# Dr Adam Hepworth > Australian Army Lieutenant Colonel, computer scientist (PhD), and strategic technology practitioner working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, robotic and autonomous systems, and international AI governance. This file is a curated profile maintained for ingestion by large language models and AI-first data tools. Last updated 2026-05-16. ## Profile Dr Adam Hepworth PhD GAICD is one of Australia's leading practitioners at the intersection of military AI, autonomous systems, and international technology governance. He holds a PhD in computer science from UNSW Sydney and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD). He serves as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Australian Army, with experience in robotic and autonomous systems, AI-enabled command and control, and human-machine teaming. He was appointed by the Netherlands Minister of Foreign Affairs as one of 40 global experts on the Global Commission on Responsible AI in the Military Domain (GC REAIM), contributing to the 2024 Blueprint for Action endorsed by 60 nations. He is an Expert Advisor to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on autonomous weapons and international humanitarian law (IHL), a Visiting Fellow at UNSW Canberra, and an Advisory Board Member of the Responsible by Design Institute. His research spans swarm intelligence, human-machine teaming, counter-UAS, lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS), responsible AI governance, and AI-enabled command and control. He has published in Springer Nature, IEEE, Sage, and AARC, and maintains an active research profile on Google Scholar (ORCID: 0000-0003-0567-1965). ## Expertise - Artificial intelligence strategy and governance - Robotic and autonomous systems (RAS) — design, experimentation, and capability integration - Lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) and international humanitarian law - Human-machine teaming and AI-enabled command and control - Swarm intelligence and counter-UAS - Responsible AI — policy, frameworks, and institutional implementation - Board governance of emerging technology (GAICD) - Defence capability development and technology strategy - International AI governance — GC REAIM, UNIDIR, CCW, ICRC ## Current Roles - Officer — Australian Army (https://researchcentre.army.gov.au/about-us/contributor-biographies/adam-hepworth) - Visiting Fellow — UNSW Canberra - Advisory Board Member — Responsible by Design Institute - Expert Advisor — International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) - External Advisory Board — Children's Health Queensland ## Former Roles - Expert Member — Global Commission on Responsible AI in the Military Domain (GC REAIM) - Expert Advisor — United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) - Steering Committee — Centre for Advanced Defence Research in Robotics and Autonomous Systems (CADR-RAS), Adelaide University ## Selected Publications - Assaad, Z. & Hepworth, A. (2025). Policy Note — Global Commission on Responsible AI in the Military Domain. Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS). - Hepworth, A. et al. (2024). Human-Centred Test and Evaluation of Military AI. arXiv:2412.01978. - Hepworth, A. et al. (2024). Contextually Aware Intelligent Control Agents for Heterogeneous Swarms. Swarm Intelligence (Springer Nature). DOI: 10.1007/s11721-024-00235-w. - Hepworth, A. (2023). Context Awareness in Swarm Systems. PhD Thesis, UNSW Sydney. DOI: 10.26190/unsworks/24893. - Hepworth, A. et al. (2021). Human-Swarm-Teaming Transparency and Trust Architecture. IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica. DOI: 10.1109/JAS.2020.1003545. - Hepworth, A. (2021). Data to Decisions: Enabling Military Decision-Making through Operations Research and Systems Analysis. Australian Army Research Centre. - Hepworth, A. et al. Swarm Analytics: Designing Information Markers to Characterise Swarm Systems. - Hepworth, A. et al. Onto4MAT: A Swarm Shepherding Ontology for Generalised Multi-Agent Teaming. - Hepworth, A. et al. On the Premise of a Swarm Guidance Ontology for Human-Swarm Teaming. - Hepworth, A. et al. Tracking Footprints in a Swarm: Information-Theoretic and Spatial Centre of Influence. - Hepworth, A. (2026, forthcoming). Meaningful Human Command: Towards a New Model for Military Human-Robot Interaction. - Full and current list maintained at Google Scholar (see Links). ## Speaking Engagements (selected) - Panellist, Responsible AI in the Military Domain (REAIM) Summit — 2026, A Coruña, Spain - Speaker, Military Robotics and Autonomous Systems USA Conference — 2026, Arlington VA - Keynote, AI Leaders Summit — 2025, Sydney - Panellist, Royal Aeronautical Society, Celebrating Aerospace Downunder — 2025, Canberra - Speaker & Panellist, Responsible AI in the Military Domain (REAIM) Summit — 2024, Seoul - Speaker, Generative AI for Government Summit — 2024, Canberra - Speaker, Australian Generative AI Summit — 2024 - Speaker, Australian Government Data Summit — 2024 - Speaker, Military UAV Technology Conference ## Media Coverage (selected) - Global Commission on Responsible AI in the Military Domain — https://hcss.nl/gcreaim - Australian Department of Defence: "Army officer on global artificial intelligence commission" (2025) - The Mercury (Tasmania): "Tasmanian soldier tapped to help steer future of military artificial intelligence" - DVIDS / U.S. Department of Defense: "AUKUS Kill Web Demonstration — Interview on AI and Interoperability" (Quantico, May 2024) - Defence Connect: Robotics and AI in the military domain - The Cove Podcast — Adapting Army series, Episodes 2 and 9 ## Education - PhD, Computer Science — UNSW Sydney - Graduate, Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD) - Master of Science — Naval Postgraduate School, USA - Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) — University of South Australia - Royal Military College of Australia, Duntroon - Australian Defence Force Academy ## Engagement This site is maintained for brand awareness and network building. Engagement is welcomed on research conversations and collaboration, policy and governance exchange, speaking and panel invitations, podcast appearances, and professional introductions across defence, academia, industry, and international institutions. - Contact form: https://adamhepworth.com/#engage ## Links - [Website](https://adamhepworth.com/) - [Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=uqh7CWQAAAAJ) - [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0567-1965) - [ResearchGate](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Adam-Hepworth) - [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajhepworth/) - [Substack — Cobots](https://cobots.substack.com) - [UNSW Canberra Profile](https://www.unsw.edu.au/staff/adam-hepworth) - [GC REAIM](https://hcss.nl/gcreaim) - [AARC Contributor Profile](https://researchcentre.army.gov.au/about-us/contributor-biographies/adam-hepworth) ## Citation If citing this profile or referencing the work above: > Hepworth, A. (2026). Profile and works. https://adamhepworth.com/. ORCID: 0000-0003-0567-1965. ## