Michal Kosinski

Michal Kosinski Profile

Michal Kosinski is one of the world’s most influential academics working on artificial intelligence. A Professor of Management and Strategy at the University of Hong Kong – previously at Stanford University and the University of Cambridge – he uses AI to study people, and psychology to study AI.

Michal has keynoted for organizations including PwC, Google, McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, P&G, and Deutsche Telekom, and has spoken at venues ranging from the European Parliament and Chatham House to C-SPAN and DLD – where his 2025 talk on the psychology of AI was voted Best Talk of the Day. He advises governments and corporations on AI, having testified before the FTC, the Department of Justice, and the EEOC, and serves on the AI Board of TELUS. Audiences rate him exceptionally: 9.81/10 at a recent leadership event – “the highest score I’ve ever seen,” per the organizer.

His research showed that ordinary digital footprints – likes, clicks, images – reveal our intimate traits. He was behind the first press article warning against Cambridge Analytica, published three years before the scandal broke, and his work drove the FTC case that ended in Facebook’s record $5 billion fine. More recently, he was among the first to show human-like psychological processes emerging in large language models – research that changed how scientists and companies think about what AI can do.

One of the world’s most cited scientists (30,000+ citations, Clarivate top 1%), his research has inspired a cover story in The Economist, the theatre production “Privacy” (Donmar Warehouse, London; Public Theater, New York), several TED talks, and a video game – and has been featured in thousands of press articles, podcasts, and documentaries worldwide.