Outputs

REPORTS

• Colin Gavaghan, Alistair Knott and James Maclaurin - The impact of Artificial Intelligence on Jobs and Work in New Zealand (May 2021).
• Colin Gavaghan, Alistair Knott, James Maclaurin, John Zerilli and Joy Liddicoat - Government Use of Artificial Intelligence in New Zealand.

CASE STUDIES

• James Maclaurin - How do we navigate the moral compass of machines?
• Colin Gavaghan - 'Smart robots' and the law

PUBLICATIONS

• Alistair Knott, Colin Gavaghan and James Maclaurin were contributors to the World Economic Forum's Reimagining Regulation white paper (June 2020).
• Liddicoat, J, (2019) 'Algorithms and social media: a need for regulations to control harmful content?’ Global Information Society Watch Annual Report Artificial Intelligence: human rights, social justice and development (Association for Progressive Communications, Article 19, Swedish International Development Agency). For the full report see: https://www.giswatch.org/
• Liddicoat J., Gavaghan C. and Knott A., "Beyond the hype. AI and Law: an update" (2019) 926 LawTalk 60.
• Liddicoat, J., Gavaghan, C., Knott, A., Maclaurin, J. and Zerilli, J. "The use of algorithms in th​e New Zealand public sector: A preliminary assessment" (2019) New Zealand Law Journal, February 27the 2019.  PDF of this article. 
• Zerilli, J., Knott, A., Maclaurin, J. & Gavaghan, C. (2018) Transparency in algorithmic and human decision-making: Is there a double standard? Philosophy and Technology (https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-018-0330-6)

CONFERENCE/WORKSHOP ORGANISATION

• Alistair Knott, Colin Gavaghan, James Maclaurin and Joy Liddicoat co-organised a roundtable on AI and Employment which took place in Dunedin 26-27th September 2019.  Summary of Workshop.
• James Maclaurin gave a Philosophy Seminar "Why Work?" at the University of Otago.  Abstract: Predictions about the future of work vary greatly from the grim pronouncements of Rifkin's The End of Work, to the guarded techno-optimism of Brynjolfsson and McAffee's The Second Machine Age, to the bring-it-on attitude of Salmon's recent New Zealand-focussed Jobs, Robots and Us. All agree that the nature, and perhaps the availability of work will change radically in coming decades. If we are to adapt successfully, we must first understand the value of work. This talk contrasts current fears about loss of work with Bertrand Russell's famous claim that far too much work is done in the world and immense harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous.  Wednesday 11th September 2019.
• The project hosted Dr John Danaher, School of Law, University of Galway, Ireland who gave a public lecture "Automation, Space and Utopia" on 11th July 2019 and “The Algorithmic Outsourcing of Everyday Life” on Friday 12th July 2019. 
• On 31 May 2019 the project team hosted Kinley Salmon to discuss his new book Jobs, Robots and Us: Why the Future of Work in New Zealand is in Our Hands. Kinley discussed how he interrogates common predictions about a jobless future and explores what might happen to workers in New Zealand as automation becomes more widespread. Growing inequality and insecure work are a real risk but, he suggests there are reasons for optimism too. Yet, Kinley says, whether we make the most of the benefits and avoid the worst possibilities for the future of work in New Zealand, depends deeply on the choices we make in Aotearoa today about issues including education, welfare, and innovation. Kinley noted that the book also asks big questions about the power we have to shape technological progress and to influence how robots and artificial intelligence are adopted. Technological change, he reminds us, is not like the weather. It does not just happen to us randomly but is instead something we can influence and shape. Today, says Kinley, we still have a window to make choices to shape our future of work, but it is closing. Finally, he sketches out two bold alternative futures for New Zealand – from a world of continued high employment to one of universal basic incomes with far less work – and suggests what it might take, and what we might risk, to pursue each of them. In doing so he shows how the challenges of automation and the future of work connect to other big issues in New Zealand today including climate change, poverty and the housing crisis.
• Alistair Knott, John Zerilli  and Joy Liddicoat were selected to co-organise a presentation on AI and Law at the In-house Lawyers Association of New Zealand annual conference held in Dunedin, May 9 2019.  The workshop met the continuing professional development requirements for lawyers. Alistair Knott presentation.  John Zerilli presentation. Joy Liddicoat presentation.
• Colin Gavaghan, James Maclaurin, Alistair Knott and Joy Liddicoat organised a roundtable on Artificial Intelligence and Employment, held in Oxford in November 2018. Summary of Workshop.  The team also held a number of related research visits, in November and December 2018. Summary of the research visits.
• Alistair Knott, Colin Gavaghan, James Maclaurin, John Zerilli and Joy Liddicoat co-organised, with the AI Forum and Centre for AI and Public Policy, a public workshop Artificial Intelligence in Dunedin: Research, industry and public policy on 30 October 2018. 
• James Maclaurin and Joy Liddicoat gave presentations at the public workshop on 30 October 2018. James Maclaurin presentation. Joy Liddicoat presentation.
• Colin Gavaghan, Alistair Knott, James Maclaurin and John Zerilli organised the Roundtable on Uses of AI in the Criminal Justice System, held in both Oxford and Dunedin, in November and December 2017.
• Colin Gavaghan was co-organiser and a presenter at a workshop hosted by the Law, Innovation and Society Research Group at Newcastle University Law School: The Future Is Now: The Status and Challenge of AI and Law. May 16, 2017.

