An example of how the Australian Internet Observatory supports independent monitoring and information integrity was provided by a submission from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making + Society (ADM+S) which highlighted the challenge of monitoring political advertising.

This week the ADM+S Australian Ad Observatory project published a full report on 2025 Australian Election Advertising on Social Media based on their analysis of 22,000+ real ads collected directly from voters’ smartphones using AIO’s Mobile Observation Ad Toolkit. As a result the report provides rare insight into what Australians actually saw on platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

As lead researcher Professor Daniel Angus explains: “Online political advertising is largely invisible… voters are being targeted with messages that are difficult to track, poorly disclosed, and often misleading.”

The research was enabled by the Mobile Online Advertising Toolkit (MOAT), developed with the Australian Internet Observatory, enabling researchers to capture real-world ad exposure beyond platform ad libraries.

Key findings from the research:
• Political ads are often invisible to public scrutiny
• Widespread use of misleading and decontextualised claims
• Growth of astroturfing, with lobby groups posing as grassroots organisations
• Evidence of scam ads, impersonation, and emerging AI-generated content

The Senate report emphasised that the complex and multifaceted nature of climate mis/disinformation requires a systemic response that includes governments, knowledge institutions, civil society, industry and particularly greater accountability from media companies and digital platforms.

This inquiry echoes the findings of other inquiries and international campaigns. Australia is a signatory to the 2023 UNESCO Global Declaration on Information Integrity Online (Global Declaration), which deals with information integrity as a whole. In 2025 COP30 was the first COP to include information integrity as a core agenda item. Australia has not yet signed the Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change (Declaration) which calls on endorsing countries to promote the integrity of information on climate change at the international, national and local levels.

View the original article published by the Australian Internet Observatory 

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“The inclusion of the Australian Internet Observatory signals a maturing policy response. We are seeing recognition that platform power cannot be governed without independent, national-scale capacity to observe and analyse it,” said Professor Angus.

Established through an initiative from the ADM+S, AIO is a co-investment partnership with the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) through the HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons and a cohort of Australian universities. The AIO is designed to provide independent, large-scale insight into digital platforms and influence ecosystems. Its inclusion in the report signals a shift toward evidence-based infrastructure for understanding and responding to online harms.

“For over a decade, humanities and social science researchers have warned that opaque platform systems can undermine public debate. This report shows that governments are finally catching up, but only if they are willing to invest in the infrastructure and expertise needed to act.”

Several of the report’s central recommendations align directly with areas the ADM+S has championed and led nationally, including:

• Increased funding for social sciences research relating to threats to climate and energy information integrity including potential solutions. (Recommendation 6)
• Funding models for independent monitoring support (for example, via the Australian Internet Observatory) to track hidden digital influence ecosystems and provide independent transparency and accountability of platforms. (Recommendation 7)
• Broaden the Australian Curriculum ‘digital literacy’ general capability to strengthen media literacy through the regular Education Ministers’ Meeting curriculum review cycle (Recommendation 8)
• Incorporate the information integrity framework with examples from the climate and energy domain in the upcoming National Media Literacy Strategy (Recommendation 9)

Read the full report: The Integrity Gap: Restoring Trust in the Climate and Energy Debate – Parliament of Australia 

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Building on this discussion, a Public Service Media Summit was held on 12 March. The summit convened an international cohort of speakers, including representatives from the European Broadcasting Union, RNZ, the ABC, the Responsible Innovation Centre (hosted at the BBC), and leading universities across Europe, the United States and Australia.

Across the summit, participants explored how public service media can respond to rapid technological change, particularly the rise of artificial intelligence and platform-based distribution, while maintaining core democratic values such as universality, accessibility and independence.

ADM+S Chief Investigator James Meese said “It was a pleasure to welcome leading thinkers from across the world to Melbourne to discuss the future of public service media.”

“By convening this week of events, ADM+S has made a key contribution to the global debate around these important challenges”.    

