UQ-USP Monthly Webinars Series (September): Vulnerabilities to Deception and Generative AI

UQ Cyber Research Centre at the University of Queensland and the University of South Pacific are jointly running a series of online webinars aimed at strengthening research links between the Pacific and Australia. This initiative seeks to foster impactful cyber security research benefiting both regions.

We are pleased to invite you to our third webinar, featuring Professor David Lacey, who will deliver a talk titled "Vulnerabilities to Deception and Generative AI".

The presentation will be followed by a discussion session, providing an opportunity to exchange opinions and ideas.

Webinar Details:

Date: Wednesday, 23 September 2026

Time: 3:00 pm AEST, 5:00 pm FJT

Location:

(a) UQ: Room 451, General Purpose South Building (Building 78), St. Lucia campus

(b) USP: TL4, ICT Building, USP

Abstract:

Predictions are aplenty when it comes to what artificial intelligence (AI) means for a population that is already vulnerable to deception. Some argue it’s all about scale, providing criminals an opportunity to advance to a mass audience their deceptive messaging. Others predict that organised crime groups will benefit from downsizing, achieving much greater efficiencies in their operations akin to non-criminal enterprises. Some have even suggested that these advancements will lower the threshold for criminal market entrants, changing the way organised crime structures are perceived and advancing its evolution towards an outsourced model of crime. Our focus is on what we have learnt from prior research on the influence of a person’s susceptibility to believe deception and whether, with the advancement of AI-enabled forms of deception, this is likely to change. We consider the behavioural and contextual influences on deception compliance from prior studies and consider how such vulnerabilities may be exploited by generative and agentic AI. The research study is novel in so much as it draws upon a corpus of emerging studies on both AI as an enabler of deception and AI as a detector of deception. What results is a synthesised and foundational view of our understanding of vulnerabilities to deception and where AI is likely to take this into the future.

Speaker's Bio:

Professor David Lacey is the Chief Scams Officer at the Australian Financial Complaints Authority responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Scam Prevention Framework’s External Dispute Resolution scheme. He is also an industry professor at the University of Queensland Cyber Research Centre, supporting research students as a co-supervisor, researcher and guest speaker on online deception and its cyber psychological influences and impacts. He has researched deception for over twenty-years and established national capabilities across law enforcement, the community sector, and financial services designed to prevent, detect and respond to such threats.