  
MEDIA

• Alistair Knott wrote a blog post Moving Towards Responsible Government Use of AI in New Zealand, as part of the World Economic Forum's 'Reimagining Regulation for the Age of AI' project.
• Alistair Knott featured in Marc Daalder's article about NZ's Algorithms Charter, Newsroom, July 2020.
• Alistair Knott and Colin Gavaghan: The covid infodemic and its control: the role of AI systems. Medium, June 19, 2020. (We also wrote a summary of this piece for Newsroom.)
• Colin Gavaghan, Alistair Knott, James Maclaurin, Kristiann Allen, Andrew Chen. On facial recognition, police, and regulation of new technologies. Koi tū, the Centre for Informed Futures, University of Auckland
• Project personel contributed to Reimagining Regulation at the Age of AI, report for the World Economic Forum.
• Ali Knott wrote a blog post for the AI Forum on the project report “Government use of Artificial Intelligence in New Zealand”, 12th June 2019.
  
• Dr John Zerilli and Colin Gavaghan wrote a blog post “Call for independent watchdog to monitor NZ government AI use”, 27th May 2019.
  
• Sam Stevens, University of Otago, wrote a blog on the project report “OK, computer? Otago report questions government AI use", 28 May 2019. 
  
• The Science Media Centre commented on the project report “Government use of artificial intelligence - expert reaction”, 27th May 2019.

Christchurch terrorist attack

• Alistair Knott co-wrote Reaction to the Christchurch Call from the AI Forum’s Ethics, Law and Society working group, 23rd May 2019.
• Joy Liddicoat wrote a blog post Responding to the Christchurch Call, 7th May 2019.
• On the topic of the Paris Conference Alistair Knott was interviewed by NewsHub on the14th May 2019. He was also interviewed by the Washington Post oon 15th May 2019  and on 16th May 2019 here, and the Wall Street Journal on 15th May 2019.
• How did the Christchurch gunman stay under the radar of state agencies? - Stuff, featuring Ali Knott. Stuff, 13th April 2019.
• Colin Gavaghan on the difficulties of fighting prejudice online -  Otago Daily Times 11th April 2019.
• What the big tech companies need to do after the Christchurch shooting - with comment from Ali Knott. Noted, 29th March 2019.
• Christchurch terror attack: New Zealand should introduce new laws for social media companies - expert - Newshub, featuring Ali Knott, 27th March 2019.
• Alleged attacker 'wasn't from New Zealand or Australia, but from the internet' - including comment from Ali Knott and Colin Gavaghan, 27th March 2019.
• Ali Knott appeared on NewsTalk ZB (twice) and on the Panel in the wake of the Christchurch mosque attacks, to discuss tech compani​​es’ ability to remove offensive video content, and how much effort they are expending in this area. 19th March, 2019.

Establishment of the Centre for AI and Public Policy

• The era of artificial intelligence in New Zealand, Radio New Zealand, 10th June 2018
• Machine learning algorithm is claimed to predict which students will drop out. Stuff, 14th May 2018
• Chance to lead ethical use of AI (ODT) 8th May 2018.
• NBR - Curran turns to Otago University for AI action plan. 7th May 2018.
• IT Brief - Otago experts to work with government. 7th May 2018. Also on BizEDGE, same date.
• Article about the advisory role of the AI and Law group on Scoop. 7th May 2018.
• Government press release announcing a formal relationship with the new centre: Details. 2nd May, 2018.

Proposal for a regulatory body to oversee the use of predictive analytics in NZ government departments

• The Otago Daily Times has also covered the Pundit article, with quotes from Colin Gavaghan, Ali Knott and John Zerilli.  Call for transparency in immigration rulings, 27th April, 2018.
• James Maclaurin was interviewed by Mike Hosking on NewsTalk ZB: Calls for AI watchdog to regulate how govt uses personal data. 23rd April 2018
• Our proposal for a watchdog for government uses of AI also featured in a story by ChannelLife: Machine learning is great but does it need regulation?. 23rd April, 2018
• Our proposal for a watchdog for government uses of AI also featured in a story in the Otago Daily Times: Call for Govt data-mining watchdog. 22nd April, 2018
• Predictive computer apps should be monitored - Morning Report, Radio New Zealand, 20th April, 2018.
• Pundit article proposing a regulatory body to oversee the use of predictive analytics in NZ government departments. 19th April, 2018.