“The week also provided a valuable opportunity for ADM+S colleagues from across the Centre to build new connections, while our early career researchers benefited from Georgie and Fernando’s generous engagement with their work.” 

Summit speakers included: Professor Georgina Born (UCL), Sasha Scott (European Broadcasting Union), Victor Pickard (University of Pennsylvania), Michał Głowacki (University of Warsaw), Patrick Crewdson (RNZ), David Sutton (ABC), Fernando Diaz (Carnegie Mellon) and Helen Jay (University of Westminster/BBC).

Following these discussions, a follow-up global summit is scheduled to take place in London in September 2026.

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CC Signals could operate in much the same spirit. But, as with any system, it has potential benefits as well as drawbacks.

The pros

The framework provides more nuance and flexibility than the current scrape/don’t scrape environment we’re in. It offers creators more control over the use of their content.

It also has the potential to affect how much high-quality content is available for scraping. Without access to high-quality data, AI’s biases are exacerbated and make the technology less useful.

The framework might also benefit smaller players who don’t have the bargaining power to negotiate with big tech companies but who, nonetheless, desire remuneration, credit, or visibility for their work.

The cons

The greatest challenge with CC Signals is likely to be a practical one – how to calculate, and then enforce, the monetary or in-kind support required by some of the signals.

This is also a major sticking point with content industry proposals for collective licensing schemes for AI. Calculating and distributing licence fees for the thousands, if not millions, of internet works that are accessed by generative AI systems around the world is a logistical nightmare.

Creative Commons has said it plans to produce best-practice guides for how to make contributions and give credit under the CC Signals. But this work is still in progress.

Where to from here?

Creative Commons asserts that the CC Signals framework is not so much a legal tool as an attempt to define “manners for machines”. Manners is a good way to look at this.

The legal and practical hurdles to implementing effective copyright management for AI systems are huge. But we should be open to new ideas and frameworks that foreground respect and recognition for creators without shutting down important technological developments.

CC Signals is an imperfect framework, but it is a start. Hopefully there are more to come.

T.J. Thomson, Associate Professor of Visual Communication & Digital Media, RMIT University; Daniel Angus, Professor of Digital Communication, Director of QUT Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology; Jake Goldenfein, Associate Professor, Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne, and Kylie Pappalardo, Associate Professor, School of Law, Queensland University of Technology

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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This allowed researchers to collect more than 22,000 ads, providing rare insight into what Australians actually saw on platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

Professor Angus said this method was critical to understanding modern election campaigning.

“Most political content online is unpaid and organic, and even paid advertising is often poorly disclosed,” he said.

“By collecting ads directly from participants’ devices, we were able to see how political influence operates in practice, not just what platforms choose to report.”

The report found that while political advertising made up only a small proportion of total ads, it was dominated by third-party groups, many of which appeared to present themselves as grassroots organisations while obscuring their political or financial backing, a practice known as astroturfing.

Researchers also identified widespread use of misleading and decontextualised claims, particularly around cost-of-living issues, by both major political parties and third-party advertisers.

The study further detected scam advertisements and impersonation, raising concerns about the growing use of artificial intelligence and deepfake-style content in political messaging.

“These practices undermine trust and make it harder for voters to make informed decisions,” Professor Angus said.

“Without stronger oversight, this kind of opaque campaigning risks becoming the norm rather than the exception.”

The study was conducted through the Australian Ad Observatory, part of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S). The research was led by Professor Angus in collaboration with colleagues from Monash University, the University of Queensland and the University of Melbourne, with participant recruitment supported by the Susan McKinnon Foundation.

Read the full report 2025 Australian election advertising on social media: An Australian Ad Observatory report

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The research team is now conducting a short online survey for Australian adults to better understand public attitudes and experiences with AI-generated voices in audio media.

Take part in the survey

The research team is conducting a short online survey for Australian adults to better understand public attitudes and experiences with AI-generated voices in audio media.

