Automated Societies

This debate was held as part of the 2023 ADM+AS Web Search Revolution Symposium on 17 August at RMIT University, and online. A lively debate on the implications of Generative AI and its societal impact. Featuring experts in the field, this debate will shed light on the serious hazards and enormous potential of Generative AI. The affirmative side will argue that we must stop progress in this technology and focus on minimising its harms and render it safe. The negative will emphasise the importance of integrating this Promethean Gift into every corner of our lives. Speakers: A/Prof Chris Berg, RMIT University (moderator) Prof Chirag Shah, University of Washington (affirmative) Dr Jana Schmitz, .au domain (affirmative) Prof Jason Potts, RMIT University (affirmative) Dr Rachel Bailes, Australian Information Industry Association (negative) Prof Sinclair Davidson, RMIT University (negative) Dr Aaron Lane, Lawyer, Supreme Court of Victoria and RMIT University (negative)

This panel was held at the 2023 ADM+S Web Search Revolution Symposium on 17 August at RMIT University, and online. How did search engines develop over the 20th century? Mark Sanderson and Julian Thomas will show how expensive subscription-based search companies formed in the 1960s and largely unchanged over three decades were wiped out by web search that was free, fast, and easy to use, drawing connections between this revolution of the past and the current generative AI revolution. Speakers: Prof Lisa Given, RMIT University (chair) Prof Mark Sanderson, RMIT University Prof Julian Thomas, RMIT University

This panel was held at the 2023 ADM+S Web Search Revolution Symposium on 17 August at RMIT University, and online. Although generative AI – and tools like ChatGPT – show that the future of search will certainly be complex, this panel will engage in longer-term stargazing to examine what the reality of search may be in 25-30 years. Through an interactive discussion format, our experts will imagine how people will find and share information, how our workplaces may change, whether dozens of phone apps will continue to define search, and who might own and control these tools and the data they contain. Come along on the journey as we look ahead to the next generation of search. Speakers: Prof Lisa Given, RMIT University (chair) Prof Guido Zuccon, University of Queensland Peter Bailey, Canva Dr Johanne Trippas, RMIT University Prof Jason Potts, RMIT University

This panel was held at the 2023 ADM+S Web Search Revolution Symposium on 17 August at RMIT University, and online. With billions of queries serviced every day, web search has profoundly reshaped the way we relate to information. But search has itself been reshaped by law, regulation, markets, user interactions, and other social forces. This panel asks: how can we understand the historical evolution of search from a social perspective? What has search done to us, and what have we done to search? And how can future search systems be designed to avoid some of the mistakes made in the past? Speakers, Assoc Prof Ramon Lobato, RMIT University (chair) Louisa Bartolo, Queensland University of Technology Prof Dan Angus, Queensland University of Technology Prof Kimberlee Weatherall, University of Sydney Prof Alistair Moffat, University of Melbourne

This keynote presentation was part of the 2023 ADM+S Web Search Revolution Symposium on 17 August at RMIT University, and online. What did web search replace? What are the origins of web search and how it has evolved in the last 2-3 decades? A look at the history and impact of search and a look forward to where we are going – including neural methods which have been used in web search for a while and chat. The talk will focus more on people and their interactions with search systems, helping them articulate their needs and making sense of results and less about the technical details of the systems themselves. Speaker: Susan Dumais, Technical Fellow & Managing Director, Microsoft Research New England, New York City and Montreal

This keynote presentation was part of the 2023 ADM+S Web Search Revolution Symposium on 17 August at RMIT University, and online. The prominent model of retrieving, evaluating, and using relevant information from databases, collections, and the web is going through a significant transformation. This is largely due to wide-scale availability of various generative AI systems that can take in natural language inputs and generate highly customized natural language text or images and even videos. This transformation in progress will have profound impacts on users, developers, and policy makers. It is already changing many sectors including education, health, and commerce. In this talk, I will highlight some of the opportunities and challenges for information access stemming from recent advancements in generative AI. I will bring up frequently asked questions about impacts of these technologies on pedagogy, jobs, economy, policies, and democracy. The goal here is to cut through both hype and fear and think pragmatically about the future of information access. Speaker: Chirag Shah, Professor of Information and Computer Science, University of Washington

In this episode, Prof Deborah Lupton and Dr Vaughan Wozniak-O'Connor from the University of News South Wales discuss the process of their interdisciplinary collaboration in putting together the 'More-Than-Human Wellbeing' exhibition, as a research translation and community engagement initiative.

