ADM+S Chief Investigator announced co-director of the Centre for AI, Trust and Governance at the University of Sydney
Author Natalie Campbell
Date 27 February 2025
On 25 February 2025, the University of Sydney unveiled its new Centre for AI, Trust and Governance (CAITG), appointing ADM+S Chief Investigator Prof Kimberlee Weatherall as co-director alongside Prof Terry Flew.
As co-director, Prof Weatherall will lead groundbreaking research to ensure AI is transparent, fair, and accountable, championing the critical role of law and policy in shaping ethical AI.
“Universities have a critical role to play in ensuring that AI develops for the benefit of everyone, all the way across society,” says Prof Weatherall.
“I’m proud to be co-directing CAITG that can bring together the University of Sydney’s outstanding researchers and students, from different research disciplines, to understand how the technology is developing, its impacts in the world and how to shape it for the better.”
CAITG’s research agenda is focused on AI’s relationship to digital creative industries platforms and information, law and policy, education and equity, organisations and work, and civic technology and participation.
Some of the themes being investigated include:
- how to restore trust in social institutions, and whether AI presents new threats to trust and social cohesion
- how laws and regulations need to change in order to ensure that AI systems serve the public interest
- how the community can be better involved in decisions about the uses of AI in secondary and tertiary education
- foreign actors using AI to undermine democracy in Australia and in the Asia-Pacific region.
Prof Weatherall has an extensive background in technology regulation and intellectual property law and policy. She co-leads two ADM+S Signature Projects, The Regulatory Project, where her work focuses on questions relating of accountability and government ADM use, as well as GenAISim where she is exploring legal and policy implications of using LLM-based agents in policymaking.
Prof Weatherall is a member of multiple State and Federal level policy advisory groups, including her appointment to the Australian Government’s temporary AI Expert Group alongside ADM+S colleagues Prof Jeannie Paterson and Prof Nicolas Suzor in 2024. She is also a member of the Copyright and AI Reference Group convened by the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department.
Prof Weatherall has led multiple ADM+S Submissions, informing responsible, ethical and inclusive development of ADM in Australia, including:
- Submission to the Joint Parliamentary Committee of Public Accounts and Audit inquiry into public sector AI use (2024)
- Safe and responsible AI in Australia: proposals paper for introducing mandatory guardrails for AI in high-risk settings (2024)
- Submission to the Senate Select Committee on Adopting Artificial Intelligence (2024)
In early 2024, Prof Weatherall and a team of ADM+S researchers delivered a report in partnership with the New South Wales Ombudsman, mapping and evaluating the use of ADM systems by Local and State governments, following a 12-month collaboration with the Ombudsman.
In her role as co-director of CAITG, Prof Weatherall will expand on this impressive resume, furthering her impact in the field of AI and AI governance.
