Technology companies are spending billions of dollars to develop immersive systems—metaverse platforms, spatial computing, extended reality—often integrated with AI, robotics and other emerging technologies. They're building the infrastructure for a new automated, three-dimensional digital era.
But the visions shaping these technologies—and the assumptions about power, ethics, and society baked into them—haven't been properly scrutinised. Critical questions about harm, accountability, and inclusion are at risk of being left until after problems emerge.
We're an interdisciplinary research team from the University of Sydney, with funding from the Australian Research Council, working on the development of frameworks for public-interest governance of immersive and other emerging technologies. Our mission is to support proactive governance, not damage control.
Proactive harm prevention through critical examination of corporate visions, embedded assumptions, and governance structures before immersive technologies become ubiquitous.
You can learn more about our research at Governing Immersive Tech Project.
Image sourced from the Public Domain Image Archive / Internet Archive / Smithsonian Libraries and Archives.