They discuss the process and thinking behind making the exhibition, barriers they encountered, and tips for other researchers wishing to engage broader audiences through arts-based methods.

The More-Than-Human Wellbeing' exhibition will be on show at the UNSW library until 18 August 2023.

Find out more: www.admscentre.org.au/event/more-than-human-wellbeing/

This presentation by Ausma Bernot titled 'Queer Social Sorting - Control and resistance in China’s LGBTQ+ activism,' was held at the ADM+S Centre at RMIT University and livestreamed online on Tuesday 16 May 2023. Since 2013, LGBTQ+ activism in China has been progressively hampered by sophisticated queer social sorting methods that include both automated decision-making and the use of human labour in enforcing queer “othering”. On the surface, China’s authorities maintain formal decorum and formulaic support for LGBTQ+ communities. Non-discrimination can be argued on the basis of formal UN announcements confirming China's stance against LGBTQ+ discrimination as well as the gradual thawing of national laws that restrict LGBTQ+ communities, such as the recent 2022 regulations lowering the minimum age requirements for gender affirming surgery from 20 to 18. Concurrently, suppression of LGBTQ+ activism exists under the surface of international and national political decorum. The state-sponsored control of queer activism is now increasingly linked to two elements: China’s call to return to traditional gender roles and social sorting of queer activism. Queer social sorting is achieved through an interconnected means of the legal and regulatory frames, public and state security monitoring and harassment, and digital surveillance. This chapter unpacks the web of those practices with a particular focus on inclusion of automated decision-making and the power dynamics they entrench. Author bio: Ausma Bernot is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Charles Sturt University. Along with Prof Patrick F Walsh, Ausma is working to advance national intelligence capabilities in responding to health threats. She has six years of work experience with forensic science and research organisations across the globe, in particular China, where she had the chance to gain insights on how technologies are governed at provincial and national levels. Being fluent in Mandarin and building on existing networks in China, Ausma has used primary and secondary sources to research both surveillance technology development and governance in the country.

The dazzling promises of AI systems to augment humans in various tasks hinge on whether humans can appropriately rely on them. Recent research has shown that appropriate reliance is the key to achieving complementary team performance in AI-assisted decision making. Accurately estimating the trustworthiness of AI advice at the instance level is quite challenging, especially in the absence of performance feedback about the AI system. Moreover, the performance disparity of underlying machine learning models on out-of-distribution data makes the dataset-specific performance feedback unreliable in human-AI collaboration. Through a series of empirical studies operationalising real-world decision making contexts, we systematically explored the role of explanations, cognitive biases, critical mindsets, and users' affinity to technology in shaping their reliance on AI systems and the overall task outcomes.

In a talk held on 24 March 2023 at RMIT University, Assistant Professor Ujwal Gadiraju from Delft University of Technology shares novel insights into why *appropriate reliance* is a non-trivial objective.

Dr Aaron Snoswell presented ChatGPT: Hype or the Next Big Thing? At the Hacks/Hackers Brisbane event held 22 March 2023. In this presentation, Aaron talks about the hype, the limitations, and the potential of large language models like ChatGPT. Are we stuck in another iteration of the ‘hype cycle’, or are these systems actually a step closer to a useful and general artificial intelligence?

