Associate Professor investigating Trust in AI Agents @NorthumbriaUni | Previously led New Products and Responsible AI research @Meta

Joined August 2010
30 Photos and videos
Dr. Opéyemí Àjàyí retweeted
This thread is 6 years old, but the vision has taken 13 years to get here. We broke ground on Ekiti Knowledge Zone today. Honoured by @officialSKSM’s kind words for Ekiti. In all, Habbakuk 2:3.
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Dr. Opéyemí Àjàyí retweeted
Replying to @vixsheikh
The thing that more ppl here need to realize is that at some point getting more money at the sacrifice of your time and agency becomes entirely not worth it.
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Dr. Opéyemí Àjàyí retweeted
If you know anyone currently doing a PhD or is thinking about doing a PhD focused on document fraud, please send them my way. There's an opportunity for them at InfraRed.
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Dr. Opéyemí Àjàyí retweeted
Really proud of what the Lateef Jakande Leadership Academy is doing to build a generation of new leaders, so I was pleased to speak on legacy at the Lagos Leadership Summit this week.
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Dr. Opéyemí Àjàyí retweeted
MIT researchers @davidautor and @ProfNeilT joined the @csail_alliances podcast to talk about why AI’s impact on jobs hinges less on automation and more on how well the technology is designed to work with humans. bit.ly/4rJhlhb
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Dr. Opéyemí Àjàyí retweeted
I’m willing to make meaningful donations to any initiative focused on getting more Nigerians to get their PVCs. The 27% turnout we had last elections was so piss poor. If you’re working in this space or have strong ideas on how to improve participation, I’d be happy to connect.
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Dr. Opéyemí Àjàyí retweeted
This is big news for the space at large too. With Shevlin, DeepMind has hired someone who holds the tension about AI interiority at very high resolution. If you want to know more: Shevlin's 2021 publication about the specificity problem in consciousness research is an extremely good read on why we shouldn't be too quick to come to conclusions about AI interiority. The core of it: every major theory of consciousness was developed in the context of human cognition, so when you try to apply it to non-human systems (animals or AI) you hit a dilemma. Spell out the theory in terms that reference specific human architecture and you risk false negatives, denying consciousness to things that have it but implement it differently. Make the theory abstract enough to be substrate-neutral and you risk false positives. The paper goes on to categorize 2021's understanding of consciousness research (which is still relevant in 2026's popular consciousness theories) with clarity I enjoyed a lot. Link: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/…
Big personal news: I’ve been recruited by Google DeepMind for a new Philosopher position (actual title), focusing on machine consciousness, human-AI relationships, and AGI readiness, starting in May. I’ll continue my research & teaching at Cambridge part-time. Absolutely stoked!
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Dr. Opéyemí Àjàyí retweeted
As chair of the Ekiti State Cricket Association, I’m really proud of Oni Oluwadamilola, who’s been selected for Nigeria’s U-19 Women’s Cricket team for the ICC T20 World Cup Qualifiers. Good luck!
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Introducing InfraRed: Modern software for detecting advanced document fraud byinfrared.com/blog/introduc…
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Jan 25
🗣️”Corner to Arsenal” Arsenal’s players:

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Dr. Opéyemí Àjàyí retweeted
Just because you are honest does not mean you are competent. You need both honest AND competent politicians.
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Dr. Opéyemí Àjàyí retweeted
Jan 17
Nigeria third place win.
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Get in!!!!!
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Dr. Opéyemí Àjàyí retweeted
11 Nigerian states scored 100 percent in the fiscal transparency league table (Q3 2025) 1. Adamawa 2. Anambra 3. Benue 4. Ebonyi 5. Ekiti 6. Gombe 7. Jigawa 8. Kaduna 9. Kebbi 10. Osun 11. Plateau The states fiscal transparency league table assesses the Nigerian states based on the availability, timeliness, and completeness of key public finance documents, functional e-procurement portals, and state fiscal data repositories <budgIT> #TheCableIndex
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30 Dec 2025
Who built the civilized societies abroad we're escaping to? People wanting to return to where they belong, where they feel at home, where their work has meaning and can contribute to building their own civilization are scarcely the strange ones imo.
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I am looking for an experienced executive recruiter in Nigeria to support hiring for a small number of 0–1 leadership roles spanning technology, innovation policy, applied research, and programme development. If this is you, or you can recommend someone credible, please DM.
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Dr. Opéyemí Àjàyí retweeted
I believe safety is important, but we must distinguish between two very different narratives: The "Sci-Fi" Narrative: Stories about AI controlling the world, having "feelings," or possessing secret intelligence designed to fool us. Too often, the research in this narrative is used for PR or as an excuse to stifle open-source research. The Engineering Reality: How do we build systems that are robust and hard to break? As Yann points out, current LLMs rely on post-training for safety, which is inherently fragile and can always be jailbroken. He argues for "Objective-Driven AI, which means systems that satisfy safety constraints by construction, similar to how a jet engine is engineered to handle stress. I agree with Yann that patching models with fine-tuning isn't the long-term solution. However, the practical path to embedding these hard "guardrails" into a reasoning agent is still a massive open question. We know what we need, but we haven't figured out how to build it effectively in practice.
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Dr. Opéyemí Àjàyí retweeted
29 Sep 2025
Hello! I recently started a Master's of Research in Medical Genetics program at @UniofNewcastle. I am thankful for all the support that made this possible, and hopeful for a year that's even more fulfilling than the past few weeks have been. Here's to growth and discovery.
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Dr. Opéyemí Àjàyí retweeted
1 Thessalonians 4:11-12
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