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Law scholar named chief investigator of AI project

A senior lecturer at a Canberra-based university has been appointed the chief investigator of an artificial intelligence project to examine the technology and its role in the law.

May 28, 2020 By Naomi Neilson
Dr Will Bateman
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Australian National University (ANU) senior lecturer and expert on law and technology Dr Will Bateman has been appointed chief investigator of Humanising Machine Intelligence (HMI) project. The research will be carried out in collaboration with many other fields, that includes ethicists, computer scientists, sociologists and the legal profession.

“I’m excited about producing globally relevant interdisciplinary research that is also highly practical and impact-driven,” said Dr Bateman on the project. “We will be engaging with domestic and international regulators, political and civil society bodies.”

Dr Bateman said artificial intelligence and the technology underlying it have an integral and instrumental part in many facets of society, including commerce, government and the law. This technology is “world-changing” and is “outpacing social and regulatory frameworks”.

The project will harness the power of artificial intelligence while ensuring the best qualities of society, and the law, are protected, Dr Bateman said.

He added that a major challenge is ensuring public law rules, which control governance, are applied to algorithmic public service utilisation.

“I’m running a major research project with the Minderoo Foundation explicitly focused on updating public law principles that apply to governance to ensure that people’s individual rights and public groups are properly protected in the age of AI,” he said.

Naomi Neilson

Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly. 

You can email Naomi at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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