Taming the Machine
Kogan Page · 2024
Ethically harness the power of AI — a field guide for people who must live and work beside it.
About the bookNell Watson
Philosophical Engineer Non-Executive Director Ethicist
The Work
Machines are learning to act. Someone must teach them to care.
Nell Watson specialises in agentic AI safety, transparency, and value alignment — spanning hands-on machine learning engineering, international standards leadership, government advisory, and books that bring AI ethics to a general audience.
Chair of IEEE 3152 and IEEE 3173, Vice-Chair of IEEE 7001, President of EURAIO, and funding advisor to the Survival & Flourishing Fund — with current work centred on agentic safety architectures, constitutional alignment, and psychosecurity.
The Books
Two books on living well with machines
Safer Agentic AI
Kogan Page · 2026
When AI stops answering and starts acting, safety becomes a discipline. This is its handbook.
About the bookEarly-access galleys of works in progress are in Books.
Explore
About
The story, current appointments, and areas of focus.
Read →Speaking
Keynotes, briefings, topics, and how to book.
Book →Advisory
Board and Non-Executive Director work.
Enquire →Books
Two published volumes and the early-access galleys.
Browse →Essays
Ninety-four essays on minds, machines, and trust.
Read →Projects
Twenty undertakings, from Guardian to Janus.
Explore →Playground
Twenty-one playable arguments and a cabinet of oddities.
Play →Press
Talks and interviews across the world’s media.
Listen →As heard in conversation with
The sky above
The night here keeps its own calendar — Easter by the Gregorian computus, the menorah lit one candle a night, the Perseids on time. None of it is decoration: the sky is computed, not scheduled.