Jess Bergs
Human-AI Interaction @ UK AISI – Research Unit
R&D Innovation Engineer
Hi, there!
I lead engineering & product strategy at the UK AI Security Institute for our human-in-the-loop research tools enabling our scientists to source empirical data for their groundbreaking AI security research experiments at scale.
I'm currently also a Research Fellow at SPAR, investigating Agentic Situational Awareness – developing benchmarks to evaluate whether AI agents understand their operational context and capabilities. My broader interest is in how humans and machines interact, particularly as LLMs and agents reshape our relationship with artificial intelligence.
My career so far has been a wild mix of R&D, public sector work and creative tech – from AI Security to creative prototyping at BBC R&D to EU Horizon projects on energy citizenship. I'm a proud generalist and love bringing people together via events & conferences I organise. Outside work, I design and playtest board games!
Selected Work
AI and the Future of Work – Study
2026Collaborated with researchers to build data collection app for pilot study measuring AI-driven productivity gains across workplace tasks. Study with 500 participants found 25% higher quality and 61% faster completion with AI assistance.
AI Advice-Giving – Study
2025Expanded our experiment apps platform for supporting longitudinal controlled study examining how people follow AI advice. Found 75% of participants followed GPT-4o advice on personal matters, though with no sustained well-being improvements.
AI and Political Knowledge – Study
2025Worked closely with researchers to build web app and infrastructure for the data collection for empirical study with 2,858 participants examining AI chatbot usage for political information. Demonstrated AI increases political knowledge as effectively as internet search.
Public Design Conference 2025
2025Co-organised the inaugural global public design conference bringing together government designers worldwide. Part of World Design Congress, in collaboration with Royal College of Art and Greater London Authority.
AISI HAI @ Services Week 2025
2025Presented AISI's research tools at Services Week 2025, the UK government's annual event bringing together public sector professionals to share knowledge on service design and digital innovation.
AISI HAI @ CHI 2025 STAIG Panel
2025Panel speaker at the CHI 2025 workshop on Sociotechnical AI Governance: Opportunities and Challenges for HCI. Hybrid event held in Yokohama, Japan discussing AI governance from HCI perspectives.
AISI EurIPS 2025 Social
2025Organised the UK AI Security Institute's social event during EurIPS 2025 in Copenhagen, bringing together roughly 50 attendees from the AI safety research community to discuss frontier AI risks and technical solutions.
Making AI More Understandable
2019-2021BBC R&D project researching Explainable AI to make AI decision-making transparent and interpretable. Prototyped ML-powered proofs-of-concept including generative ML art and interactive visualizations.
BBC Together
2020-2021A trial of a social watching and listening experience from BBC R&D. Multi-user iPlayer viewer enabling synchronized viewing experiences. Ran on BBC Taster for 1.5 years.
BBC Tech Meetup
2019-2021Co-organised the BBC Tech Meetup, facilitating knowledge sharing on latest technologies and development practices.
Trent Basin Community Information Model
2018-2019Experience design for data visualisation project of building energy data for Trent Basin re-development project while at IES Ltd.
EU HORIZON – ENTRUST
2015-2018EU H2020 R&D project during my time at IES Ltd on improving energy efficiency for the built environment and researching social factors in energy citizenship. Led requirements analysis and UX development. Research findings published on energy citizenship and community engagement in sustainable energy transitions.
Lab² – A collaborative cross-reality game for virtual team building
2015Master's Thesis project. A collaborative cross-reality game for virtual team building. Award 'Best Research Poster' at iLRN Conference
Master's Portfolio
2014-2015Portfolio showcasing three major projects from my M.Sc. in Visualisation: Serious Games Development at Glasgow School of Art. Features Lab² (cross-reality collaboration), GoMA (RT3D heritage visualisation) and Spartathlon (Serious Game using Fitbit).
TEDxStuttgart
2011-2018Co-organised regular TEDx event series showcasing innovative ideas in technology, education and design from and for the city of Stuttgart and the land Baden-Württemberg. Events: Act. Change. Now., Post-X, Collaborate For Humanity, Re:Think – Re:Invent – Re:Create.