Current Research

My research focuses on building and evaluating human-centered AI systems that operate over complex, real-world data. I began this work during my DPhil, studying how AI-driven algorithmic curation shapes audiences’ experiences with art on digital platforms, with particular attention to metadata, recommendation systems, and human interpretation in multimodal contexts.

This foundation led to a broader research agenda on messy data pipelines, multimodal modeling, and the robustness of AI/ML workflows in practice. I now work on AI agents, AI privacy, and competitive dynamics in AI systems, examining how models interact with humans and with each other under real-world constraints. Across my work, I aim to design AI systems that are both technically rigorous and deeply informed by human behavior.

Publications

2025

  1. Harry Krejsa & Thomas Serban von Davier. Agents of Change: Rapid Shifts in AI Economics Are Redefining How Agentic Systems Are Built, Powered, and DeployedCarnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy and Technology: White Papers and Policy Briefs. July, 2025. 22 pages. Digital Copy.

  2. Thomas Serban von Davier, Aaron Larsen, Max Van Kleek, and Nigel Shadbolt. ArtBot: An Exploration into AI's Potential for Guiding Art Analysis.In Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '25). April 26–May 01, 2025, Yokohama, Japan. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 11 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3706599.3720181

  3. Thomas Şerban von Davier, Hayoun Noh, Max Van Kleek, & Nigel Shadbolt. Looking for Art in a Sea of Content: A Human-Centered Approach to Supporting Creativity on Social Media. The Proceedings of the ACM on Human Computer Interaction (PACM HCI'25). 9, 2, Article CSCW127 (April 2025), 25 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3711025

Thesis Publication

  1. von Davier, T.Ş. 2024. “Designing for Appreciation: How Digital Spaces Can Support Art and Culture.” PhD thesis, University of Oxford. Bodleian Library Link.

2024

  1. von Davier, T.Ş.; Herman, L.M.; Moruzzi, C. A Machine Walks into an Exhibit: A Technical Analysis of Art Curation. Arts 2024, 13, 138. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13050138

  2. Hao-Ping (Hank) Lee, Yu-Ju Yang, Thomas Serban Von Davier, Jodi Forlizzi, and Sauvik Das. 2024. Deepfakes, Phrenology, Surveillance, and More! A Taxonomy of AI Privacy Risks. In Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 775, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642116

2023

  1. Thomas Serban Von Davier. 2023. Designing for Appreciation: How Digital Spaces Can Support Art and Culture. In Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 490, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1145/3544549.3577041

  2. von Davier, T. Ş., Kollnig, K., Binns, R., Van Kleek, M., & Shadbolt, N. (2023). We Are Not There Yet: The Implications of Insufficient Knowledge Management for Organisational Compliance. arXiv preprint arXiv:2305.04061.

  3. Kollnig, K., Datta, S., Serban Von Davier, T., Van Kleek, M., Binns, R., Lyngs, U., & Shadbolt, N. (2023, June). ‘We are adults and deserve control of our phones’: Examining the risks and opportunities of a right to repair for mobile apps. In Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (pp. 22-34). PDF.

In the News

  1. Thomas Serban Von Davier. 2025. "AI agents arrived in 2025 – here’s what happened and the challenges ahead in 2026". The Conversation. Article Link.

  2. Chloe Jad. 2025. "Artificial Intelligence is always changing, but here's what its future could look like". In the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Article Link.

  3. Henrique Fabretti Moraes & Maria Beatriz Previtali. 2024. "Shaping the future: A dynamic taxonomy for AI privacy risk". In the International Association of Privacy Professionals News. Article Link.

Presentations

CMIST's 2025 Scientists and Strategists Speaker Series

This event featured John Costello, an intelligence analyst and former senior official across both the Trump and Biden Administrations, including as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Intelligence and Security and the inaugural Chief of Staff of the Office of the National Cyber Director; and Dr. Thomas Șerban von Davier, an artificial intelligence and machine learning research scientist at Carnegie Mellon's Software Engineering Institute who researches frontier AI, open-source large language models, and international AI development trends. Ralph López, CMIST Deputy Director for Security Policy Studies, moderated the discussion.

GERAD Montreal

A seminar I gave in 2023 while visiting HEC Montreal and GERAD. The seminar focuses on the importance of art metadata and what it can tell us about human experiences of art. The final portion of the presentation highlights the collaboration work I set out to do with my colleagues at HEC Montreal. Click on the text to view it.

AIMAC Lisbon, 2024

The presentation about our network graph for the audience at AIMAC 2024. We visualized and analyzed a network of musicians to explore the impact of their network centrality and their success on Spotify's streaming platform. The network is linked to this information box.