Hi, I’m Avi 👋
Sharing valuable insights through expertise and personal experiences
I’m a British academic from London, and I write and research about artificial intelligence, international law and international relations with the University of Cambridge and United Nations. With a prior academic background in mathematics, machine learning and law, I’ve been an engineer, scientist and lawyer! While my academic and professional journey has taken me through diverse fields, my passion for ethical technology, sustainable development, responsible travel, delicious food, and meaningful connections has always been a constant.
I started commercially selling websites around the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, but my love for research and development dates back to my teenage years. Over the years, I’ve learned the ins and outs of building digital solutions that not only look good but drive impact, and I’ve had the privilege of turning this into a business.
As someone who travels and writes extensively—both academically and professionally—I have a wealth of knowledge and experiences to share. Many people have encouraged me to put my thoughts into words, and that’s exactly what I’m doing here. I’ll be writing mainly about AI, technology and productivity, but you can expect much more than just that! I hope this space becomes a place to connect with like-minded individuals, share insights, and contribute to meaningful conversations about science, philosophy and the world we live in.
Thank you for reading! 🤗
I was born in Sri Lanka in 1995, before moving to the United Kingdom with my mother in 1999.
At 12, I learned to code and started earning money as a freelance developer and analyst (this funded my World of Warcraft addiction) – this was my first taste of earning money online. I went to school in London, where I also worked as a teaching assistant for a couple of years.
I lived and studied in Harrow, in the North West of London. My family were always quite poor, but I tried my best to make the most of the opportunity to learn and grow in this city.
I always excelled in school, achieving record-high results. Not just top of the class, but also often taken out of class to receive private lessons from the headteacher because I was too far ahead of my peers and distracting others. I’d finish classwork before the teacher finished explaining it (then just sit there cracking jokes or messing around). I achieved nationally high results after middle school and was invited to join some of the most prestigious private high schools in the UK. My family couldn’t support this at the time, and I asked to instead join the same public high school as my childhood friends, whom I had made from nursery, primary school, and middle school. Many of whom I am still close to, even after more than 25+ years. I think not going to private school was probably one of the best things that happened to me, but it’s hard to say.
I loved to read ever since I was a child. It’s one of my main passions that has withstood the test of time. From the moment I picked up my first book, I was hooked. Before starting high school, I had already read hundreds of books, including every Tolkien, Roald Dahl, JK Rowling and more.
I also developed a deep desire to understand computers during my early teens, and when my family brought one of those thick retro desktop box computers, I would often get in trouble after being caught taking it apart.
I read and learned everything I could about computers. After successfully scavenging some computer parts from old desktops and monitors which were to be thrown away at school, being gifted old parts from friends, and finding cheap, compatible components online, I eventually managed to build my own PC.
As hardware kept accumulating in my room, I’d put together other machines, and even made a bit of spare change by fixing or assembling computers for others.
After finishing high school, I studied fine art in college before joining the Open University to study for a Bachelor’s degree in mathematics. I ended up attending university a few years after my peers, due to my relatively poor background and inability to afford it. I even completed GCSEs years early, but had no idea how to make the most of this. Unfortunately, the adults around me at this time weren’t the most reliable or competent either. I worked different jobs around London in order to save money for myself. Eventually, I had saved enough to support myself while studying, as well as enable travelling around the UK and different countries in Europe, and I also started various independent engineering projects around this time as a hobby, including building applications, drones and robots.
I continued to perform well academically; in every assignment for all my university mathematics modules, consistently earned results of 90-100% and scored overall averages above 90%. My personal tutor and pure mathematics professor, a wonderful man named Bob, guided me in my studies and played a very important role in my finally being able to recognise, understand, and harness my potential. He was a professor at several universities, including the University of Cambridge, where both his children were alumni. With over 5 decades of academic experience, he was one of the best mentors and guides that I have been lucky to meet. One of the first people to encourage me to just write and keep on writing. Although he would refer to me as a “future mathematician in the making” and would probably be quite disappointed to know that I’m now spending most of my time writing policy papers rather than writing equations.
Continued further studies in mathematics at the University of Essex and went on to specialise in applied mathematics for machine learning at Imperial College London.
COVID disrupted everything. In 2021, I was recipient of a scholarship from Google and worked online during the pandemic while studying. Towards the end of lockdown I lived in Durham in Northern England, studying data science and AI at Northumbria University, and working for St John Ambulance. I also wrote a book during the lockdown and when the restrictions faded entirely I started working with The Royal Society. Then went on to study law at Buckingham.
I joined the University of Cambridge to read international relations. Got a base in Thailand and travelled everywhere, as well as solo travelling to several other different countries in the region including: Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Singapore, Bali, China, Japan, and South Korea.
I was invited to contribute to and collaborate with the UN for the inaugural UNIDIR (United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research) Global Conference on AI, Security and Ethics.
After the conference, I continued researching with the UN and UNIDIR, taking on foreign policy analysis tasks and trying to understand the international societal implications of artificial intelligence.
I have been invited to other seminars, summits, and conferences relating to AI since then, and have since taken on disarmament research with UNODA and UNRCPD. My primary research focus shifted to artificial intelligence in the military domain.
If you enjoy my content and want to support my work, consider buying me a coffee here. Every cup helps fuel more adventures and stories to share with you!
