust science and are the subject or organised disinformation. Don’t just ignore the attempts to brainwash.

#academicsky

Icelandic is in danger of dying out because of AI and English-language media, says former PM Katrín Jakobsdóttir and her co-author want the 350,000 people who speak the language to fight for its future

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

Plot Twist: “Real Writing” might be the barrier now Who's disabled when the environment changes?

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

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.