Imy Khan, Ph.D.

Hi, I’m Imy Khan: a researcher primarily working on artificial life, artificial intelligence, and human-robot interaction.

I’m mostly interested in nature (or bio-)inspired intelligence, self-organisation/adaptive systems/cybernetics, social and affective cognition, and the intersection of all of these things.

For instance, why do social (biological) agents demonstrate better adaptability than non-social agents? What is happening “under the hood”? Why did “emotions” evolve the way they did, and how do they affect our ability to self-regulate, self-organise, and adapt? Can these things give us clues about how to build truly intelligent, adaptive artificial intelligence?

This also extends to our relationships with artificial systems (like robots): can we truly form “social bonds” with robots the same way we do with other humans? How does this influence our long-term health, and the way we socially interact with these artificial systems?

These (along with dozens more) questions are what I like to explore, using whatever tools that are available to me.

Though I mostly work independently, I hold a number of affiliations: I am currently a part-time Research Fellow at the University of Warwick (UK), an Affiliated Researcher at DICE Lab at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), and a visiting lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire (UK).

I also work as an external consultant for private institutions and government organisations across many AI, machine learning, and data science-related areas.

I also try to maintain some public outreach activities for the artificial life community: you can read more on my about me page.