Mengjun Tao

PhD student

Profile

I am a doctoral researcher at Lancaster University Management School, working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, digital capitalism, creative labour, and cultural production. Before joining the Management School, I spent two years at Lancaster University’s School of Computing and Communications, where my research focused on AI algorithm development, particularly image generation. This interdisciplinary background allows me to examine generative AI from both technical and socio-cultural perspectives.

My research explores how AI reshapes artistic practice, labour relations, platform power, and cultural value. I am particularly interested in how generative AI challenges ideas of creativity, authenticity, professional identity, and artistic legitimacy, as well as how digital platforms reorganise labour, data, and power in contemporary society.

My work has been presented at the Lancaster University Research Conference 2024, where I received the Distinguished Paper and Poster Award – Runner-up in the PhD Poster Competition; the Cybernetic Culture Workshop: Consumption, Security & Society in the Digital Age in 2025; and the Leisure Studies Association Conference 2026, supported by the LUMS Conference Grant Scheme.