It's time to think about merging with technology

Dr Allan McCay is Co-director of The Sydney Institute of Criminology and an Academic Fellow at the University of Sydney Law School where he lectures in Criminal Law and coordinates the Legal Research units. He is President of the Centre for Neurotechnology and Law, and was named by Australasian Lawyer as one of the most influential lawyers  of 2021, 2023 and 2024 for his work on neurotechnology and the law.

Neurotechnology, law and neuroethics

He was commissioned by the Law Society of England and Wales to write the report Neurotechnology, law and the legal profession. This world-first consideration of brain-computer interfaces and other forms of neurotechnology was reported by media sources around the world in over 20 countries, including the BBC and The Times. As well as many other neurotech and other publications, Dr McCay is the author of the first peer-reviewed article on the challenges presented by neurotechnology for human rights in Australia. 

In addition to giving talks and engaging in consultations on neurotech with international bodies such as INTERPOL, OECD and UNICEF, he is a member of the Australian Human Rights Commission Expert Reference Group on Human Rights and Neurotechnology as well as being an observer on the USA’s Uniform Law Commission Study Committee on Mental Privacy, Cognitive Biometrics.

He is also a member of Standards Australia’s Brain-computer Interface Committee, the Minding Rights Network, and an Affilliate Member of Macquarie University's Ethics and Agency Research Centre.

Whilst there has been much recent consideration of how humans should develop or use artificial intelligence Dr McCay has argued for more attention to be paid to the social, ethical and legal issues related to us merging with technology.

Media and speaking

He regularly provides comments to the media (television, radio, print and online) including The BBC, The Washington Post, The Australian, Sky News Arabia, The Indian Express, The Sydney Morning Herald, Radio New Zealand, The ABC and SBS and he is a TEDx speaker.

He has also spoken at events for academia, the general public, the technology sector, legal practitioners in private practice, executive government (e.g. the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner), the judiciary (through the National Judicial College of Australia), the legislature (both Australian and Chilean), as well as for legal practitioner bodies including the Law Society of England and Wales, the Law Society of New South Wales, and the Istanbul Bar Association.

Artificial intelligence: safety, law and the future of work

He has published on the implications of developments in neurotechnology for the AI ecosystem and the regulation of AI, as well as on AI (and neurotechnology's) implications for the future of work.  He has particularly focussed on the implications of these emerging technologies for lawyers and law firms. In addition to this he has addressed the Victorian Parliament's Economy and Infrastructure Committee on workplace neurosurveillance.

He has also written about AI alignment and safety in the context of incommensurable values.

As well as being an Associate Editor of the Journal AI & Society, he has been a judge on Women in AI awards. He is also a member of the Law Society of New South Wales Taskforce on AI & other tools and trends shaping the legal profession and an Affiliate of Auckland University’s Natural, Artificial, and Organisation Intelligence Institute. 

Legal practitioner and books 

Dr McCay trained as a solicitor in Scotland, practised as a commercial litigator with Baker McKenzie in Hong Kong, and has also been admitted to practice in two Australian jurisdictions. He provides continuing professional development to the profession. 

His first coedited book Free Will and the Law: New Perspectives is published by Routledge and his second, Neurointerventions and the Law: Regulating Human Mental Capacity is published by Oxford University Press. 

Other publications, decision-making, and creative work

Many of his publications focus on criminal law, in particular sentencing in light of developments in behavioural genetics and neuroscience, as well how law might in the future be transformed or challenged by science and emerging technologies. 

He has a longstanding interest in the problem of  free will which intersects with his interests in both criminal law and tech, and which he has explored in creative works (fiction and photography) as well as more traditional scholarship, and non-fiction for a general audience (including creative non-fiction). 

This interest extends to how human decision-making:

1 may be impaired, enhanced or defended,

2 connects to responsibility, blame and punishment,

3 might differ from the decision-making of artificially intelligent agents and

4 could be impacted by a closer connection with technology.

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Contact:     amcc4688@gmail.com