Dr Julia Shaw is a Visiting Researcher at the King's Institute for Artificial Intelligence. She is a criminal psychologist and memory scientist who is applying her work to AI.

Her current work examines how AI systems affect human minds; including persuasion, memory distortion, and harmful manipulation. She is also interested in understanding how criminals are using tech for AI-facilitated crime, and how AI is being used by law enforcement, lawyers, and the criminal justice system. Dr Julia Shaw is also active in promoting effective AI governance to make AI safer for all, which becomes increasingly important as more sophisticated frontier models are rolled out.

Her most cited study, Shaw and Porter (2015), demonstrated that entire false memories of committing a crime can be implanted in adults through suggestive interviewing techniques. The paper became a foundational reference in psychology and has shaped police interviewing practice and legal debate about the reliability of memory evidence. She has served as an expert witness in UK, US, and Canadian legal proceedings. Dr Shaw has also advised police, military, and legal organisations on memory, interviewing, and evidence.

In 2017 Dr Julia Shaw co-founded Spot, an AI-based platform for reporting workplace misconduct and discrimination. Spot applies principles from cognitive interviewing to help employees produce accurate, contemporaneous records of incidents. Clients have included Monzo, AXA, Kickstarter, and the Bar Council.

Dr Julia Shaw also does a lot of science communication to wide audiences, presenting podcasts and TV shows with the BBC and other mainstream outlets. She is the author of four popular science books: The Memory Illusion (2016), an international bestseller on the science of false memory published in over 20 languages; Making Evil (2019), a bestseller on the psychology of why people do bad things; Bi (2022) on the science and history of bisexuality; and Green Crime (2025), on the psychology of environmental crime.

Dr Shaw has delivered talks viewed millions of times online, and has been a speaker at major events for big organisations including Microsoft, Google, LinkedIn, and Meta.

She holds a PhD in psychology from the University of British Columbia and most recently transferred to King's from her long-term honorary academic position at UCL. She speaks English and German, and works in both languages.

Dr Julia Shaw’s personal website: https://www.drjuliashaw.com/

Dr Julia Shaw’s google scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LnWiUaIAAAAJ&hl=en