This recording is from the International Conference on Automated Decision-Making and Chinese Societies (ADM&CS) held at RMIT University and online on 1-3 February 2023.
Chair:  Haiqing Yu, RMIT University and Dev Lewis, Digital Asia Hub  
Panellists:
Shawn Wu, SeeDAO
KC Chen, SeeDAO
Jenks Guo, FileCoin
James Kang, Crypto Enthusiast  
Discussants:
Ellie Rennie, RMIT University
Kaitlin Beegle, FileCoin

This recording is from the International Conference on Automated Decision-Making and Chinese Societies (ADM&CS) held at RMIT University and online on 1-3 February 2023.
Mark Andrejevic from Monash University presents 'Seeing Like a Border Securing Circulation During COVID and Beyond.'

This recording is from the International Conference on Automated Decision-Making and Chinese Societies (ADM&CS) held at RMIT University and online on 1-3 February 2023.
Malavika Jayaram from Digital Asia Hub, presents 'Disappearing from Happiness Street, and other tales of magic and wonder'.

This recording is from the International Conference on Automated Decision-Making and Chinese Societies (ADM&CS) held at RMIT University and online on 1-3 February 2023.
Xin Dai from Peking University presents 'Locating and Localizing ADM Failures in China.'

This recording is from the International Conference on Automated Decision-Making and Chinese Societies (ADM&CS) held at RMIT University and online on 1-3 February 2023.
This session included the following presentations:  
Xin Gu, Monash University:
De-construct Chinese Facial Recognition Technology Discourse.  
Hailing Zhao, Aalborg University, Tingting Liu, Jinan University, Guangzhou:
Coping with Digital Blacklisting in (Non)identical Ways: An ethnographic study of the untrustworthy in China.  
Fan Liang, Duke Kushan University, Haiyun Zhou, University of Cambridge:
Automated Reduction? The Practices and Imaginaries of Content Moderation on Chinese Short-video Platforms.

This recording is from the International Conference on Automated Decision-Making and Chinese Societies (ADM&CS) held at RMIT University and online on 1-3 February 2023.
This session included the following presentations:  
Jian Xu, Deakin University, Terry Flew, University of Sydney:
Governing the Algorithmic Distribution of News in China: The case of Jinri Toutiao.
 
Yu Shan and Michael Keane, Queensland University of Technology:
Automated Decision-Making Society in China: Or all watched over by machines of loving Grace?  
Gianluigi Negro, University of Siena:
Nationalising the Metaverse in China. The case of Qian Xuesen.

This recording is from the International Conference on Automated Decision-Making and Chinese Societies (ADM&CS) held at RMIT University and online on 1-3 February 2023.
This podcast includes the following presentations:  
Warwick Powell, University of Queensland, Shoufeng Cao, University of Queensland:
Automated Decision-Making in Cross-Border Trade with China: Exploring the opportunity of federated Multisig deal transaction smart contracts to streamline payments.   
Lin Tian and Xiuzhen Zhang, RMIT University:
Contrastive Analysis of Covid-19 health misinformation within online Chinese-language communities.  
Wynston Lee, RMIT University, Guangnan Zhu, Queensland University of Technology:
Mapping the (Automated) Data Assemblages of China's Social Credit System.

This recording is from the International Conference on Automated Decision-Making and Chinese Societies (ADM&CS) held at RMIT University and online on 1-3 February 2023.
This podcast includes the following presentations:
H C Steinhardt and Christian Göbel, University of Vienna:
Mobilising Social Anomie to strengthen the state: Justification Strategies for 'Social Credit' on Sina Weibo.  
Anne-Christine Trémon, School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Paris:
Scientific Fairness: Experimentation and critique of points systems in Shenzhen.  
Alexander Trauth-Goik, University of Vienna, Philipp Immel, University of Wurzburg:
"My credit score ought to surpass 90% of people": A qualitative analysis of citizen interpretations and engagements with state, commercial and peer-to-peer forms of surveillance in China.  
Lena Wassermann and Theresa Krause, University of Wurzburg:
The impact of the SCS on foreign companies using the case of German firms.

