Dan Heaton

Contact

• workRoom C09 Computer Science
  Jubilee Campus
  Wollaton Road
  Nottingham
  NG8 1BB
  UK
• Daniel.Heaton@nottingham.ac.uk

Research Summary

Dan is currently undertaking his PhD, entitled Agency, Trust and Blame in Decision-Making Algorithms: An Analysis of Twitter Discourses, which he is scheduled to complete in 2024. This… read more

Recent Publications

• HEATON, DAN, NICHELE, ELENA, CLOS, JEREMIE and FISCHER, JOEL E, 2024. “ChatGPT says no”: agency, trust, and blame in Twitter discourses after the launch of ChatGPT AI and Ethics. 1-23
• HEATON, DAN, NICHELE, ELENA, CLOS, JÉRÉMIE, FISCHER, JOEL E and OTHERS, 2024. Perceptions of the agency and responsibility of the NHS COVID-19 app on Twitter: critical discourse analysis Journal of Medical Internet Research. 26(1), e50388
• HEATON, DAN, CLOS, JEREMIE, NICHELE, ELENA and FISCHER, JOEL, 2023. Critical reflections on three popular computational linguistic approaches to examine Twitter discourses PeerJ Computer Science. 9, e1211
• HEATON, DAN, NICHELE, ELENA, CLOS, JEREMIE and FISCHER, JOEL E, 2023. “The algorithm will screw you”: Blame, social actors and the 2020 A Level results algorithm on Twitter Plos one. 18(7), e0288662

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Current Research

Dan is currently undertaking his PhD, entitled Agency, Trust and Blame in Decision-Making Algorithms: An Analysis of Twitter Discourses, which he is scheduled to complete in 2024. This interdisciplinary project aims to investigate the agency, blame and trust associated with public-facing decision-making algorithms through a combination of Computer Science and Linguistics methodologies. Examples such as the NHS Covid-19 contact-tracing app, the 202 A Level grade calculation algorithm and ChatGPT will be examined due to their societal impact and discussion on social media. Concerns regarding algorithmic agency and responsibility, alongside trust issues, have emerged, requiring nuanced analysis. By integrating popular Natural Language Processing (NLP) computational linguistic tools with Corpus Linguistics and Discourse Analysis, Dan's PhD seeks to understand how grammatical and social agency portrayal impacts trust and blame perceptions. Methodologically, the project involves three phases: initial NLP-based computational analysis, followed by CL tools to examine grammatical constructions, and finally DA to delve deeper into whether the algorithms are presented as social actors on Twitter and the implications for trust and blame. Through this approach, Dan's PhD aims to offer insights into the complex dynamics surrounding algorithmic agency and public trust.

• HEATON, DAN, NICHELE, ELENA, CLOS, JEREMIE and FISCHER, JOEL E, 2024. “ChatGPT says no”: agency, trust, and blame in Twitter discourses after the launch of ChatGPT AI and Ethics. 1-23
• HEATON, DAN, NICHELE, ELENA, CLOS, JÉRÉMIE, FISCHER, JOEL E and OTHERS, 2024. Perceptions of the agency and responsibility of the NHS COVID-19 app on Twitter: critical discourse analysis Journal of Medical Internet Research. 26(1), e50388
• HEATON, DAN, CLOS, JEREMIE, NICHELE, ELENA and FISCHER, JOEL, 2023. Critical reflections on three popular computational linguistic approaches to examine Twitter discourses PeerJ Computer Science. 9, e1211
• HEATON, DAN, NICHELE, ELENA, CLOS, JEREMIE and FISCHER, JOEL E, 2023. “The algorithm will screw you”: Blame, social actors and the 2020 A Level results algorithm on Twitter Plos one. 18(7), e0288662
• HEATON, DAN, NICHELE, ELENA, CLOS, JEREMIE and FISCHER, JOEL E, 2023. “The pingdemic has been a greater challenge than Covid itself”: semantic prosodies in UK newspaper articles during the pandemic SN Social Sciences. 3(9), 146
• HEATON, DAN, CLOS, JÉRÉMIE, NICHELE, ELENA and FISCHER, JOEL E, 2023. The Social Impact of Decision-Making Algorithms: Reviewing the Influence of Agency, Responsibility and Accountability on Trust and Blame In: Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Trustworthy Autonomous Systems. 1-11