Does AI really boost productivity at work? Research shows gains don’t come cheap or easy
Artificial intelligence (AI) is being touted as a way to boost lagging productivity growth in the workplace.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is being touted as a way to boost lagging productivity growth in the workplace.
Feminist science & technology studies scholar Dr Thao Phan has won the 2025 Max Crawford Medal for her exemplary scholarship investigating dynamics of race and gender in algorithmic culture.
The U.S. State Department’s new visa policy requiring applicants to disclose and publicise their social media accounts raises serious concerns about privacy, free expression, and digital surveillance, effectively turning online presence into a political passport that can influence border access.
As AI-generated media becomes more polished and harder to detect, deliberately pushing AI systems to their limits, through creative misuse and embracing their flaws, can reveal how they actually work. This approach, dubbed the Slopocene, encourages critical AI literacy by exposing the biases, logic, and statistical underpinnings that are usually hidden behind seamless outputs.
Google, which controls about 94% of the Australian search engine market, introduced “AI Overviews” to Australia in October 2024. These AI-generated search result summaries have revolutionised how people search for and find information. They also have significant impacts on the quality of the results.
AI chatbots may be a useful place to start when you’re having a bad day. But AIs aren’t therapists. Researchers warn they are not substitutes for professional care, and their use raises concerns about misinformation, emotional dependence, and the reliability of long-term support.
Google’s new SynthID Detector can identify AI-generated content by detecting invisible watermarks embedded in outputs from its own AI tools, but its effectiveness is limited, as there’s no universal detection system and current tools often struggle with edited or mixed-content media.
A Victorian parliamentary inquiry has found that Australian employers are increasingly using invasive surveillance technologies—often without workers’ knowledge or consent—highlighting urgent regulatory gaps and recommending new national laws to ensure transparency, limit data collection, and protect worker rights.
While new online industry codes aim to protect children from harmful content, experts warn they could unintentionally restrict access to vital sexual health and education resources, particularly for young and marginalised groups.
In the lead-up to the 2025 federal election, researchers from the Australian Ad Observatory project have been tracking the hidden world of digital political advertising, revealing concerning trends like astroturfing, opaque third-party campaigns, and the spread of misleading messages across platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
As Australia begins voting in the federal election, we’re awash with political messages. And, if there’s one thing internet users love, it’s a good political meme.
Australia’s climate and energy wars are at the forefront of the federal election campaign as the major parties outline vastly different plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and tackle soaring power prices.
Earlier this year, scientists discovered a peculiar term appearing in published papers: “vegetative electron microscopy”.
In April 2025, ADM+S Research Fellow Dr Kieran Hegarty visited the Netherlands and United Kingdom to present his research on how changing publishing and distribution markets are reshaping how cultural institutions, particularly libraries, fulfil their mandates and serve their users.
On 9 April, Associate Prof Julia Stoyanovich, Director of the Center for Responsible AI at NYU Tandon School of Engineering and Partner Investigator at the ADM+S, testified at the Research & Technology Subcommittee Hearing – DeepSeek. A Deep Dive.
Apple’s new Clean Up photo editing feature, powered by generative AI, makes it easier than ever to remove elements from images—raising both opportunities for creative convenience and concerns about deception, trust, and the authenticity of visual media.
How would you go at telling fact from fiction in these cases? Have a go with this quiz and learn more about some of AI’s (potential) giveaways and how to stay safer online.
A new report published today finds that news audiences and journalists alike are concerned about how news organisations are – and could be – using generative AI such as chatbots, image, audio and video generators, and similar tools.
AI-enhanced search is reshaping how we access information, but different search models—Customer Servant, Librarian, Journalist, and Teacher—offer varying levels of control, relevance, and bias, raising ethical questions about transparency, user autonomy, and misinformation.