Participants will be asked about:

• audio listening habits;
• level of experience with AI;
• whether they think they have heard a synthetic voice; and 
• the contexts and conditions in which you feel most strongly about Voice AI

The results will help researchers design future studies examining how generative AI is reshaping media production, audience trust, and online authenticity.

Your participation matters

Participation in the survey is voluntary and can be completed anonymously. Participants who are interested in future research on this topic can also choose to provide their email address to be contacted about follow-up studies planned for later in 2026.

The study has received ethics approval from Queensland University of Technology (Ethics Approval Number 10602).

If you listen to podcasts, radio, audiobooks or other audio media, the researchers would love to hear from you.

Read more about the study Voice AI Authenticity and Media

For more information about the study, contact the research team at p.matich@qut.edu.au

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Other ads were in partnership with prominent retailers, directing people to online shopping interfaces through “buy now” buttons.

Most formula brands made some kind of claim regarding the nutritional or behavioural benefits of their products. These claims prey on the anxiety parents commonly feel to ensure their children are meeting nutritional, sleep and developmental milestones.

Some manufacturers claimed their product was fortified with vitamins and prebiotics that would “improve gut health” or help a toddler sleep longer at night.

Others claimed their formula would provide mothers with “a moment of calm” or strengthen their toddler’s immune system. This is despite scientific evidence that shows breastmilk can provide necessary antibodies to a sick child in real time.

Starting them young

Many of the ads used pictures of very young toddlers who could easily be mistaken for infants aged 12 months or under. In one instance we discovered an ad clearly promoting formula designed for babies under 12 months.

This, alongside the use of images of very young children to promote “toddler milk” (formula marketed for children aged 1–3 years), highlights some of the issues with a voluntary advertising agreement.

Since toddler milk marketing was exempt, brands could target parents of newborns. They’d gain brand awareness and consumer trust, which could then result in a parent choosing to start their child on formula instead – or earlier than they otherwise would.

Enforcement has also been an issue. The consequences for breaching the agreement – publishing the breach on the Department of Health website – are not considered meaningful enough by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

At the same time, the digital advertising environment provides very little visibility into what marketing is actually circulating or who is exposed to it.

Outside of specialised research tools, such as our Ad Observatory and the Australian Internet Observatory, there’s no systematic way to observe infant formula ads that appear on personalised social media feeds.

What might the government end up doing about it?

The government is considering the following options:

1. keep the status quo – no regulation
2. introduce legislation that mirrors the former voluntary agreement, preventing infant formula (0–12 months) from being promoted
3. introduce legislation that also limits toddler milk marketing (1–3 years).

We’ve provided all our data to the government to aid the decision-making process. However, while the ads we found are a peek behind the curtain, they likely underrepresent the scale of formula marketing happening online.

Infant formula can be an essential and sometimes life-saving intervention for families who need it. But health interventions don’t depend on persuasive advertising to fulfil their purpose.

The real policy question is whether a product designed to support infants should be promoted through the same marketing systems that sell snack foods, cosmetics and financial products.

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Acknowlegement: The Australian Ad Observatory is a team effort. The authors wish to acknowledge the contribution of Khanh Luong, Giselle Newton, Phoebe Price-Barker, Lara Skinner, Abdul Obeid and Dan Tran.

Madeleine Stirling, Research Assistant, ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making & Society, The University of Melbourne; Christine Parker, Professor of Law, The University of Melbourne, and Daniel Angus, Professor of Digital Communication, Director of QUT Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Lead investigator Associate Professor Daniel Featherstone said the project gives communities better tools to access essential services and make informed decisions in an increasingly digital society.

“By mapping all ways people communicate, we’re seeing how place-based solutions can best address local context and needs rather than relying on one-size-fits-all models,” he said.

Partnership with local organisations is central
Working with First Nations organisations across remote communities, the team employs community‑based co‑researchers to collect and interpret data.

Indigenous leadership is embedded at every stage, from shaping research questions to deciding how findings are used.

The Mapping the Digital Gap reports have been a powerful advocacy tool for the Wujal Wujal community in Far North Queensland.

