Automated Societies

In this episode, host Kathy Nickels speaks with ADM+S researchers Kateryna Kasianenko and Sara Alawati about Google's AI Overviews and how they are reshaping the search experience.

Drawing on new research from the Australian Search Experience 2.0 project, they discuss how AI-generated answers influence what we see online, what eye-tracking studies reveal about user behaviour, and why trust in AI-powered search remains an open question. The conversation also explores misinformation, conspiracy theories, the rise of Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), and who should be responsible when AI-generated information gets it wrong.

As search engines evolve from directing us to information to presenting answers directly, what does that mean for how we find, evaluate and trust knowledge online?

In this episode, Jake Goldenfien is joined by Kimberlee Weatherall, Daniel Angus and Nic Carah to discuss Australia’s proposed Digital Duty of Care and what it could mean for the future of online platforms.

The conversation explores how a duty of care could move beyond simply identifying harmful content and instead encourage platforms to create safer, healthier and more inclusive digital environments. The group discusses the limits of transparency, the need for meaningful accountability, and how we can better understand the risks and benefits emerging from these rapidly changing technologies.

A key focus is on the Australian Internet Observatory, a national platform observatory with independent capability that brings together researchers, civil society, journalists and users to observe what is actually happening on digital platforms. By looking at users’ real experiences, rather than relying solely on what data platforms choose to provide, researchers can better identify emerging risks, harms and benefits.

What would effective digital platform accountability look like and who should be able to see, evaluate and challenge the power of platforms?

Listen in as our experts unpack the opportunities and challenges ahead.

AI companions are becoming increasingly sophisticated—and increasingly embedded in our emotional lives. But as these technologies are designed to create relationships with users, questions about safety, responsibility and regulation are becoming impossible to ignore.

Following a series of high-profile and tragic incidents involving companion chatbots, governments in Australia and the United States have introduced new measures aimed at addressing potential harms, while technology companies have strengthened their own safety measures.

In this episode, we explore how regulators are responding to the rise of AI companions and the challenges of balancing innovation with user protection. We look at emerging approaches to chatbot governance, including safeguards, access controls, warnings, and greater accountability and transparency from technology providers.

But are these measures enough? And can regulation designed around traditional ideas of safety adequately address technologies built to create and influence emotional relationships?

We speak with Dr Henry Fraser from QUT, Dr Raffaele Ciriello from the University of Sydney and Dr Jess Szczuka from the University of Duisburg-Essen, co-authors of Regulating Artificial Intimacy: From Locks and Blocks to Relational Accountability https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.18893

Together, they explore what responsible regulation of AI companions could look like and what responsibilities companies should have when they create artificial intimacy at scale.

Who owns our data? Who profits from it? And what happens when the technologies shaping our lives reproduce old patterns of colonial power?

In this episode of Careful Minds, host Rayane El Masri speaks with ADM+S affiliate and PhD candidate Shilpa Singh Jaswant about data colonialism, digital sovereignty and the hidden human labour behind our digital lives.

Drawing on her research and perspective as a scholar from the Global South, Shilpa explores how data is extracted and used by powerful corporations, why countries in Asia and Africa can experience the digital economy differently from the Global North, and what this means for privacy, human rights and technological sovereignty.

The conversation also looks behind the platforms we use every day, including the often-invisible workers who moderate online content, frequently in poor and precarious conditions. Shilpa discusses the potential of data nationalism and digital sovereignty as responses to Western tech capitalism, while also acknowledging the risks of government surveillance and censorship.

From data centres and digital infrastructure to gig work and the rights of consumers, this episode asks what it would take to build a more equitable digital future and why sometimes, the first step is simply asking questions and being assertive about our rights.

In this special National Science Week episode of AI Uncovered, students and teachers from across Australia put their questions about artificial intelligence to two leading researchers: Distinguished Professor Jean Burgess from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society and Professor Tama Leaver from the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child.

Hosted by Kathy Nickels, and high school student April, the conversation explores questions from how AI works,to whether we can trust AI-generated answers and images, and what happens when AI is used in classrooms.

They also tackle some big questions: who owns AI-generated work? and can AI actually feel emotions? And could AI really take over the world?

A conversation about understanding AI, questioning it and using it thoughtfully, without treating it as either magic or something to fear.

AI Uncovered is a special National Science Week episode from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society and the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child.

