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Founded by Professor Kate Henne, the Justice and Technoscience Lab (JusTech) works to ensure that emerging and disruptive technologies are not only accessible and secure, but also regulated appropriately. Its goal is to promote more equitable social outcomes by advancing knowledge that can be used to mitigate unintended and harmful effects of innovation. It brings together experts from different backgrounds to understand how power asymmetries affect technoscience in practice.

JusTech maintains partnerships across the ANU and with other Australian research organisations and overseas institutions. Lab members have carried out studies across several domains, including development, health promotion, humanitarianism, internet governance, public safety, sport and welfare provision. Their ongoing work spans diverse sites in Australia, the Middle East, North America, the Pacific, South Asia and Southeast Asia.

Current initiatives include:

  • Partnerships for the Governance and Regulation of Wellbeing, Technoscience and Health (GRoWTH), which provide critical insights into how technoscience is changing understandings of wellbeing and systems that govern health; 
  • Responsive AI Regulation (RespAIR), which draws on principles from algorithmic reparation, design justice and harm reduction to support the development of responsive AI regulatory approaches;
  • Surveillance and Technologies of Policing (SToP) Projects, which study the effects of augmenting surveillance technologies as tools for policing individuals and groups in different contexts.

Individual projects trace developments in AI governance, aid delivery, algorithmic regulation, biotechnology, climate finance, data economies, digital health and welfare, neuroscience and technology, precision health, regulatory science and urban infrastructure.

JusTech is committed to providing robust student training and professional development. The lab facilitates hands-on workshops, reading groups and outreach activities.

Hero image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

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On
Suvradip_RegNet

Suvradip Maitra accepted into AIES Student Track in Madrid
Congratulations to RegNet PhD scholar Suvradip Maitra, who has been accepted into the AAAI/ACM conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics and Society (AIES) 2025 student program.
Increasing team efficiency by implementing artificial intelligence
Adobe Stock

The future of Generative AI in policy work
Researchers at UNSW Canberra and Australian National University have undertaken national research examining the current and anticipated use of Generative AI in policy work.
Artificial Intelligence, Law and Society conference
Kate Henne (second from left) with the Artificial Intelligence, Law and Society conference organising committee. Photo credit: Macquarie University

AI, law and society: Highlights from the inaugural conference
RegNet's Kate Henne and Jenna Harb participated in the inaugural Artificial Intelligence, Law and Society conference to discuss the ethical, legal and governance issues surrounding AI.
Design Justice AI
Photo credit: Professor Vukosi Marivate

Innovative approaches to AI ethics at the Global Humanities Institute on Design Justice AI
Professor Kate Henne and members of the ANU JusTech presented their work on design justice in generative AI for mental health and in dataset creation at the Global Institute on Design Justice AI.

In the media - opinions and analysis
On

How Shifting Responsibility for AI Harms Undermines Democratic Accountability
The recent backlash from fans against Taylor Swift’s alleged use of artificial intelligence in a music video is a symptom of a troubling trend writes Suvradip Maitra and his co-authors.

Best, but not fairest? ANU artist continues to champion data sovereignty with Adam Goodes
As Adam Goodes played out his 372-game career, millions of his movements were turned into data. Who collected it all? Who controls it? And, most of all, who should? His work with ANU artist Baden Pailthorpe raises these questions, and more.

The ‘AI for Good’ Agenda: For Whose Benefit?
As AI grows more powerful, 'AI4Good' narratives gain traction—but who is it really good for? These efforts can deepen inequality, enable digital colonialism and fuel nationalism, write María Jurado and Suvradip Maitra.

Senior public servants think GenAI will boost productivity – but are worried about the risks
Whether GenAI transforms the public service will depend not on the technology itself but on how boldly, carefully and transparently governments choose to use it, write Kate Henne and her co-authors.

AI is being used in social services – but we must make sure it doesn’t traumatise clients
Social service providers should be aware of the risks of harm from AI so they can intentionally shape it for good, writes Suvradip Maitra and co-authors.