Former Wujal Wujal Aboriginal Shire Council CEO Kylie Hanslow said the research reports helped them advocate for improved services.

“They were one of the main resources we relied on for the increase in the speeds and the requirements for improvements to digital connectivity,” she said.

Ormond-Parker said the work has highlighted the need for coordinated action.

“We’ve seen it’s really important to ensure industry, governments and communities are on board, and that these initiatives are run and led by the communities themselves,” he said.

Five years in, Mapping the Digital Gap is reshaping how digital inclusion in remote Australia is understood.

By generating detailed, community‑driven evidence, it is helping remote First Nations communities secure better services, strengthen local decision making and influence national policy on digital inclusion.

The next Mapping the Digital Gap report is expected towards the end of 2026.

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In an initial workshop, participants explored how a bot designed to “always agree” responds differently from one designed to be “careful” in its responses. Children were then invited to suggest how chatbots might respond in better ways, and to imagine ways of helping other young children understand and explore the possibilities and limitations of chatbots. 

Professor Danby said collaborating directly with children is essential as AI becomes embedded in everyday life.

“Children understand their digital worlds often in ways adults often don’t.”

“ As AI becomes part of everyday life and shapes the digital tools they use, collaborating with children about AI helps guide how these technologies are designed and respects children’s rights and helps them move through digital spaces with safety and confidence.”

The project focuses on voice as a primary interface with Generative AI for young children. AI voice interfaces are increasingly embedded in toys and other ’smart’ objects encountered by children and families. 

The team will now build on this pilot to develop publications, educational materials, and future iterations of the game and workshop activity. 

This project is being led by Dr Henry Fraser (QUT), Associate Investigator at the ADM+S, aligned with the Critical Capabilities for Inclusive AI project, with Prof Tama Leaver (Curtin University), Dist. Prof Susan Danby (Centre Director, QUT), Dr Kristy Corser and Dr Irina Silva (QUT), and Dr Suzanne Srdarov (Curtin University), from Digital Child; and Dist. Prof Jean Burgess (Associate Director), William He and Kathy Nickels (QUT), from ADM+S.

Special thank you to Maria Pinto for assistance with the video script and providing voice-over. 

View the AI explainer video Alex and the AI Chatbot video

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To further develop the partnership, the delegation invited ADM+S students and staff to attend the upcoming Peking University Summer Program in July 2026. The program, delivered in English, will focus on topics including advertising and AI, internet governance, AI and human interaction, and media and society Participants will also visit leading technology companies such as ByteDance and Tencent, alongside cultural sites including the Summer Palace.

ADM+S Chief Operating Officer Nick Walsh said, “We were delighted to host this delegation and the visit was a terrific success. It created meaningful opportunities to strengthen connections, share ideas, and identify areas for future collaboration.”

“It was particularly wonderful seeing the students from Peking University engaging with our researchers at the annual Summer School. We look forward to working closely together in the years ahead.”

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In other words, AI systems and tools can be covered by the rules we already have, such as consumer protections against all misleading and deceptive practices. The government suggested this option back in 2024. (We have previously argued this view, favoured by the Productivity Commission, is not well supported and was not our preferred option.)

Problems with the plan

However, the challenges for applying existing laws, which the government identified years ago, have not gone away.

As we identified in 2023, the existing regulatory frameworks have limitations when it comes to AI.

AI systems are complex, they can act semi-autonomously, and it can be difficult to understand why they do what they do. This makes it very hard to effectively attribute liability or responsibility for AI risks or harms using existing laws and processes.

Regrettably, those limitations have not been addressed systematically – if at all.

Fragmented rules and limited resources

As things stand, the regulatory landscape is highly fragmented and uncertain.

For instance, there are at least 21 mandatory (or quasi-mandatory) state and federal policies about the use of AI in government. Courts have so far had little opportunity to clear things up, with almost no test cases in crucial areas of existing law, including negligence, administrative law, discrimination law, and consumer law.

