ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society

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The ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S) is a multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary research centre based at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. The Centre aims to contribute to the knowledge and strategies necessary for responsible, ethical and inclusive automated decision-making (ADM). It was established in 2020 with funding from the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council (ARC) and other partners. [1] [2] The Centre examines the social and technical aspects of ADM, seeing automated systems as the outcomes of interactions between people, machines, data and institutions. It has a particular focus on the domains of news and media, transport and mobility, social services and health. [3]

Contents

Projects and initiatives

Research projects at the ADM+S Centre range across automated systems, from autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles to the recommendation systems deployed in digital media. Researchers work on technologies from machine learning to blockchain. Projects are concerned with a wide spectrum of problems from digital inclusion to disinformation, addressing developments primarily in Australia and the Global South. Centre projects include:

Australian Search Experience project

This research project is investigating if and how search results on Google differ for different people using a crowd-sourcing process recruited from Australian internet users. [4] It follows on from a similar project run by Algorithm Watch in Germany in 2017. [5] So far the results indicate search personalisation is limited however for some topics, such as COVID-19, there may be a high level of curation. [6] The project will coincide with the next federal election in Australia and help to analyse whether search results have an impact on the information voters receive.

Considerate and Accurate Multi-party Recommender Systems for Constrained Resources

This project aims to develop a next generation recommender system that enables equitable allocation of constrained resources. The project will produce novel hybrid socio-technical methods and resources to create a Considerate and Accurate REcommender System (CARES), evaluated with social science and behavioural economics lenses. CARES aims to transform the sharing economy by delivering systems and methods that improve user and non-user experiences, business efficiency, and corporate social responsibility.

The Automated Newsroom in Australia and beyond

Automated decision-making (ADM) and related systems are now widely implemented in global newsrooms. These systems have substantial impacts on the nature and quality of journalistic output, on the shape of the newsroom workforce, and on audiences’ engagement with news content. This project investigates current developments in journalistic practice by conducting in-depth interviews with news workers, including journalists, social media editors, developers, programmers, computer scientists, graphic designers and social media marketing staff.

Automated decision-making and the law

Centre researchers Dan Hunter, Kimberlee Weatherall are investigating the role of artificial intelligence, natural language processing and other technologies which are having a major impact on decision-making and administration across the legal system. [7]

Funding and partners

Total combined funding for the centre is A$71.1 million with the ARC providing funding of A$31.8 million over 7 years from 2020 until 2026. [1] [8] Centre partners include eight Australian universities and 22 organisations from around Australia, Europe, Asia and America. [9] The Centre headquarters are located at RMIT University; the other Australian university partners are Monash University, Queensland University of Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, University of Melbourne, University of New South Wales, Western Sydney University, University of Sydney and University of Queensland.

Members

Researchers in ADM+S include: [10]

Related Research Articles

The Australian Research Council (ARC) is the primary non-medical research funding agency of the Australian Government, distributing more than A$800 million in grants each year. The Council was established by the Australian Research Council Act 2001, and provides competitive research funding to academics and researchers at Australian universities. Most health and medical research in Australia is funded by the more specialised National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), which operates under a separate budget.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kimberlee Weatherall</span> Australian lawyer and academic

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">ARC Centre for Complex Systems</span>

The ARC Centre for Complex Systems (ACCS) was established in 2004 from a consortium of Australian universities, led by the University of Queensland. The objective of ACCS was to conduct basic and applied research in the field of complex systems. It conducted research into both the science and engineering of complex systems. Funding was provided by the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the universities involved. The ACCS was funded under the ARC's Centre of Excellence Scheme until mid-2009, after which industry collaborations and further funding was established to continue to apply the Centre's research.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fiona Fidler</span> Australian professor and lecturer interested in reproducibility and open science.

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Gael Margaret Martin is an Australian Bayesian econometrician, known for her work in simulation-based inference and time series analysis of non-Gaussian data. She is a professor of econometrics and business statistics at Monash University, an associate investigator in the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers, and a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.

Automated decision-making (ADM) involves the use of data, machines and algorithms to make decisions in a range of contexts, including public administration, business, health, education, law, employment, transport, media and entertainment, with varying degrees of human oversight or intervention. ADM involves large-scale data from a range of sources, such as databases, text, social media, sensors, images or speech, that is processed using various technologies including computer software, algorithms, machine learning, natural language processing, artificial intelligence, augmented intelligence and robotics. The increasing use of automated decision-making systems (ADMS) across a range of contexts presents many benefits and challenges to human society requiring consideration of the technical, legal, ethical, societal, educational, economic and health consequences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Pink</span> Ethnographer and social science researcher

Sarah Pink is a British-born social scientist, ethnographer and social anthropologist, now based in Australia, known for her work using visual research methods such as photography, images, video and other media for ethnographic research in digital media and new technologies. She has an international reputation for her work in visual ethnography and her book Doing Visual Ethnography, first published in 2001 and now in its 4th edition, is used in anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, photographic studies and media studies. She has designed or undertaken ethnographic research in UK, Spain, Australia, Sweden, Brazil and Indonesia.

References

  1. 1 2 Australian Research Council (2019-08-22). "2020 ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society". www.arc.gov.au. Archived from the original on 2021-07-20. Retrieved 2021-07-20.
  2. ↑ Tehan, Dan (9 October 2019). "Improving automated decision making". Ministers' Media Centre, Department of Education, Skills and Employment, Australian Government. Retrieved 2021-07-20.
  3. ↑ "ADMS Research". ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  4. ↑ "Australian Search Experience project". ADM+S Centre. Retrieved 2021-08-08.
  5. ↑ Wilson, Cam (27 July 2021). "How does Google decide what results it shows you? A new project wants to find out". Crikey. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  6. ↑ Purtill, James (6 August 2020). "Google's hidden search algorithms are being investigated by researchers. Here's what they've found". ABC News. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  7. ↑ Schwarz, Kirrily (12 October 2020). "Is it time to embrace automated decision-making?". LSJ (Law Society Journal).
  8. ↑ Mavros, Larissa (2019-10-15). "UNSW Sydney joins $71.1 million ARC Centre of Excellence to improve automated decision making". UNSW Newsroom. Retrieved 2021-07-20.
  9. ↑ Easton, Stephen (2019-10-13). "Way beyond robodebt: new $70m research centre to improve automated decision-making". The Mandarin. Retrieved 2021-07-20.
  10. ↑ "Chief Investigators". ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
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