This recording is from the International Conference on Automated Decision-Making and Chinese Societies (ADM&CS) held at RMIT University and online on 1-3 February 2023.
This session included the following presentations:  
Adam Knight, Leiden Institute:
Automating Revolution: Operational Research and the Origins of Automated Decision-Making in 1950's China.  
Xiang Gao, Zhejiang University:
Automated-Decision Making, Bureaucratisation and centralisation: The rise of China's digital administrative state.  
Warwick Powell, Queensland University of Technology:
Dialogue and Democracy: Policing and Algorithms. Alternative perspectives on digitised life-worlds and governmentally with Chinese characteristics.

This recording is from the International Conference on Automated Decision-Making and Chinese Societies (ADM&CS) held at RMIT University and online on 1-3 February 2023.
This podcast includes the following presentations:  
Marianne von Blomberg and Bjorn Ahl, University of Cologne:
Debating the Legality of "Credit based Regulation" in China - A review of Chinese legal scholarship.  
Cheris Shun-ting Chen, University of Hong Kong:
Making it a Habit: Instituting Social Credit Systems in Rural China.  
Yu Sun, University of Glasgow,  Wilfred Wang, University of Melbourne, and Linlin Li, Zhejiang University:
Automating moral governance: a case study of data scoring systems in rural China.

This recording is from the International Conference on Automated Decision-Making and Chinese Societies (ADM&CS) held at RMIT University and online on 1-3 February 2023.
This podcast includes the following presentations:  
Yu Hong, Zhejiang University, Yiran Wei, Hong Kong Baptist University:  
The Making of a City Brain: How traditional media become the sociotechnical gateway for technopolitical disagreement.  
Han Tao, University of Sussex:
In Credit we Trust? Banks, 'Packaging Agencies' and the Promise of Digital Lending to Small Businesses.  
Haili Li and Genia Kostka, Freie University of Berlin:
Grey Digital Divide and Digital Inclusion in China.

This recording is from the International Conference on Automated Decision-Making and Chinese Societies (ADM&CS) held at RMIT University and online on 1-3 February 2023.

This podcast includes the following presentations:  

Haemin Jee, U.S. Military Academy:  
Credit for compliance: How Institutional Layering Ensures Compliance in China.  

Fan Yang, University of Cologne:  
Strengthening Efficiency, Consistency and Supervision: Provincial Pilots of Judicial AI and Big Data in China.   

Yiran Li, Hong Kong Baptist University:  
Making Governance Agile: Exploring the Role of Artificial Intelligence in China's local governance. 

This discussion took place at the 2022 Future Automated Mobilities Symposium, held at RMIT University 20-21 October.

This session shines the spotlight on the groundbreaking interdisciplinary academic and industry initiatives, research and collaboration being undertaken in Sweden - across three key organisations - the automotive company Volvo Cars, Halmstad University’s interdisciplinary research team, and Drive Sweden - one of the Swedish Government’s Strategic Innovation.

Prof Sarah Pink, Monash University (chair)
Dr Magnus Bergquist, Halmstad University
Professor Vaike Fors, Halmstad University and Drive Sweden
Malin Labecker, Volvo Cars

This discussion took place at the 2022 Future Automated Mobilities Symposium, held at RMIT University 20-21 October.

What do future automated mobilities look like from the perspectives of different stakeholders across industry, public sector, academic and government funded initiatives? Our panellists explore how these organisations and sectors have successfully collaborated, and we ask how we might achieve future fair, trusted and safe interdisciplinary and multi-stakeholder automated mobilities?

Speakers:
Professor Sarah Pink, Monash University (Chair)
Ishra Bakesh, Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads
Ian Christenson, iMove
Professor Vaike Fors, Halmstad University and Drive Sweden
Malin Labecker, Volvo Cars
Thomas Lindgren, Volvo Cars and Halmstad University

This discussion took place at the 2022 Future Automated Mobilities Symposium, held at RMIT University 20-21 October.

How do we research, design and create interventions towards fair, trusted and safe future automated mobilities? What new research methods and techniques are available, and how might they be harnessed for interdisciplinary and engaged research and impact? Our world renowned methodologists will discuss these
issues from social and computer science perspectives.