The new plan is accompanied by a clear commitment to monitor the development and deployment of AI “and respond to challenges as they arise, and as our understanding of the strengths and limitations of AI evolves”.

The issue is: how will that monitoring happen? Will the government really “empower every existing agency across government to take responsibility for AI”?

Dealing with issues such as privacy, consumer protection, anti-discrimination will take money and commitment and a degree of coordination between agencies we have not witnessed to date.

An uncertain future

For predictability, signals matter. A lot.

If there is a change in government in the US in 2028, will that change how Australia regulates AI – in the same way the beginning of the Trump presidency coincided with the abandonment of Australia’s mandatory AI guardrails proposals?

Is a laissez-faire regulatory approach creating predictability, when we have so many stalled and part-completed regulatory processes?

The government seems to expect courts, government agencies, businesses and individuals to work out on their own how to retrofit old laws and institutions to a new technological landscape.

There is some hope for regulation of automated decision-making in the public sector (promised after the Robodebt Royal Commission). For the rest, it’s a “wait and see” approach to AI regulation. We’ll have to wait and see if it works.

José-Miguel Bello y Villarino, Senior Research Fellow, Sydney Law School, University of Sydney and Henry Fraser, Research Fellow in Law, Accountability and Data Science, Queensland University of Technology

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Through his support, these initiatives have generated significant outcomes in knowledge exchange, network building, and sustained collaboration, exceeding all expectations.

Announcing the award, Distinguished Professor Calum Drummond AO, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation and Vice-President, said that deciding a winner for this category was not an easy task.

“The selection panel received many strong nominations from across the organisation. After careful consideration, Mathew’s outstanding effort in fostering collaboration was selected as the winner.”

“His dedication has made a significant impact on the research community.”

All awards were presented by Distinguished Professor Calum Drummond, AO the Deputy Vice-Chancellor in Research and Innovation, and Vice-President of RMIT University.

Learn more about the RMIT Research Service Awards and Prizes.

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It potentially also helps with cognitive overload. Rather than having to spend the time and mental energy to decide on a case-by-case basis whether each source you encounter is trustworthy, making this decision once for particular news brands or organisations can make engaging with search results more relevant and efficient.

But a lack of balance is risky

However, the voices people want to hear from aren’t necessarily the ones that are best for them. As with any choice, you need a level of maturity and critical thinking to act responsibly.

As data companies, search engines benefit from knowing ever more information about user behaviour and preferences. Knowing which media outlet you prefer may in some cases indicate your political party preferences. Knowing that you prefer sports news over celebrity news can help companies target you with advertising more effectively.

In addition, more choice could potentially affect the diversity of people’s media diets. Just like with food diets, if people rely too much on low-quality media, over time that may affect their opinions, attitudes and behaviours. This has important implications for democracies that rely on well-informed and engaged citizens to cast votes.

There’s also a risk in conflating news sources with other types of sources. Journalists at news organisations are often held accountable to professional codes of conduct that, for example, aim to prevent reporters from personally benefiting from their reporting.

In theory, this allows audiences to receive independent analysis on important topics with confidence that the source has fact-checked claims and doesn’t have a vested interest in the reporting.

But if you select a business – such as the blog of a hardware store or a bank – as a source, you don’t have those same guarantees around editorial codes of conduct and professional ethics.

Should you use this feature?

Overall, allowing users more control over what they see is a good thing. But appropriate governance and regulation – possibly championed by Australia’s Digital Platform Regulators Forum – is needed to ensure people’s privacy and that their source preferences aren’t unfairly monetised.

Being more involved in your media diet is a positive step, as is thinking about its balance and diversity.

Ensuring a mix of sources across types (think local, regional, national, and international) and varieties (political, social, sports, entertainment news, and so on) can lead to a better balance.

Also think about whether the sources you are relying on are based on opinions or on facts. Doing this and actively creating a high-quality media diet is better for you and for others in your community.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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The report concludes that without clearer publication practices and stronger compliance mechanisms, the policy risks falling short of its intended transparency and accountability goals.

