Emma spent 25 years working in technology, from systems development to Oracle database administration, across the public sector, fintech, and FTSE 100 companies. She studied computer science with the Open University and History at Aberystwyth University.
Then she did something potentially mad: she left it all behind to write novels. Her first book, The Rush, is speculative fiction that explores what happens when AI and nature collide. But while researching it, Emma discovered something unexpected. The AI systems she’d grown up watching in films – KITT, HAL, Bishop, the Terminator – weren’t science fiction anymore. They were arriving, and someone needed to explain them to people.
That’s where this blog came in. Emma writes about AI for everyone from her former tech colleagues to her family (who still need tech support to use their phones). She’s particularly interested in AI philosophy and ethics, because she believes the most important questions aren’t about the mathematics. They’re about the narratives. How do you ensure you get Bishop and not HAL? How do you train a protagonist instead of a villain?
Her mother is a self-proclaimed Irish witch who raised her daughter with a healthy fear of toadstool rings and Banshees. The rich folklore and storytelling of the emerald isles guaranteed Emma would end up writing stories herself. These days, she lives in Hampshire with her long-suffering husband and walks her dog through beautiful countryside, where she tries very hard not to rant about actors typing ridiculous IT commands in movies.
Emma Bartlett 