Lumen Wirltuti:Warltati 2025 - Flipbook - Page 16
You are absolutely right! AI has significant benefits, but it comes
with important risks that must be considered carefully. Importantly,
there is a need for stronger collaboration between governments, AI
providers and experts from a wide range of domains (economics,
education, sociology, psychology) to ensure we mitigate risk the
best we can. We are still learning the extent of societal changes that
can be caused by AI, so there is a significant need for research on
the potential impacts of AI, as well as strong public engagement,
transparency and accountability. Government regulations and
international collaboration between governments are also critical,
as AI providers are mainly driven by profit and business goals.
International cooperation between governments around AI is
critically important to avoid AI being used as a political weapon.
Finally, all of this comes with a significant issue of rapidly changing
AI technologies, which makes it very challenging to devise simple
and clear policy guidance around AI.
Security
Your thoughts: “I am concerned that AI is accelerating the
spread of misinformation, making it more convincing and harder
to detect. Deepfakes, AI-generated videos and pictures, and
automated disinformation campaigns have distorted public
opinion, influenced elections, and fuelled political unrest.
Existing laws (defamation, media regulation, and electoral rules)
were not designed to deal with matters of this type and scale.
Without legal frameworks to address AI-driven misinformation,
Australia risks greater political instability, public distrust, and
manipulation by bad actors.”
Naaman Kranz
Associate Professor Vitomir Kovanović, University of South
Australia, researches the interplay between human and artificial
cognition to understand how it affects our learning.
It is the case that AI-generated content can cause real harm to
our democratic processes – which rest upon the ability of citizens
to engage in reasoned, respectful and considered debate about the
issues that impact all Australians. This is a challenge that is not
unique to our democracy. At the University of Adelaide,
researchers are working across the disciplines of psychology,
mathematical sciences, political sciences, philosophy, criminology
and computing sciences to address these challenges. For example,
we are conducting research that explores how people reason about
information they encounter online, using a mock-social media
environment that resembles many of the features of actual social
media platforms. This work is aimed at developing strategies for
social media users to engage with when trying to form their
opinions about all sorts of issues from climate change to
vaccination and nuclear energy. In understanding the abilities
and weaknesses of our reasoning processes in interaction with
AI-generated content and questionable information sources,
we can strengthen the capacity for people to form opinions that
are well-considered and based in reliable sources of information.
We can also help inform law makers of our research findings so
that they can devise governance and regulation processes that
support a healthy democracy.
Wellbeing
Your thoughts: “One of my biggest concerns for the future is
the growing mental health crisis among young people, especially
as they navigate urban-rural transitions and climate-related
challenges.While technological advancements, including artificial
intelligence, offer opportunities for progress, they also risk
deepening inequalities if access remains limited. At the same
time, the University’s evolving landscape presents both challenges
and opportunities for students and researchers. I am excited
about the potential for interdisciplinary collaboration to address
these pressing issues, ensuring that research and policy solutions
are both equitable and impactful for future generations.”
Trang Dang
I completely agree. We are seeing increasing mental health issues
across all age groups, to the extent that even the Australian
Institute of Health and Welfare has joined others in highlighting
a ‘loneliness epidemic’. AI has great potential to improve access
to mental health support, offering services 24/7, with virtually
no waiting times and without judgement. However, and this is a
significant ‘however’, there is currently insufficient research on the
impact and effectiveness of these tools. Educational technology
companies are rapidly introducing AI-based self-help products, yet
we lack robust evidence on how these tools actually function and
whether they might inadvertently cause harm. While I firmly believe
there’s no substitute for genuine human connection, AI might
effectively bridge gaps, reduce wait times, and help people build
stronger coping skills. Nevertheless, we urgently need high-quality
research before we widely implement these technologies.
Professor Carolyn Semmler, University of Adelaide, uses AI through
the lens of psychology to better understand how human-to-machine
interfaces work for applications in defence and national security.
Whilst not the leader, Australia is fortunately better than many
countries at trying to address issues with AI, although we are far
from where we could be. The Australian Government is active
in this area, but the rapid escalation in the capabilities of the
technologies will always pose a challenge and put governments
on the back foot. On the plus side, we are now starting to see AI
work for us detecting and helping manage all of this. At the end
of the day, with the recent election, it’s on us to pressure our
representatives for focus on topics that, long term, pose
significant threats.
Dr James Walsh, University of Adelaide, uses AI to enhance engineering
practices and has researched how AI has been used to manipulate online
users into handing over data.
Dr Rebecca Marrone, from the University of South Australia, researches
the impact of AI on teacher and student wellbeing.
I agree that access to emerging technologies will continue to be
a defining fault-line for equity. AI, in particular, is advancing faster
than many had anticipated and offers exciting interdisciplinary
potential. However, I’ve already noticed disparities in how AI is
being integrated into education. While some institutions actively
encourage balanced, exploratory use, others are enforcing bans,
delaying students’ opportunity to build critical skills. These
uneven policies risk exacerbating existing educational and
social inequalities.
Your thoughts: “I suppose that there will be substantial
progress in AI in the future potentially even to the point where
machines come to outperform humans in many tasks. This could
have enormous benefits, helping to solve currently intractable
global problems, but could also pose severe risks. These risks
could arise accidentally (for example, if we don’t find technical
solutions to concerns about the safety of AI systems), or
deliberately (for example, if AI systems worsen geopolitical
conflict). I think more work needs to be done to reduce these risks.”
Neil Addleton
Dr Walter Barbieri, from the University of Adelaide, is researching the
early impacts of AI on teaching and learning.
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