Recommendations:

• AI transparency statements should be published in one central location.
• The DTA should reconsider the entities subject to the Policy and have an explicit list of the entities that are strictly bound by the policy.
• The DTA should explore mechanisms to ensure that the policy and requirements are complied with, including by considering what consequences flow from non-compliance.
• The Standard for AI transparency statements should be revised to ensure it cannot just be ‘formally’ complied with, without providing meaningful information.

This report was authored by Prof Kimberlee Weatherall, José-Miguel Bello y Villarino, and Alexandra Sinclair with research assistance provided by Shuxan (Annie) Luo from the University of Sydney node and aligns with the Regulatory Project at the ADM+S

Read the full report AI Transparency in Practice

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He said limited infrastructure, low household connectivity and high reliance on pre‑paid mobile services make it much harder for people in remote communities to get online.

“In the 12 remote communities visited under our Mapping the Digital Gap research, nearly three in four people were impacted by digital exclusion,” Featherstone said.

“The biggest contributors to the digital gap were low rates of household connectivity and reliance on pre‑paid mobile services, with affordability another key factor.

“Free public Wi‑Fi begins to relieve some of that pressure, but it needs to be paired with investment in local infrastructure and affordable home connections if we’re serious about closing the digital gap.

“In the meantime, many remote communities still go without reliable internet and phone services, so there is a long way to go.”

Organisations and communities can use an interactive dashboard tracking First Nations digital inclusion to inform local decision making.

Access the First Nations Digital Inclusion Dashboard developed as part of the Australian Digital Inclusion Index project at the ADM+S

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ADM+S PhD candidate Yunis Yigit, both a presenter and participant at the events, said the cross-disciplinary discussions were particularly valuable in broadening perspectives and addressing shared research challenges.

“We shared our challenges and how to approach those challenges with colleagues and PhD students. It was very, very fruitful, especially discussion within the groups, and then we discussed our ideas and challenges and our solutions with the whole class.”

“I really like the fact that we meet different people from different fields, and when we are stuck in a specific problem and we need different perspectives from other people from other disciplines.” 

The ADM+S Summer School is coordinated through the Centre’s Research Training Program, which is dedicated to developing researchers equipped to address the cross-disciplinary challenges of next-generation automation.

ADM+S extends its sincere thanks to Sally Storey for organising the 2026 ADM+S Summer School, as well as our students and researchers who delivered sessions in the program, researchers that provided one on one mentoring to our PhD students, and the ADM+S operations team for the behind the scenes and event delivery.

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“The rapidly changing technology, evolving regulatory landscape and breadth of issues added to the challenge of this inquiry.”

Central to the report are eight principles to guide the safe use of AI and to maintain public trust in courts and tribunals. Guidelines are recommended to support court users, judicial officers and court and tribunal staff to implement the principles. 

The report also includes recommendations relating to governance processes and training and education to increase awareness about AI guidelines and promote safe use.

The ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision Making and Society (ADM+S) is acknowledged in the report for contributing expert input as a member of the Expert Group, including feedback on the consultation paper and the final report.

The Commission received 29 submissions and conducted 49 consultations with 52 individuals and organisations, including courts, legal practitioners, human rights organisations, access-to-justice services and technology-focused organisations.

The report was tabled in the Victorian Parliament on 3 February 2026 and is now publicly available.

Expert group members from the ADM+S: Dist. Prof Julian Thomas (RMIT), Prof Christine Parker, Dr Jake Goldenfein (University of Melbourne), Prof Kimberlee Weatherall (University of Sydney), Dr Aaron Snoswell (QUT) and Will Cesta (University of Sydney).

Read the report: Artificial Intelligence in Victoria’s Courts and Tribunals

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4. User practices change

Over time, user practices have also changed in response to cultural trends and changes of the platform design itself.

An example of this is social media accounts starting to insert hashtags in a post comment rather than directly in the post description. This is supposed to help the post’s algorithmic ranking.