Speakers:
Dr Debora Lanzeni, Monash University (Chair)
Professor Sarah Pink, Monash University
Professor Noortje Marres, University of Warwick
Professor Daniele Quercia, Nokia Bell Labs Cambridge, King’s College London
Professor Flora Salim, University of New South Wales

This discussion took place at the 2022 Future Automated Mobilities Symposium, held at RMIT University 20-21 October.

Our interdisciplinary panellists from academia and industry will discuss some key issues around the usage of mobility data in designing automated decision-making systems in the transport domain. How has this data been used for good, and good for whom? What are some of the principles we need to stick to?

Speakers:
Professor Flora Salim, University of New South Wales (Chair)
Mandi Mees, National Transport Commission
Professor Daniele Quercia, Nokia Bell Labs Cambridge, King’s College London
Professor Andry Rakotonirainy, Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety (CARRS-Q), Queensland University of Technology

This discussion took place at the 2022 Future Automated Mobilities Symposium, held at RMIT University 20-21 October.

Inclusive design is a necessary element of future automated mobilities systems and technologies. Our panellists will explore the benefits of inclusive design of automated mobilities starting in the lives of people and physical sites where disability is lived and experienced. We will ask what the consequences will be if we do not do so?

Speakers:
Professor Sarah Pink, Monash University (Chair)
Professor Gerard Goggin, University of Sydney
Iris Maher, Monash University
Helen Lindner, MACA
Orhan Karagoz, University of Melbourne

This discussion took place at the 2022 Future Automated Mobilities Symposium, held at RMIT University 20-21 October. 

Disaster response, precision agriculture, border control, military logistics, and urban delivery all imagine different aerial futures, but each also depends on the transformation of air into skyways. This panel brings together experts on drones, remote sensing, and autonomous technologies to raise vital provocations about the future of the skies above us.

Speakers
Associate Professor Michael Richardson, University of New South Wales (Chair)
Associate Professor Julia Powles, UWA
Associate Professor Christine Agius, Swinburne University of Technology
Dr Tim Neale, Deakin University

In this workshop held on 7 November 2022, Professor Deborah Lupton (author/co-author of 20 books and editor/co-editor of a further ten volumes) provides guidelines and advice on how to write a book proposal to achieve a publishing contract. Deborah discusses how to develop an idea for a book, what content should be in the proposal, and how best to scope publishers to approach. Throughout the presentation participants engaged in an online Q&A, to which Deborah actively responds to, as she presents.

Advertising is becoming harder than ever before to hold accountable, which raises important concerns about the legacy of abuses that have characterised the industry. Predatory advertising, discrimination, and the circulation of false and harmful messaging are harder to detect and regulate online because there is no public archive of online ads. The Australian Ad Observatory provides one model for enlisting citizens to help provide transparency for online advertising.

In this episode, the ADM+S Australian Ad Observatory team and two panels of experts discuss the issues raised by online advertising and how we might address them.

Our first panel includes representatives from the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, consumer advocacy group CHOICE, the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE), and the Consumer Policy Research Centre (CPRC).

Our second panel includes representatives from the research team at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision Making and Society (ADM+S), the ABC and the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network. 

You can watch the full recording of this event on our YouTube channel: admscentre.org/youtube

View transcript: https://www.admscentre.org.au/transcript-implications-dark-ads/

Humans have long defined, framed, and designed bots with the primary aim of passing as human and our collection imagination of what bots can do is often restrained by this focus. The question arising from this strong tendency, is whether humans are capable of imagining bots in another capacity. What is the purpose of designing bots that imitate humans, and could bots offer far more?

Professor Daniel Angus chats with Dominique Carlon about the role of bots in society and how we may recognise that bots can perform interesting and diverse roles without the need to blur the line between bot and human. Dominique shares her research on the life stories of bots in Reddit’s platform culture in particular the role of Dad Bots on Reddit.

View transcript: https://www.admscentre.org.au/transcript-bots-as-more-than-human/