AI, law and society: Highlights from the inaugural conference

The inaugural Artificial Intelligence, Law and Society conference was held on 13-14 February 2025 at Macquarie University, bringing together experts to tackle one of today’s most pressing issues — the rapid advancement and integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies into various sectors of society. 

As these technologies continue to evolve and proliferate, they present opportunities for innovation, efficiency and problem-solving across various domains. However, they also raise significant ethical and legal challenges that must be carefully managed and regulated to ensure that their development and use are beneficial and equitable.

Co-hosted by RegNet alongside the Macquarie University Ethics and Agency Research Centre, Macquarie University Data Horizons Research Centre and Macquarie University Centre for Applied Artificial Intelligence, the conference provided a dynamic and interdisciplinary platform for scholars and policymakers to explore the ethical, social, legal and governance issues surrounding AI. The discussions aimed to inform ongoing debates on AI policy and regulation.

RegNet Director Professor Kate Henne, who was part of the organising committee, chaired two sessions and spoke on novel regulatory approaches to new technologies. Her presentation, Rethinking AI regulation and risk: A new legal realist reflection on harmscapes highlighted the potential shortcomings of regulatory approaches that prioritise risk. Reflecting on examples that capture lived experiences of AI-related harms, she outlined a proposal for capturing harms across locations and scales.

RegNet’s Dr Jenna Harb presented her work at the AI, security and humanitarianism session chaired by Macquarie Law School’s Dr Marie-Eve Loiselle, who is also a member of the ANU Justice and Technoscience Lab at RegNet. Jenna’s presentation, Repair work, resistance, and the invisible labour of automating Lebanon’s humanitarian infrastructures, drew on her empirical research scrutinising the different formations of labour required to mitigate breakdowns in digital infrastructures that often exacerbate existing inequalities. Her presentation also highlighted practices of resistance by data workers asserting their autonomy and challenging systems they perceive as unreasonable and unjust.

The two-day event attracted over 120 participants, including academics across Australia as well as professionals from the legal sector, government, healthcare, insurance and other industries.

For more details on the program, visit Artificial Intelligence, Law and Society website here.