QUT welcomed futurist, inventor and entrepreneur Mark Pesce for a public lecture at the official launch of the QUT Law Lab: Technology, Regulation and Justice.
Mr Pesce, whose podcast The Next Billion Seconds won Best Technical and Scientific Podcast, discussed how ‘three partnerships’ will frame the middle of this century: machine-to-machine, human-to-machine and human-to-human. “We are getting smarter, hand-in-hand with our machines, and all of our cultural, economic, and legal institutions will need to race to keep up,” he said.
The lecture was a fitting introduction to the launch of the QUT Law Lab which showcases the Faculty’s research expertise across five key research themes:
- Data, privacy and security
- Robotics and artificial intelligence
- Digital justice
- Future Health Care
- Innovation, disruption and the changing economy
Professor Belinda Bennett, Director of the QUT Law Lab, said “the QUT Law Lab is an exciting initiative that brings together researchers from across the Faculty of Law to explore and analyse the social, legal and policy implications of new technologies.”
In addition to the QUT Law Lab, the launch showcased the Law Faculty’s other technology-related initiatives such as the Law, Technology and Humans journal.
The journal’s editor, Professor Kieran Tranter, said the journal was a strong statement by QUT on the importance of encouraging high-quality thinking regarding how technology is influencing our future.
“The journal will publish original and innovative research on how we want that future to be and how to get there,” he said.
The Faculty of Law also celebrated the new Graduate Certificate in Data and New Technology Law; the Law, Technology and Innovation minor; and the MinterEllison virtual internship.
Watch the event recording here.