Australian police are trialling AI to analyse body-worn camera footage, despite overseas failures and expert criticism
AI technologies can assist police, but only structural and organisational reforms can address inequitable surveillance practices, says Kate Henne.

Space isn’t all about the ‘race’ – rival superpowers must work together for a better future
The world should view space not merely as a “race,” but as an opportunity to improve international relations, benefiting our future humanity on Earth and, one day, beyond, writes Art Cotterell.

Current Projects
On
racial justice
racial justice

Racial and intersectional justice in brain and mental health

Multiple ethnic, gender, racial, and sexual minority groups are at an increased risk for brain and mental health conditions as a result of interpersonal and systemic violence. Moreover, their underrepresentation in brain and mental health research could result to interventions, policies, and programs that are not tailored to their bodies, needs, and preferences. These lead to epistemic and structural injustices.
paintbrush with ai generated pic
design justice AI

Design justice AI institute

This project critically considers the rapid diffusion of so-called generative AI: that is, machine learning technologies that simulate human languages, communication, arts, and cultures through the statistical modelling of vast troves of scraped internet data.

Image by Jenna Harb
Image by Jenna Harb

Digital disasters and the everyday labour of humanitarian aid

Imaginaries of “digital humanitarianism” proclaim countless interconnected benefits through the embrace of data-driven solutions to social welfare and crisis response. Chief among them are cost savings, administrative efficiency, empowerment, financial inclusion, fraud prevention, and more accurate and reliable information. In response to these techno-optimistic narratives, the humanitarian sector employs a growing ecosystem of digital technologies like biometric identification, transnational databases, and automated eligibility assessments.
Digital scan of human iris
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Mapping the digital welfare state

Biometric technologies, as well as predictive algorithms and risk assessment models, are increasingly used as regulatory tools in the context of social assistance, often in the name of cost savings and fraud prevention. In 2019, the UN rapporteur on extreme poverty warned that doing so has enabled Big Tech companies to surveil the poor without appropriate accountability or regulation. Beyond the controversial Robodebt scandal in Australia, we know little about how these technologies operate in practice or how they affect recipients in everyday life.

Completed projects
On
Metal Dome
Image by Behzad Ghaffarian on Unsplash

Information, technology and control in a changing world

The collaborative project explores the interconnected ways in which the control of knowledge has become central to the exercise of political, economic and social power. The cumulative output of this project is a multidisciplinary volume. The anthology builds on the work of International Political Economy scholar Susan Strange and features experts from political science, anthropology, law, criminology, women’s and gender studies, and Science and Technology Studies.
Covid Swab
Image by Maskmedicare Shop on Unsplash

Sociotechnical navigation and problem-solving during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic created huge changes to daily life around the world. Individuals had to acquire information, resources and services by navigating a number of issues, such as public health preventive measures, unexpected financial burdens, working and learning from home and changing access to healthcare services. With mundane routines and social networks disrupted, sociotechnical infrastructure became central to their functioning. How, then, did individuals and communities navigate these systems to acquire needed resources and accomplish everyday life tasks?
Satellite
Space

Earth observation data quality

As Australia's reliance on satellite Earth observation data grows, the consequence of inaccuracies (introduced through inadvertent errors or deliberate manipulation) in the data increases; particularly when used by governments and industry to inform investment, management and policy decisions. The risks of inaccuracies are replicated globally and will continue to increase as the Earth observation sector becomes more commercialised.

Digital image of human head with network connections

Traumatic brain injury and the limits of regulatory science

This Australian Research Council-funded project explores how different forms of knowledge have contributed to the rise of traumatic brain injury (TBI) as a health concern. In addition to looking at scientific and public health discourses, it examines approaches to regulating TBI among sport participants, military personnel, and survivors of intimate partner violence in Australia, Canada and the United States. The study illuminates how science and regulation reflect shifting beliefs about brain health, the mind and body and (injured) human agency.

Resources

Where privacy meets power: questions of data and racial inequality

Navigating pandemic report

The future of generative AI in Policy work 

 

Video and audio recordings
Contact Professor Henne at kathryn.henne@anu.edu.au