A New ‘Machinery of Government’?: The Automation of Administrative Decision-Making

Abstract

Governments are increasingly adopting artificial intelligence (AI) tools to assist, augment, and even replace human administrators. In this chapter, Paul Miller, the NSW Ombudsman, discusses how the well-established principles of administrative law and good decision-making apply, or may be extended, to control the use of AI and other automated decision-making (ADM) tools in administrative decision-making. The chapter highlights the importance of careful design, implementation and ongoing monitoring to mitigate the risk that ADM in the public sector could be unlawful or otherwise contravene principles of good decision-making - including consideration of whether express legislative authorisation for the use of ADM technologies may be necessary or desirable..