AI related Topics

• Human oversight does not remove all the risks of AI.  Stuff, 26th October 2018.
• Otago Daily Times - Kay Firth-Butterfield, the World Economic Forum’s head of artificial intelligence and machine learning, visited the group: AI 'engine of 4th industrial revolution' 3rd February, 2018
• He Kitenga University of Otago Research Highlights. AI and Responsibility, February 2018.
• Otago Daily Times - Colin Gavaghan on the legal impacts of driverless cars - Abandoning driver's seat to cut the road toll. 17th October, 2017.
• Otago Bulletin Board - Ali Knott's Should we be worried about progress in AI?' which is a response to Michael Winikoff's Who believes in superintelligence in the same publication. 6th October, 2017.

Comments on ACC’s predictive tool

• 95bFM - The Accident Compensation Corporation and its computer-based risk prediction models - an interview with James MacLaurin. 28th September, 2017.
• Radio NZ - Is ACC 'passing the buck' with prediction based evaluations? - an Interview with Ali Knott. 26th September, 2017.
• Radio NZ: James Maclaurin, Ali Knott and Colin Gavaghan comment on ACC's risk prediction system. 23rd September, 2017.

Other topics

• Joy Liddicoat and Kai Hsin-Hung explore "The future of workers rights in the AI age" in Policy Options Politiques. December 2018.
• TV3 Newshub, Alistair Knott participated in an explainer piece on Facebook’s chatbots. August 2017.
• Colin Gavaghan gave an interview for Law News, the Journal of the Auckland District Law Society.  May 2017.
• Newshub: Artificial intelligence ethics to be researched in New Zealand. 20th January, 2017.
• Radio NZ : The human intelligence. 20th January, 2017
• University of Otago Media release:  Major new Otago study to tackle artificial intelligence law and policy behind artificial intelligence. 19th January, 2017.

TALKS

• Joy Liddicoat gave a presentation "AI and Employment: New Zealand labour laws - a preliminary assessment" to the AI and Society Forum on 16 August 2019.
• Ali Knott have a presentation "A survey of labour law issues relating to AI" to the AI and Society Forum on 9th August 2019.
• Joy Liddicoat and Colin Gavaghan both appeared as panellists and chairs at the Identity Conference, organised by Victoria University of Wellington, the Department of Internal Affairs Te Tari Taiwhenua, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and Digital Identity New Zealand.
• Joy Liddicoat gave a presentation to the New Zealand Law Librarians annual conference on 29th August 2019.
• Colin Gavaghan delivered a seminar on the project, entitled "Thinking outside the (black) box", as part of the Inland Revenue's "Future thinking" series.
• Joy Liddicoat spoke about Artificial intelligence and Work at ''Women You Can Bank On", on 20th June 2019.
• James Maclaurin gave a talk Five surprising things about the way AI will change work in the Parliamentary Speaker’s Science Series on 10th April 2019.
• Joy Liddicoat delivered a talk "AI and Employment" at the Centre for AI and Public Law workshop on AI and Autonomous Systems and Society, Dunedin, 11-12 February 2019.
• The AI and Law in New Zealand Project's Postdoctoral Fellow, John Zerilli, delivered a talk at the Neuroscience and Society Conference in Sydney ​ - "Transparency in algorithmic and human decision-making: Is there a double standard?" 24th August, 2018
• Ali Knott gave a talk with Steven Mills for TechWeek in Auckland: AI and Computer Vision: Applications, impacts, ethics. 23rd May, 2018
• Ali Knott participated in a panel discussion at AI day on the impact of AI on people and society. 28th March, 2018
• Radio NZ: James Maclaurin participated in a panel discussion on Driverless Cars as part of IPWEA NZ’s 2017 conference. 24th September, 2017.
• Royal Society Te Apārangi 150th Anniversary Regional Lecture, 4th August, 2017  - How should society prepare for advances in Artificial Intelligence? Given by Ali Knott.

SERVICE TO THE PROFESSION

• The 'Law, Ethics and Society' working group of the AI Forum, of which Ali Knott is a member, released 'Trustworthy AI in Aotearoa New Zealand: AI Principles' on 4 March 2020: https://aiforum.org.nz/reports/trustworthy-ai-in-aotearoa-the-ai-principles/
• Joy Liddicoat joined the AI Forum's WorkingGroup 4 Trust Data Accessibility in August 2019.
• The AI and Law in New Zealand Project's Postdoctoral Fellow, John Zerilli, served on the AI Forum's Adoption working group, September 2018 - May 2019.
• The AI and Law in New Zealand Project's Postdoctoral Fellow, John Zerilli, reviewed the final report of the IEEE Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems, Ethically Aligned Design.
• Alistair Knott has started serving on the AI Forum’s ‘Law, Ethics and Society’ working group, September 2018
• The AI and Law in New Zealand Project's Associate Research Fellow, Joy Liddicoat, contributed a foreword to the​ AI publication, FABRICS, September 2018.