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Contributions in the 'Artifical Intelligence' (AI) Space

Version of 30 December 2025

Roger Clarke **

© Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, 2025

This document is at http://rogerclarke.com/EC/AIC.html

Abstract

This page provides an annotated list of my publications relating to many aspects of so-called 'Artificial Intelligence' (AI) and related fields.

Contents

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Prelude
• 3. Responsible Big Data Analytics and AI/ML
• 4. Responsible AI Practice Generally
• 5. Responsible Generative AI
• 6. Cyborgisation/Cyborgism, the Direct Linkage of Humans and Artefacts
• 7. The Urgent Need for Re-Conception of 'AI'
• Reference List
• Appendix 1: Expert Systems
• Appendix 2: Robotics, Autonomy and Hybridisation
• Appendix 3: Drones

1. Introduction

Although the very broad field of artificial intelligence' (AI) has existed since I was at primary school in the mid-to-late 1950s, I've not been a practitioner in any aspect of it. My consultancy and research activities have, however, involved many assessments of AI tools. In 2025, I wrote this Brief Backgrounder to 'Artificial Intelligence' (AI) and Related Fields.

I've also expressed caution about many forms of AI as part of my work on strategic and policy aspects of transformative IT. Also in 2025, I wrote this short paper called 'It's Time to Sit Down and Think about AI', and a longer rendition of the argument called 'How to Avoid a 'Robot Apocalypse''.

The field of robotics has developed in parallel with AI. The two interweave, but an appropriate description of the relationship between the two fields has been elusive. My work proposes unification of not only those two fields, but also cyborgism, cobotics, and other forms of human-artefact integration.

2. Prelude

At the end of the 1980s, I made my first forays in the field of expert systems. The papers on those topics are mainly of historical interest now, and are in Appendix 1 below.

I published papers in 1993/94, 2005 and 2014 on aspects of robotics, artefact autonomy, and hybrids of humans and artefacts, topics which are of much greater significance now than they were at that time. See Appendix 2.

In the mid-2010s, as the threats grew, I found it necessary to invest more effort into the area, beginning with a series of papers on flying robots / drones / UAS. By mid-2025, the Google Scholar citation-count for those five papers had passed 900. See Appendix 3.

3. Responsible Big Data Analytics and AI/ML

From 2013 to 2020, I did a series of papers on data analytics issues. Contextual factors at the time included:

• the vast quantities of heterogeneous data that were being appropriated and consolidated, under the battle-cry 'Big Data';
• irresponsible assumptions that were being made about the compatibility of data from disparate sources collected for different purposes;
• wild propositions about the death of science that were being peddled; and
• increasingly obscure inferencing techniques were being applied in particular forms of AI / machine learning (ML) using 'artificial neural networks' (ANNs).

The relevant papers are:

• Big Data's Big Unintended Consequences (Wigan & Clarke 2013)
• Comments on Data, Information, Quality and Meaning - s.3.1 -- and on Algorithms and Beyond -- s.3.2 (2015)
• Big Data, Big Risks (2016a), which had over 300 Google citations by mid-2025
• Guidelines for the Responsible Application of Data Analytics (2018)
• Do Ethical Guidelines have a Role to Play in Relation to Data Analytics and AI/ML? (2020)
• Robodebt: An Exemplary Case Study of a Failed Transformative IT Project in the Public Sector (Clarke, Michael & Abbas, 2023)
• Robodebt: A Socio-Technical Case Study of Public Sector Information Systems Failure (Clarke, Michael & Abbas, 2024)

4. Responsible AI Practice Generally

In 2019, as I eased down my consultancy commitments, I finally found the time to work on a series of three articles on AI generally, which were published together in an Issue of Computer Law & Security Review:

• Why the World Wants Controls over Artificial Intelligence (2019b)
• Principles and Business Processes for Responsible AI (2019c)
• Regulatory Alternatives for AI (2019d)

By mid-2025, the three combined had reached 300 Google Scholar citations.

A standalone version of the 'Principles for Responsible AI' is available in HTML and in PDF.

I applied the Principles in several contexts, including:

• The OECD's AI Guidelines (2019a)
• The Australian Department of Industry's 'AI Ethics Principles' (2019e)
• Responsible Application of Artificial Intelligence to Surveillance: What Prospects? (2021)

Despite the ample information available, major organisations around the world have been behaving irresponsibly, prioritising the appeasement of demands by big business over rational evaluation of technologies, and hoped-for positive impacts on industry economics over the management of harm to social, environmental and broader econiomic interests.

The irresponsibility is exemplified by Data61, an organisation that styles itself as "the data and digital specialist arm of AustraliaÅfs national science agency", which was heavily criticised in this piece on The Current AI Push is Naive, Unethical, or Both (2019f).

