UOW graduate to explore disinformation and AI at Oxford

Callum graduated from UOW in 2021 with a Bachelor of Communications and Media, earning First Class Honours. His Honours thesis delved into digital platform regulation, examining these platforms as analogous to states in cyberspace.

Following his graduation Callum has been working in Canberra as a policy adviser on artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity and data policy at the Department of Industry, Science and Resources in Canberra
With assistance from the Ramsay Postgraduate Scholarship program, Callum will head to Oxford in October to begin a Master of Science in Social Science of the Internet to investigate the interplay between disinformation and AI policy.

‘Disinformation, which is essentially malicious spreading of false information, is certainly being accelerated by technology, but it is something that we have a 2000 odd year history of in the Western canon. It’s something that Plato talks about. It’s something Renaissance historians and philosophers talk about. We’re now dealing with how technology has accelerated the problem,” Callum said.

“The central problem that we have in trying to differentiate between truth and falsehood is that some people are so committed to their cognitive box that there is no way to get them out of it.

“That’s really the core policy challenge for anyone who’s dealing with disinformation - just because somebody online states that something is the truth doesn’t inherently mean that that is the case"

UOW Graduate Callum Harvey. Image: Supplied.

Callum’s interest in the question of online truth began in his second year of university. He clearly remembers the first class of Introduction to Digital Media and Communication where the class explored the disinformation that surrounded the US presidential election in 2016.

“I was fascinated by all the disinformation that surrounded the 2016 US presidential election. Trump, 4chan and a bunch of other insane pieces of online discourse had shaped that election to the point where it delivered a Trump presidency. That was an inescapable fact.

“It delivered the win in such a way that people who were supportive of Trump weren't bothered that they might have been subject to disinformation from a third party, whether it came from Russia or from a group of cyber criminals. That was what I found interesting.”

The advent of social media has already accelerated the spread of disinformation dramatically. If this information were generated by AI, like ChatGPT, there is potential to further amplify the impact. The integration of AI into the information environment heightens the potential for sharing both true and false narratives, making it a compelling and challenging policy issue.

“We’re now in an information environment where effectively everyone has a computer in their pocket. The potential for sharing true or false narratives plus injection of AI into the equation has just dialled that up to 11. It is genuinely scary, but it is also a very exciting policy problem to be looking at.” As another US election looms, the questions around disinformation reemerge with the advent of deepfakes adding another dangerous element to the mix.

“Now, we’re seeing history repeating itself. There have been deepfakes circulating of Joe Biden saying things that obviously are very much out of step with his messaging and the way he is as a person.”

Balancing the harms and maximising the economic benefits of AI is the focus of Callum’s current work and will inform his Master’s studies at Oxford. He is deeply interested in understanding where the real benefits of AI technology lie and how it can be harnessed for the greater good – which is the question of technology policy that has been asked over the past decade with every new advancement.

Callum believes that AI, when applied safely and responsibly, has the potential to inspire new creative products, enhance productivity and drive economic growth. He sees AI as a tool that can automate mundane and entry-level administrative tasks, allowing employees to focus on more substantial and conceptual work. This could also benefit sectors like cybersecurity by automating routine tasks, reducing burnout and improving efficiency.

“I see a huge potential benefit to the cybersecurity workforce, by automating elements of that job in a way that people aren't burning out as quickly. An AI product could generate threat reports for a cybersecurity incident automatically based on a series of data points.

“Friends in the industry say that the worst part of cyber incident response is report writing – so perhaps we can automate it.”

As he prepares to jet off to England later this year, Callum is excited to get back to university.

“What I’m looking forward to getting my teeth really stuck into is the quantitative social science element of this area of research – mapping social networks, understanding how malign narratives spread in cyberspace, what that looks like, and then thinking through some of the really challenging problems we face in the field.”

One of Australia’s most generous scholarship program for postgraduate study overseas with funding of up to $90,000 per annum, Ramsay Postgraduate Scholarships support outstanding young Australians to study at some of the world’s best universities.

Selection criteria includes strength of character, leadership, and service; academic achievement; future goals; and a commitment to advancing a richer and deeper understanding of our civilisation. Applicants must have been accepted into a graduate program at a world-leading overseas institution before applying.