Author: David Canter

Professor David Canter, the internationally renowned applied social researcher and world-leading crime psychologist, is perhaps most widely known as one of the pioneers of "Offender Profiling" being the first to introduce its use to the UK.

Beware! AI Can Lie.
Innovation
December 3, 2024

Beware! AI Can Lie.

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The Cult of Donald Trump
Insights
October 16, 2024

The Cult of Donald Trump

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Neuromania – Or Where Did the Person Go?
Opinion
October 2, 2024

Neuromania – Or Where Did the Person Go?

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The Perils of (Even Very Minor) Celebrity
Insights
August 27, 2024

The Perils of (Even Very Minor) Celebrity

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How Social Science Can Hurt Those It Loves

How Social Science Can Hurt Those It Loves

David Canter rues the way psychologists and other social scientists too often emasculate important questions by forcing them into the straitjacket of limited scientific methods.

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The Long Arm of Criminality

The Long Arm of Criminality

David Canter considers the daily reminders of details of our actions that have been caused by criminality.

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The Fog of War

The Fog of War

David Canter considers the psychological and organizational challenges to making military decisions in a war.

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Why Don’t Algorithms Agree With Each Other?

Why Don’t Algorithms Agree With Each Other?

David Canter reviews his experience of filling in automated forms online for the same thing but getting very different answers, revealing the value systems built into these supposedly neutral processes.

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Did Turing Miss the Point? Should He Have Thought of the Limerick Test?

Did Turing Miss the Point? Should He Have Thought of the Limerick Test?

David Canter is horrified by the power of readily available large language technology.

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Musical Ways of Knowing

Musical Ways of Knowing

Our long-time blogger David Canter considers what he has learned while completing his PhD in music composition. He spent a lifetime as a social scientist, requiring every argument to be bolstered by some form of empirical evidence, or at least a supportive citation from the works of others. The contrast of developing an approach to composing music that can be regarded as ‘a contribution to knowledge’, has made him aware that there are many ways of knowing which scientists, especially social scientists and psychologists, ignore at their peril.

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Do We Need the Police?

Do We Need the Police?

David Canter considers whether ‘all-purpose’ police forces a no longer fit for purpose.

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The Trouble with Bootlaces: Treading on Artificial and General Intelligence

The Trouble with Bootlaces: Treading on Artificial and General Intelligence

David Canter considers some implications of ChatGPT and what it tells us about real intelligence, general, artificial or otherwise.

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