Francesca Toni
Francesca Toni develops AI methods that use arguments and explicit reasoning, with research on explanations, machine arguing and argument extraction from text. Toni works in computational logic and argumentation. Her research includes computational argumentation across AI and methods for extracting arguments from text, connecting structured reasoning with language processing. As of November 2025, Toni was founder and co-director of Imperial’s Centre for Explainable AI and led its Computational Logic and Argumentation group.
- Now at
- Imperial College London
- Works
- 498
- Citations
- 8,443
- h-index
- 43
Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 14 October 2026.
Timeline
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Research career
Logic and computational argumentation
Toni works in computational logic and argumentation. Her research includes computational argumentation across AI and methods for extracting arguments from text, connecting structured reasoning with language processing.
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2016
Explaining machine arguing
Her 2016 inaugural talk presented an overview of her research in machine arguing.
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As of October 2026
Argument-based explanations
Her research includes the ADIX project on argumentation-based deep interactive explanations and the CArLA project on a causal argumentative learning assistant. The projects received ERC Advanced and Proof of Concept support.
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As of November 2025
A center for explainable AI
As of November 2025, Toni was founder and co-director of Imperial’s Centre for Explainable AI and led its Computational Logic and Argumentation group.
Sources and credits
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