5. Responsible Generative AI

In 2025, this paper addresses the specific issues raised by Generative AI, with particular reference to its applications to textual data:

• Principles for the Responsible Application of Generative AI (2025a)

Also in 2025, I examined whether the regulatory regimes arising from the EU's Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA) are appear capable of delivering what Europe and the rest of the world needs, generally, and in particular in relation to GenAI. Short answer: A resounding 'NO!':

• An Evaluation of the EU AI Act against a Normative Framework for Regulatory Regimes (2025b)

To enable the conduct of that evaluation, prior work on an assessment method was consolidated and published, as Regulatory Regimes for Disruptive IT: A Framework for Their Design and Evaluation (2025c).

6. Cyborgisation/Cyborgism, the Direct Linkage of Humans and Artefacts

In 2005, I did some early work on the notion of hybridisation:

• Human-Artefact Hybridisation: Forms and Consequences (2005a)
• Hybridity -- Elements of a Theory (2005b)

In 2011-17, I further developed the cyborgisation theme:

• Cyborg Rights (2011)
• Cyborgism in Drone Operations (2014b)
• Cyborgs Today (2017)

The ideas have yet to resonate widely, with these papers cumulatively still below 100 Google citations.

7. The Urgent Need for Re-Conception of 'AI'

I contend that AI was originally misconceived, that attempts to adjust its focus over the last 50 years have been unsuccessful, and that inappropriately designed and inappropriately applied AI technologies are already doing enormous harm to humankind.

A work published in 2023 explains the problems and proposes an appropriate reconception of the field to address those problems. The approach also unifies the fields of human intelligence, human capability, robotics (artefact capability), artefact intelligence, and the augmented intelligence and capability of human-artefact combinations (including cobotics and cyborgism):

• The Re-Conception of AI: Beyond Artificial, and Beyond Intelligence (2023a)
• The Re-Conception of AI: Beyond Artificial, and Beyond Intelligence: Summary of the Proposition (2023b)

Appendix 1: Expert Systems

A series of papers on rule-based expert systems appeared at the end of the 1980s:

• An Introduction (1988)
• Risk Factors and Potentially Profitable Application Areas (1989a)
• Property Rights in Knowledge-Based Products and Applications (1989)

A paper on the generations of software development tools included a segment on expert systems:

• A Contingency Approach to the Application Software Generations (1991, in the journal Database)

Appendix 2: Robotics, Autonomy and Hybridisation

In 1993/94, a lengthy article on Asimov's gedankenexperimenten in the field of robotics was spread across two Issues of IEEE Computer. Since then, it's garnered over 400 Google citations:

• Asimov's Laws of Robotics: Implications for Information Technology (1993)

An important theme in robotics is autonomy:

• artefact autonomy in the context of drones (2014)
• artefact autonomy in AI more generally (2019a)

A 2005 paper at Ars Electronica in Linz AT helps to explain the relationship between the fields of AI and robotics, and laid some foundations for my later papers on cyborgisation:

• Human-Artefact Hybridisation: Forms and Consequences (2005a)
• Hybridity -- Elements of a Theory (2005b)

Appendix 3: Drones

A series of papers on drones appeared in the mid-2010s, the first four in a Section of the leading technology law journal, and the fifth in a later Issue of the same journal. They have accumulated over 900 Google citations:

• Understanding the Drone Epidemic, including a section on Autonomous Control (2014a)
• What Drones Inherit from Their Ancestors (2014b), including Robotics Elements and Cyborgisation Aspects
• The Regulation of Civilian Drones' Impacts on Public Safety (2014c)
• The Regulation of Civilian Drones' Applications to Surveillance (2014c)
• Appropriate Regulatory Responses to the Drone Epidemic (2016b)

Reference List

Clarke R. (1988) 'Legal Aspects of Knowledge-Based Technology' J. of Info. Technology 3,1 (March 1988), PrePrint at https://rogerclarke.com/SOS/LKBT-JIT-198803.pdf

Clarke R. (1989a) 'Knowledge-Based Expert Systems: Risk Factors and Potentially Profitable Application Areas' Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, January 1989, at http://www.rogerclarke.com/SOS/KBTE.html

Clarke R. (1989b) 'Property Rights in Knowledge-Based Products and Applications' Expert Systems 6,3 (August 1989), PrePrint at https://rogerclarke.com/SOS/KBTL.html

Clarke R. (1991) 'A Contingency Approach to the Software Generations' Database 22,3 (Summer 1991) 23-34, PrePrint at https://rogerclarke.com/SOS/SwareGenns.html

Clarke R. (1993) 'Asimov's Laws of Robotics: Implications for Information Technology ? Part I' IEEE Computer 26,12 (December 1993) 53-61 and 'Part II' IEEE Computer 27,1 (January 1994) 57-66, PrePrint at https://rogerclarke.com/SOS/Asimov.html

