At Something Digital, innovators put heart over hardware
This week, a diverse crowd gathered at beloved Brisbane venue The Tivoli to take part in Something Digital.
Co-founders Nadine Zrinzo and Lisa Renneisen brought together representatives across the digital ecosystem.
A touchpoint for responsible innovation
This mission resonates with our Responsible Innovation Research Director Justine Lacey. She oversees a portfolio of research focused on delivering socially responsible science.
To Justine, the event is a way to relate leading-edge research to the impacts of emerging digital technologies.
“We partner with Something Digital because it gives us a unique opportunity to be part of important conversations,” Justine said.
“Conversations about what people expect of technology, and how we go about shaping it responsibly,” she said.
“It gives a fun, unique, and innovative touchpoint between our scientists and government, industry, and community organisations working on these issues.”
Image courtesy of Something Digital.
Sharing innovative research
Our researchers were out in force. Principal Research Consultant Aurelie Jacquet unpacked how global AI policy is impacting Australian organisations.
Principal Research Scientist Peter Wilson shared his work developing the National Soil Information System (ANSIS). This was designed to serve up valuable data to boost agricultural productivity.
Senior Research Scientist Mohan Baruwal Chhetri delved into Australia’s quantum opportunity. Research showed how technologies are set to impact our society, economy, environment, and more.
Senior Research Scientist Dr Cara Stitzlein moderated talks on the AI revolution and making the quantum leap.
“Moderating the CSIRO-sponsored blocks at Something Digital is a highlight for me, and has been for a few years,” Cara said.
“A big part of that is seeing intersection points between advanced science, application within industry, and the public’s appetite to go along for the ride,” she said.
“That dynamic I haven’t seen presented or held at other events.”
Image by Jane Bray.
Democratising digital technologies
There were fascinating insights shared by international headliners as well.
Harold F Linder Professor Alondra Nelson, from US-based Institute for Advanced Study, shared her experiences developing the White House’s Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights.
Alondra shared the importance of anchoring science policy to democratic commitments. She discussed regulating towards beneficial outcomes for society, rather than around technological objects.
Meta’s Accessibility Research Lead Yao Ding spoke on the importance of digital inclusivity through design.
One in six Australians have a disability. Yao challenged the audience to consider what it means for technologies to be “born accessible”. This looked at avoiding accessibility as a feature that’s tacked on after development.
Speakers came from sectors as diverse as banking, media, fashion, defence and creative industries. All highlighted the skyrocketing pace of technological advancement in their fields.
A key focus was the growing use of AI for everything – from accessing news and information to responding to humanitarian crises.
Putting heart over hardware
Innovation continues at a rapid rate. So it’s vital to grapple with the social and ethical risks – and opportunities – of new technologies.
How are we doing this? Through science, of course.
We’re pushing the frontiers of two novel fields of research. One is responsible prediction. The other is social and ethical risk management.
Responsible prediction explores new ways to model and measure social systems and conditions. For example, using complex statistical models to explore ways of managing social conflict around offshore wind.
The aim is to understand the social dynamics which impact how new science and technology land in the world.
Social and ethical risk management takes a systematic approach to understand potential impacts. For example, doing social research to gauge how ready Australian industries are for quantum technologies.
Our responsible innovation research gives people a voice to shape new science and technologies for the better – right from the start of the process.