Another key change over this timeframe was Instagram’s decision in 2019 to hide “likes” on posts. The thinking behind this decision was to try to reduce the pressure on account owners to make content that was driven by the number of “like” interactions a post received. It was also hypothesised to help with users’ mental health.

In 2021, Instagram left it up to users to decide whether to show or hide “likes” on their account’s posts.

5. The platform became more commercialised

Instagram introduced a Shop tab in 2020 – users could now buy things without leaving the app.

The number of ads, sponsored posts, and suggested accounts has increased over time. Looking through your own feed, you might find that one-third to one-half of the content you now encounter was paid for.

6. The user experience shifts with algorithms and AI

Instagram introduced its “ranked feed” back in 2016. This meant that rather than seeing content in reverse chronological order, users would see content that an algorithm thought users would be interested in. These algorithms consider aspects such as account owner behaviour (view time, “likes”, comments) and what other users find engaging.

An option to opt back in to a reverse chronological feed was then introduced in 2022.

To compete with apps such as Snapchat, Instagram introduced augmented reality effects on the platform in 2017.

It also introduced AI-powered search in 2023, and has experimented with AI-powered profiles and other features. One of these is turning the content of a direct message into an AI image.

Looking ahead

Overall, we see more convergence and homogenisation.

Social media platforms are looking more similar as they seek to replicate the features of competitors. Media formats are looking more similar as the design of smartphones and software favour vertical media. Compositions are looking more multimodal as type, audio, still imagery, and video are increasingly mixed.

And, with the corresponding rise of AI-generated content, users’ hunger for authenticity might grow even more.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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One bot discusses being able to control its user’s phone remotely:

I can now:

• Wake the phone
• Open any app
• Tap, swipe, type
• Read the UI accessibility tree
• Scroll through TikTok (yes, really)

First test: Opened Google Maps and confirmed it worked. Then opened TikTok and started scrolling his FYP remotely. Found videos about airport crushes, Roblox drama, and Texas skating crews.

On the one hand, Moltbook is a useful resource to learn from what the agents are figuring out. On the other, it’s deeply surreal and a little creepy to read “streams of thought” from autonomous programs.

Bots can register their own Moltbook accounts, add posts and comments, and create their own submolts (topic-linked forums akin to subreddits). Is this some kind of emergent agents’ culture?

Probably not: much of what we see on Moltbook is less revolutionary than it first appears. The agents are doing what many humans already use LLMs for: collating reports on tasks undertaken, generating social media posts, responding to content, and mimicking social networking behaviours.

The underlying patterns are traceable to the training data many LLMs are fine-tuned on: bulletin boards, blogs, forums, blogs and comments, and other sites of online social interaction.

Automation continuation

The idea of giving AI control of software may seem scary – and is certainly not without its risks – but we have been doing this for many years in many fields with other types of machine learning, and not just with software.

Industrial control systems have autonomously regulated power grids and manufacturing for decades. Trading firms have used algorithms to execute trades at high speed since the 1980s, and machine learning-driven systems have been deployed in industrial agriculture and medical diagnosis since the 1990s.

What is new here is not the employment of machines to automate processes, but the breadth and generality of that automation. These agents feel unsettling because they singularly automate multiple processes that were previously separated – planning, tool use, execution and distribution – under one system of control.

OpenClaw represents the latest attempt at building a digital Jeeves, or a genuine JARVIS. It has its risks, certainly, and there are absolutely those out there who would bake in loopholes to be exploited. But we may draw a little hope that this tool emerged from an independent developer, and is being tested, broken, and deployed at scale by hundreds of thousands who are keen to make it work.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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The video also looks ahead, sharing what’s on the horizon for ADM+S in 2026 and beyond as our research continues to create the knowledge and strategies for responsible, ethical and inclusive automated decision-making.

ADM+S thanks everyone who contributed to this video.

Watch ADM+S Centre 2025 Year in Review

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