dr Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska

I am an  Assistant Research Professor at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, Cambridge Institute for Technology and Humanity, University of Cambridge. My research examines how emerging technologies (re)shape our understanding of death, loss, grief, and the afterlife, sitting at the intersection of technology, culture, and thanatology.

In 2024, I was recognized by Schmidt Sciences as one of the 19 most exceptional global researchers addressing the so-called “hard problems of AI” through the AI2050 Early Career Fellowship. Since then, I have led the project Imaginaries of Immortality in the Age of AI: an Intercultural Analysis, which explores the meanings of AI for our relationship to immortality across three cultural contexts: Poland, India, and China.

My collaborative work with Dr Tomasz Hollanek on the ethical and social implications of simulating the deceased through AI “deadbots” has gained worldwide coverage, including in major UK media outlets such as BBC World News, The Times, The Guardian, and The Independent  as well as in many non-English media outlets, including in Korea, Brazil, Iran, Spain, Egypt, Germany, Croatia, Madrid, Poland, Norway, the United States, and India. Moreover, the paper was the most downloaded article in Philosophy and Technology of 2024. 

I am also the author of the forthcoming monograph Nieśmiertelność. Technokulturowe strategie współczesności (Immortality: Contemporary Technocultural Strategies), to be published in Poland by Universitas in March 2026.

I earned my PhD from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań in 2022, and my dissertation was recognized by the National Centre for Culture in Poland as one of the three best PhDs in cultural studies defended between 2021 and 2023, as well as awarded the Inka Brodzka-Wald Prize for its contribution to the development of (im)mortality studies.

I regularly comment on the development of death- and immortality-related technologies in international media, including BBC World News, The Times, The Guardian, and The Independent, as well as non-English outlets such as El País (Spain), Tygodnik Powszechny (Poland), Deutsches Ärzteblatt (Germany), and Philenews (Greece). 

I am a member of the Institute of the Good Death in Poland. I also collaborate with NGOs, advise commercial companies on responsible AI development, and participate in a wide range of artistic and cultural initiatives.

I divide my time (and life) between Cambridge, UK, and Poznań, Poland.