ANU InSpace Mission Specialist Dr Zena Assaad has had a busy start to the year! Under a grant from Responsible Ai UK (RAiUK), Zena has been coordinating a research project to examine the synergies and differences in how Australia, the US, and the UK are approaching AI regulation in safety-critical domains such as space.

"By building our understanding of the synergies and differences among these three nations," Zena said, "we can more carefully consider how those synergies and differences impact technology adoption and use at an international level."

AI regulation and responsible AI are important for safety-critical domains like space because they support safe and responsible technology implementation. This project highlights the significance of regulation for the every day person using or being impacted by technology. 

The research project is being conducted by three investigators from the three countries: Dr Zena Assaad, who represents the School of Engineering within the ANU College of Systems & Society here at The Australian National University in Australia, Assistant Professor Jennifer Williams, PhD from the University of Southampton in the UK (the project lead), and Associate Professor Peng WEI from The George Washington University in the US.

One of the key outputs of this research project is a workshop series, hosted at each of the three investigators’ universities in turn. Last month, ANU hosted the second workshop in the series, with the first one being held in Washington D.C. last September, and the last one planned for London in June of this year.

The ANU-led workshop took place on 5 March, hosted here at ANU Institute for Space | InSpace HQ, on AI regulation through the lens of responsible AI. Organised and run by the three investigators, two undergraduate engineering students currently conducting research with Zena as part of their Engineering R&D degrees, Jaz Brandson and Alicia Fox, also supported the coordination of the workshop.

The workshop was a lively and productive day of conversation, which brought together participants from Defence, Government and Industry, alongside academics from many different universities.

Outcomes of the workshop will be published following the completion of the project later this year.