Clarke R. (1994) 'The Digital Persona and its Application to Data Surveillance' The Information Society 10,2 (June 1994) 77-92, PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/DigPersona.html

Clarke R. (2005a) 'Human-Artefact Hybridisation: Forms and Consequences' Invited Paper at the Ars Electronica 2005 Symposium on Hybrid - Living in Paradox, Linz, Austria, 2-3 September 2005, at https://rogerclarke.com/SOS/HAH0505.html

Clarke R. (2005b) 'Hybridity - Elements of a Theory' Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, May 2005, at http://www.rogerclarke.com/SOS/HAHTh0505.html

Clarke R. (2008) 'Web 2.0 as Syndication' Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research 3,2 (August 2008) 30-43, PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/EC/Web2C.html

Clarke R. (2010) 'Cyborg Rights' Invited Plenary, Proc. IEEE Int'l Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS 2010), 7-9 June 2010, University of Wollongong, PrePrint at https://rogerclarke.com/SOS/CyRts-1003.html

Clarke R. (2011) 'Cyborg Rights' IEEE Technology and Society 30,3 (Fall 2011) 49-57, PrePrint PrePrint at https://rogerclarke.com/SOS/CyRts-1102.html

Clarke R. (2014a) 'Understanding the Drone Epidemic' Computer Law & Security Review 30,3 (June 2014) 230-246, PrePrint at https://rogerclarke.com/SOS/Drones-E.html

Clarke R. (2014b) 'What Drones Inherit from Their Ancestors' Computer Law & Security Review 30,3 (June 2014) 247-262, PrePrint at https://rogerclarke.com/SOS/Drones-I.html

Clarke R. (2014c) 'The Regulation of Civilian Drones' Impacts on Public Safety' Computer Law & Security Review 30, 3 (June 2014) 263-285, PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/SOS/Drones-PS.html

Clarke R. (2014d) 'The Regulation of Civilian Drones' Impacts on Behavioural Privacy' Computer Law & Security Review 30,3 (June 2014) 286-305, PrePrint at https://rogerclarke.com/SOS/Drones-BP.html

Clarke R. (2014e) 'Promise Unfulfilled: The Digital Persona Concept, Two Decades Later' Information Technology & People 27, 2 (Jun 2014) 182 - 207, PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/ID/DP12.html

Clarke R. (2015) 'Commentary - Data, Analytics, Values, and Models' Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, December 2015, at http://www.rogerclarke.com/EC/BDAL.html

Clarke R. (2016a) 'Big Data, Big Risks' Information Systems Journal 26,1 (January 2016) 77-90, PrePrint at https://rogerclarke.com/EC/BDBR.html

Clarke R. (2016b) 'Appropriate Regulatory Responses to the Drone Epidemic' Computer Law & Security Review 32, 1 (Jan-Feb 2016) 152-155, PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/SOS/Drones-PAR.html

Clarke R. (2017) 'Cyborgs Today' Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, October 2017, at http://www.rogerclarke.com/SOS/Cyborgs17.html

Clarke R. (2018) 'Guidelines for the Responsible Application of Data Analytics' Computer Law & Security Review 34,3 (May-Jun 2018) 467-476, PrePrint at https://rogerclarke.com/EC/GDA.html

Clarke R. (2019a) 'Risks Inherent in the Digital Surveillance Economy: A Research Agenda' Journal of Information Technology 34,1 (Mar 2019) 59-80, PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/EC/DSE.html

Clarke R. (2019a) The OECD's AI Guidelines of 22 May 2019: Evaluation against a Consolidated Set of 50 Principles' Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, May 2019, at http://www.rogerclarke.com/EC/AI-OECD-Eval.html

Clarke R. (2019b) 'Why the World Wants Controls over Artificial Intelligence' (1st in a series) Computer Law & Security Review 35,4 (2019) 423-433, PrePrint at https://rogerclarke.com/EC/AII.html

Clarke R. (2019c) 'Principles and Business Processes for Responsible AI' (2nd in a series) Computer Law & Security Review 35,4 (2019) 410-422, PrePrint at https://rogerclarke.com/EC/AIP.html

Clarke R. (2019d) 'Regulatory Alternatives for AI' (3rd in a series) Computer Law & Security Review 35,4 (2019) 398?409, PrePrint at https://rogerclarke.com/EC/AIR.html

Clarke R. (2019e) 'The Australian Department of Industry's 'AI Ethics Principles' of September / November 2019: Evaluation against a Consolidated Set of 50 Principles' Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, November 2019, at http://www.rogerclarke.com/EC/AI-Aust19.html

Clarke R. (2020a) 'RegTech Opportunities in the Platform-Based Business Sector' Proc. Bled eConference, June 2020, pp. 79-106. PrePrint at http://rogerclarke.com/EC/RTFB.html

