February 21, 2023

UOW expert commentary (21 February)

UOW academics provide expert comment, opinion and analysis on a range of ongoing and breaking news stories

Silicosis and engineered stone

Occupational hygienist Jane Whitelaw is an expert on industrial respiratory diseases and can talk about the growing number of people diagnosed with silicosis after exposure to silica dust from cutting engineered stone. Ms Whitelaw is an occupational hygienist in the School of Health and Society.

ASIC seeks record fines for companies failing to disclose cyber-attacks

Professor Alex Frino is available to discuss ASIC seeking record penalties for breaches of market disclosure, with new research revealing that listed companies are acting illegally by failing to disclose material cyber-attacks. New research by Professor Frino has found that over the past decade, only 11 of the 36 cyber-attacks against ASX-listed companies reported by media were first reported to sharemarket investors.

Professor Frino is a distinguished financial economist whose expertise also extends to corporate actions of major listed companies (mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings and other equity offerings); interpretation of the release of company financial reports (profit and loss and balance sheets); and corporate risks (including cyber and operational risks).

Facebook and Instagram paid verification

Dr Steinar Ellingsen can provide commentary on a decision by Facebook and Instagram to test a new paid verification service in Australia and New Zealand. Dr Ellingsen is a Senior Lecturer in Journalism, Communication and Media in the School of Arts, English and Media.

Woolworths rolling out more self-checkout AI technology

Privacy and cybersecurity expert, Honorary Professor Katina Michael, can discuss Woolworths expanding the use of AI technology that films customers scanning items at checkouts. Honorary Professor Michael is from the School of Business and comments regularly on the social implications of emerging technologies with an emphasis on privacy and national security. She is also a Professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence at Arizona State University.

Voice to Parliament

Dr Summer May Finlay can discuss an Indigenous Voice to Parliament. She says when there are mechanisms in place whereby Indigenous Australians are generally driving processes to benefit Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people then we're going to see systemic and significant change no matter what it is - whether it's health, education, incarceration.

Dr Finlay is a Yorta Yorta woman who grew up on Awabakal country (West Lake Macquarie) and is a passionate advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. She is a Senior Lecturer of Indigenous Health in the School of Health and Society.

Detecting AI-written text

Dr Armin Alimardani can talk about proposed methods and tools for recognising AI-generated text, which he says aren’t foolproof and will never be as reliable as we’d like. In an article Dr Alimardani co-authored for The Conversation he writes:

Perhaps you’re wondering why the world’s leading AI companies can’t reliably distinguish the products of their own machines from the work of humans. The reason is ridiculously simple: the corporate mission in today’s high-stakes AI arms is to train ‘natural language processor’ (NLP) AIs to produce outputs that are as similar to human writing as possible. Indeed, public demands for an easy means to spot such AIs in the wild might seem paradoxical, like we’re missing the whole point of the program.

Dr Alimardani is a Lecturer in the School of Law and an expert in the ethical and legal implications of emerging technologies. 

UOW academics exercise academic freedom by providing expert commentary, opinion and analysis on a range of ongoing social issues and current affairs. This expert commentary reflects the views of those individual academics and does not necessarily reflect the views or policy positions of the University of Wollongong.