Thomas has worked previously in the ethics of influence, particularly technologically-enhanced methods of influence, as well as the philosophy of trust and trustworthiness. At the Institute of Ethics in AI, he is researching the topic of trustworthy AI. Some key questions include whether it is possible for the outputs of AIs to be assertions and whether the limited autonomy of an AI could allow it to change its own function.
Having completed his BA at Birmingham University and his BPhil at Oxford, Thomas studied for his PhD in philosophy at St Andrews University, where his thesis was on the nature and rationality of trust and trustworthiness. He completed his doctorate in 2022 and took up a position as a Research Fellow in the Ethics of Persuasive Digital Technologies at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics (now the Uehiro Oxford Institute). He began at the Institute for Ethics in AI as an Early Career Research Fellow in Moral Philosophy/Ethics in AI associated with Corpus Christi in January 2025.