Our research examines the implications of question answering systems, knowledge graphs and other automated knowledge systems for society. Such systems are currently embedded in some of the world’s most popular technology such as smart search engines, smart speakers, smart watches and digital assistants in mobile phones. We ask questions of Q&A machines in order to highlight their hidden knowledge production processes, and to reimagine their design.
Our Projects
AI in the Library, our current project, sees us collaborating with librarians to develop an innovative AI literacy programme aimed at improving public understanding about the benefits and risks of interacting with new generative AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini.
In How QA machines represent notable Australians, we conducted our own investigation of digital assistants to assess what kinds of answers they produce and what the ramifications are of these responses.
AI in the Library
Working initially with librarians in the Greater Sydney area, the AI in the Library is a pilot project that aims to develop an innovative AI literacy programme to support librarians and library clients in Australia to understand the trustworthiness of AI answer services such as ChatGPT.
The project will:
- Enhance our understanding of common practices of librarians and their clients when using popular AI-powered tools
- Work with librarians and designers to develop library exhibitions to enhance AI literacy about the accuracy and ethics of AI answer services
- Test the effectiveness of participatory design approaches to AI literacy
The funding for this project has been provided by UTS
AI in the Library project team
Heather Ford
lead Researcher
Dr Heather Ford is an Associate Professor in the School of Communications at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Her research focuses on the social implications of digital technology and the ways in which they might be better designed and regulated to prevent social exclusion and epistemic injustice.
Andrew Burrell
Researcher
Andrew Burrell is a practice-based researcher and educator exploring virtual and digitally mediated environments as a site for the construction, experience and exploration of memory as narrative. Their ongoing research investigates the relationship between imagined and remembered narrative and how the multi-layered biological and technological encoding of human subjectivity may be portrayed within, and inform the design of, virtual environments.
Suneel Jethani
Researcher
Dr Suneel Jethani is a Lecturer in Digital and Social Media in the School of Communication at UTS. Suneel investigates how digital technologies are integrating with everyday life as well as the risk discourse around generative AI for decisionmaking practices.
Monica Monin
Researcher
Monica Monin explores design and creative practice within an overabundant and heterogenous media ecology. Monica is a lecturer in the School of Design at UTS and has had recent speaking engagements on generative AI and machine learning.
Bhuva Narayan
Researcher
Bhuva Narayan is Associate Professor, Digital Social Media in the School of Communication, and Director of Graduate Research at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Bhuva is a transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary researcher across Information Science, Digital Media Studies, and Social Sciences, with additional expertise in IT, HCI, and UX, and applies this expertise in the context of social justice and equity issues.
Timothy Koskie
Research assistant
Timothy Koskie is a researcher of online media and media pluralism at UTS, with a recent focus on generative AI. His current projects include Valuing News and Wikihistories Discovery projects and the Implications of Generative AI for knowledge integrity on Wikipedia.
This project is a collaboration with our institutional partners
Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA)
New South Wales Public Libraries Association (NSWPLA)
State Library of New South Wales
The project would not be possible without the participating libraries
Previous Projects
How QA machines represent notable Australians
In this project, we conducted experiments with smart speakers and virtual assistants to ask questions about notable Australians and compare answers.
Others:
Professor Andrew Iliadis is an affiliate of the QuestionMachines project. Andrew is the author of “Semantic Media: Mapping Meaning Making on the Internet”. He is an Assistant Professor at Temple University, on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Responsible Technology and the Executive Editorial Board of Philosophy & Technology.
Ella Cutler created the illustrations for this website. Ella is a designer, thinker and publisher creating work on unceded Gadigal Country. A recent graduate from UTS, Ella is interested in ways design tools can help to navigate small protest ecologies and their complex contexts.
This work was conducted in Gadigal country on land that was never ceded. We pay respects to Elders past, present and emerging and recognise them as the true custodians of knowledge in this place.
Research for this project has been supported by UTS (the University of Technology Sydney).