The ADM+S Centre draws on the humanities, social and technological sciences. Our research is designed to expand, integrate, and apply our knowledge of the dynamics of ADM. In order to achieve this, we combine four research programs and four focus areas.

Select the yellow items in our interactive diagram below to explore our research areas.

THE FOCUS AREAS

The Centre’s four cross-centre Focus Areas bring together our researchers to look at how automated decision-making works in four key domains – News and Media, Mobilities, Health, and Social Services.

Our focus areas have been chosen because:

  • they are well-documented areas where decision-making technologies are widely used;
  • they align closely to national research priorities and agendas; and
  • they are domains where governments and communities have coordinated, regulated and pooled resources to manage and mitigate major social risks – to public health and welfare, mobility, and democracy.

The introduction of new, untested decision-making technologies in these domains creates new possibilities for success and failure in large-scale institutional systems that have been specifically designed to reduce individual and social hazards.

The Focus Areas provide material for many of the empirical investigations in the four research programs, and they ensure our research is directed towards engagement, translation and outcomes in exemplary and essential sectors. Their hallmark is close collaboration with our partner organisations and stakeholders.

THE RESEARCH PROGRAMS

Automated decision-making systems are not purely technological: they comprise a number of elements, including the data that enables predictive decision-making machines; the institutions that provide regulatory settings; and the people who design, use, imagine and adapt automated systems, and whose lives are affected by them.

The Centre’s four Research Programs — Data, Machines, Institutions, and People — examine all the different elements that constitute automated decision-making systems. Together, they enable us to build the first comprehensive account of the social development, distribution, dynamics, performance and effects of ADM.

VIEW OUR RESEARCH TRANSLATION AND IMPACT STRATEGY

CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS (2024-2027)

The ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S) has launched new key projects responding to the complex challenges and opportunities presented by emerging automated decision-making and artificial intelligence systems. These projects mark the second half of the Centre’s life.

Drawing on international perspectives from academic partners, organisations, and collaborators, the new research projects will address high-level challenges of automated decision-making in society, from generative authenticity, regulation, and cultural curation to inclusive AI.

Since 2020, researchers at the ADM+ Centre have been working to map the expanding reach of automated systems and gauge their impacts across Australia. They have established a range of sociotechnical approaches, including tools and frameworks, for understanding and addressing the impacts of automation on society.

Building on existing tools and research, the innovative projects will use synthetic data t simulate and predict policy outcomes, map the ecological impacts of ADM use, and provide unprecedented observability of platform operation, news content curation, diverse accessibility, and more.

Using a participatory approach to engage affected communities, organisations, and civil society that are impacted by the technologies, our research brings an independent perspective to the development and application of AI and ADM tools to ensure they are responsible, ethical and inclusive.

The new research program seeks to provide transformational insight into addressing higher-level challenges of automated decision-making in society.

COMPLETED RESEARCH PROJECTS