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DrAlice Witt

(she/her)

Lecturer

Faculty of Business and Law/Deakin Law School

Orcid identifier0000-0003-0505-422X (opens in a new tab)⁠
  • Lecturer
    Faculty of Business and Law/Deakin Law School
  • Melbourne Burwood Campus, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, Victoria 3125

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Alice's research interests include:

 

  • Gender-based violence, including image-based sexual abuse;
  • The regulation of digital technologies, including artificial intelligence;
  • Socio-legal research methods;
  • Design and development of digital tools for social good (eg, chatbots); and
  • Legal professional ethics.


Her previous research projects include:

 

  • 'AI-Generated Image-Based Sexual Abuse: Prevalence, Attitudes and Impacts' (A collaborative research project between RMIT University, Google, Deakin University and QUT) | Role: A Principal Investigator | Project Lead: Prof Nicola Henry | Timeline: January 2024 - August 2026.
  • The "Umibot" Chatbot (Version 1) | Role: Co-Creator along with Professor Nicola Henry | About: Umibot is a free, research-based chatbot that provides information, support and general advice to victim-survivors and bystanders of image-based sexual abuse (IBSA; eg, the non-consensual taking, creating or sharing of intimate images (photos or videos)). Evidence of Impact: Since its public launch on 1 December 2022, Umibot Version 1 has had over 9,700 conversations about IBSA with more than 7,900 discrete users in over 75 countries, including Australia. 

 

GRANTS

  • INTERNAL GRANT
    GenAI and the Future of Legal Education: A FutureFocus GenAI Program 2025 Initiative (opens in a new tab)⁠
    Deakin Learning Futures and Graduate Employability26 Nov 2024 - 28 Nov 2025
    People funded by this grant:
    • Perlen P,
    • Witt A,
    • Huang V,
    • Bendall M
    While the indiscriminate use of GenAI can have serious implications for law students, lawyers and the legal industry, the question of how to educate the next generation of lawyers about the risks and opportunities of using this technology remains underexplored. To address this gap, in collaboration with the Law Institute of Victoria (LIV) and law student partners, this initiative investigates the impacts of GenAI on different types of legal work and students’ learning experience. The initiative will use focus group and other data to develop evidence-based recommendations for the LIV’s specialist lawyer training and Deakin’s Law School’s curriculum design.
    MORELEARN MORE (opens in a new tab)
  • COLLABORATIVE GRANT
    AI-Generated Image-Based Sexual Abuse: Prevalence, Attitudes and Impacts (opens in a new tab)⁠
    Google15 Jan 2024 - 28 Mar 2025
    People funded by this grant:
    • Henry N,
    • Witt A,
    • Alexandra (Alexa) R,
    • Umbach R,
    • Beard G
    This RMIT-based project explores the prevalence, nature and impacts of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated image-based sexual abuse (AI-IBSA), including non-consensual “deepfake pornography” and intimate images (photos or videos) created using generative AI. The research also examines the ethical, legal and policy implications of AI-generated image-based sexual abuse, and people’s attitudes, opinions, and perspectives on this topic. Funding of USD $133,000.
    MORELEARN MORE (opens in a new tab)