Clarke R. (2020b) 'Do Ethical Guidelines have a Role to Play in Relation to Data Analytics and AI/ML?' Proc. 9th Conf. Australasian Institute of Computer Ethics (AiCE 2020), Adelaide, Nov 2020, PrePrint at https://rogerclarke.com/EC/AIEG.html

Clarke R. (2022) 'Responsible Application of Artificial Intelligence to Surveillance: What Prospects?' Information Polity 27,2 (Jun 2022) 175-191, PrePrint at https://rogerclarke.com/DV/AIP-S.html

Clarke R. (2023a) 'The Re-Conception of AI: Beyond Artificial, and Beyond Intelligence' IEEE Trans. Techno. & Soc. 4,1 (March 2023) 24-33, PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/EC/AITS.html

Clarke R. (2023b) 'The Re-Conception of AI: Beyond Artificial, and Beyond Intelligence: Summary of the Proposition', January 2023, at http://www.rogerclarke.com/EC/AITS-Summ.html

Clarke R. (2025a) 'Principles for the Responsible Application of Generative AI' Computer Law & Security Review 57 (May 2025) 106131, PrePrint at https://rogerclarke.com/EC/RGAI-C.html

Clarke R. (2025b) 'An Evaluation of the EU AI Act against a Normative Framework for Regulatory Regimes' Working Paper, September 2025, before the reviewers of Computer Law & Security Review, at https://rogerclarke.com/EC/RRE-AIA.html

Clarke R. (2025c) 'Regulatory Regimes for Disruptive IT: A Framework for Their Design and Evaluation' Forthcoming in Computer Law & Security Review, PrePrint at http://rogerclarke.com/EC/FRR.html

Clarke R. (2025d) 'A Brief Backgrounder to 'Artificial Intelligence' (AI) and Related Fields' Working Paper, October 2025, at https://rogerclarke.com/EC/AIBB.html

Clarke R. (2025e) 'It's Time to Sit Down and Think about AI' Working Paper, November 2025, at https://rogerclarke.com/EC/BAI.html

Clarke R. (2025f) 'How to Avoid a 'Robot Apocalypse'' Working Paper, November 2025, at https://rogerclarke.com/EC/AIOP.html

Clarke R. & Bennett Moses L. (2014) 'The Regulation of Civilian DronesÅf Impacts on Public Safety' Computer Law & Security Review 30,3 (June 2014) 263-285, PrePrint at https://rogerclarke.com/SOS/Drones-PS.html

Clarke R., Michael K. & Abbas R. (2023) 'Robodebt: An Exemplary Case Study of a Failed Transformative IT Project in the Public Sector' Working Paper, August 2023, at http://rogerclarke.com/DV/RDCS.html

Clarke R., Michael K. & Abbas R. (2024) 'Robodebt: A Socio-Technical Case Study of Public Sector Information Systems Failure', in Australasian J. of Infor. Syst. 28 (September 2024) 1-42, at https://journal.acs.org.au/index.php/ajis/article/view/4681/1481

Clarke R. & Taylor K. (2018) 'Towards Responsible Data Analytics: A Process Approach' Proc. Bled eConf., June 2018, PrePrint at https://rogerclarke.com/EC/BDBP.html

Clarke R. & Wigan M.R. (2018) 'The Information Infrastructures of 1985 and of 2018: The Sociotechnical Context of Computer Law & Security' Computer Law and Security Review 30,4 (Jul-Aug 2017) 677-700, PrePrint at https://rogerclarke.com/II/IIC18.html

Wigan M.R. & Clarke R. (2013) 'Big Data's Big Unintended Consequences' IEEE Computer 46,6 (June 2013) 46-53, PrePrint at https://rogerclarke.com/DV/BigData-1303.html

Zuboff S. (2015) 'Big other: surveillance capitalism and the prospects of an information civilization' Journal of Information Technology (2015) 30, 75?89, at https://cryptome.org/2015/07/big-other.pdf

Author Affiliations

Roger Clarke is Principal of Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, Canberra. He is also a Visiting Professorial Fellow associated with UNSW Law & Justice, and a Visiting Professor in Computing in the College of Systems & Society at the Australian National University.

The content and infrastructure for these community service pages are provided by Roger Clarke through his consultancy company, Xamax. From the site's beginnings in August 1994 until February 2009, the infrastructure was provided by the Australian National University. During that time, the site accumulated close to 30 million hits. It had passed 80 million by the end of 2025. Sponsored by the Gallery, Bunhybee Grasslands, the extended Clarke Family, Knights of the Spatchcock and their drummer, and her Dr Nurse site

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Created: 8 September 2025 - Last Amended: 30 December 2025 by Roger Clarke
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