AI systems are becoming increasingly powerful and embedded in everyday life — from workplaces and education to healthcare and government services. But as these technologies evolve, so do questions about safety, accountability and trust.

Before we can make AI safe, we need to understand what safety means. What risks should we prioritise? Who decides which risks matter most? And who should be responsible for ensuring AI systems are developed and used safely — technology companies, governments, or both?

In this episode of the ADM+S Automated Societies podcast, host Dr Jake Goldenfein is joined by Dr Henry Fraser and Professor Kimberlee Weatherall to explore the complex and evolving debate around AI safety. They discuss how we define AI risks, the challenges of regulating rapidly changing technologies, and the role of research, governance and policy in shaping safer AI futures.

When AI systems mislead, discriminate, or get things wrong—who is actually responsible? In this episode of Careful Minds, Rayane El Masri speaks with Dr Joanne Kuai about the growing “responsibility gap” in AI. 

From AI-generated news and election misinformation to invisible labour and global power imbalances, they explore how accountability becomes blurred across developers, platforms, and institutions. This conversation unpacks why these failures aren’t just technical and what it would take to build more responsible and equitable AI systems.

Dr Kuai Joanne Kuai is an Affiliate of the ADM+S at RMIT University. Her research interests include digital journalism, the social implications of automation and algorithms, and data and AI governance.

Research publications discussed in this podcast:

Brantner, C., Karlsson, M., & Kuai, J. (2025). Sourcing behavior and the role of news media in AI-powered search engines in the digital media ecosystem: Comparing political news retrieval across five languages. TelecommunicationsPolicy, 49(5), 102952. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2025.102952
Kuai, J., Brantner, C., Karlsson, M., Van Couvering, E., & Romano, S. (2025). AI chatbot accountability in the age of algorithmic gatekeeping: Comparing generative search engine political information retrieval across five languages. New Media & Society, 14614448251321162. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251321162This episode is part of the ADM+S Careful Minds series created by ADM+S PhD Student Rayane El Masri. 

Conversational agents based on Large Language Models are increasingly stepping into roles that look and feel like partnership, friendship or even love. 

These systems can comfort people, reduce loneliness and offer a sense of connection. But they also raise difficult questions about authenticity, dependency, power and care. 

In this episode, Rayane El Masr, PhD student of the ADM+S,  speaks to Prof Robert Sparrow (Monash University) about the ethical and philosophical implications of AI companionship.

Professor Sparrow is a Professor in the Philosophy Program, Chief Investigator at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science at Monash University, and Associate Investigator at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society’s Monash University node.

This episode is part of the ADM+S Careful Minds series created by ADM+S PhD Student Rayane El Masri.

In this episode of Automated Societies, we introduce a new ADM+S podcast series: Careful Minds: AI, Ethics and Society, hosted by Rayane El Masri. 

Rayane, an ADM+S PhD student and recipient of the 2025 Marc Sanders Foundation Philosophy in Media Podcasting Fellowship, brings a fresh perspective to discussions on AI, ethics, and society. Her research explores how care ethics, drawing on Joan Tronto’s Political Care Theory, can help address the value alignment problem in generative AI, a pressing challenge in today’s AI technologies.

This series will explore whose values shape AI, how automated systems influence society, and what ethical responsibility looks like in a rapidly evolving technological world. Upcoming episodes feature conversations with researchers, technologists, and policy thinkers, examining themes including care, justice, feminism, decolonisation, and Global South perspectives.

Rayane shares her journey into AI ethics, insights from her fellowship and podcasting training with figures like Robert Krulwich, Mia Lobel, and Barry Lam, and why philosophical thinking is essential for understanding the technologies shaping our lives.

Join us as we begin a new series on the Automated Societies podcast and open the conversation on AI, ethics, and society.

Google’s new AI Mode is the biggest shift to search in years  but what does it mean for how we find and trust information?

In this episode, we talk to ADM+S researchers Dr Ashwin Naggapa, Dr Oleg Zendel and Sara Fahad Dawood Al Lawati from the Australian Search Experience project to explore how AI is transforming search engines into conversational systems that summarise rather than connect  us to the web.

We explore what happens when AI becomes the gatekeeper of online visibility. From SEO to Generative Engine Optimisation, we discuss the future of information production, the risks to independent voices, and how Australians are navigating the new search landscape.