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Ms Rebecca Johnson
Contact details are only visible to registered journalists. To register click herePhD in AI Ethics (Faculty of Science, Philosophy of Science)
The University of Sydney
The University of Sydney, NSW, Australia
Expertise
Artificial Intelligence, AI Ethics, Responsible AI, AI Safety, AI Risk, AI Governance, AI Regulation, Algorithmic bias, AI and society, Generative AI, Large Language Models (LLMs), AI Agents, AI hallucinations, AI misinformation, AI and elections, AI and education, AI and the workplace, Cultural bias in AI, Sociotechnical systems, AI and democracy, AI policy, Digital rights, Facial recognition, Automated decision-making, AI in Australia, Philosophy of AI, Measurement theory and AI, Value pluralism in AI, Quantum analogies in AI.Media
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Previous media experience
Rebecca has extensive media and public-speaking experience, with commentary appearing on ABC News, 7 News, Sky News, 60 Minutes, The Economist, the Australian Financial Review, The Guardian, and other major outlets. She has delivered invited talks at Google Research’s Responsible AI Summits in the US, served as a keynote and panel speaker at national events, and regularly presents to academic, industry, and policy audiences.
Links to media clippings
Biography
Rebecca Johnson recently completed a PhD in AI ethics and is a frequent AI commentator who specialises in the societal impacts, risks, and governance of artificial intelligence. Based at the University of Sydney, her work examines how generative AI systems reflect human values, and how evaluation practices influence what we consider “safe” or “trustworthy” AI. She has worked with Google Research’s Ethical AI team, where she developed the World Values Benchmark, a method for assessing AI behaviour against global cultural value patterns.Rebecca regularly explains fast-moving AI issues to national and international media, with commentary appearing across ABC, 7 News, Sky News, 60 Minutes, The Economist, the Australian Financial Review, The Guardian, and other major outlets.
In 2023 she convened Australia’s largest conference on the ethics of generative AI, ChatLLM23. She also convened the ChatRegs23 thinktank on AI regulation in Australia and founded PhD Students in AI Ethics, a global network connecting more than 600 doctoral researchers across 50 countries. Her forthcoming research examines AI agents that can plan and act autonomously, and develops practical ways to judge their behaviour, manage their risks, and understand where accountability should sit.
Her expertise spans AI ethics, generative AI, AI safety and risk, AI governance and regulation (Australia), digital and data governance, cultural bias and values in AI, and the societal and economic impacts of emerging technologies.
Personal info
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Gender:
Female
Pronouns:
she/her
ResearcherID/ORCID iD:
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7321-0744
Last updated: 28 Nov 2025