STEM Faculty

Joseph Kwarteng is a Lecturer in Computing and Communications (Artificial Intelligence) at The Open University's School of Computing and Communications. His work sits at the intersection of responsible AI, computational social science, and technology for social justice, bringing together technical rigour and critical social inquiry to address some of the most pressing questions facing AI today: how to make it fair, trustworthy, and genuinely beneficial to all.

Research and Scholarship

Joseph's research spans responsible artificial intelligence, AI ethics, online safety, and educational technology. A central thread of his scholarship concerns intersectional hate speech online, in particular misogynoir, the specific and compounding forms of anti-Black misogyny directed at Black women through the combined operation of racism and sexism. His current research examines how generative AI (GenAI) and large language models (LLMs) can be deployed responsibly in education, with particular attention to Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems, algorithmic fairness, and the mitigation of bias. He is a core contributor to the SAGE-RAI project (Smart Assessment and Guided Education with Responsible AI) and the AI Digital Assistant (AIDA) initiative, where he has contributed to the design and evaluation of RAG architectures for personalised learning platforms.

More broadly, he is committed to understanding how AI shapes and is shaped by structures of power, race, and gender. He contributes to interdisciplinary work exploring these dynamics across diverse social contexts, and actively develops ethical guidelines and best practices for the responsible adoption of generative AI in higher education.

Teaching Interests

Joseph is Co-Chair of TM342: Intelligence and Ethics in AI (working title; first presentation in February 2029), a module that forms part of the new Computer Science with Artificial Intelligence qualification. He is also a Module Team Member for AI at Work, a Continuing Professional Development short course for workplace professionals that explores the opportunities and risks of AI in communication, collaboration, and organisational life, with a critical focus on bias, ethics, and responsible use.

He's contributed to the development of AI Language Technology in the Workplace, an Open University short course co-created with students from diverse backgrounds in partnership with the Faculties of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies, and Languages and Applied Linguistics. He has also taught database design, data management, and programming at the University of Nottingham and the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana.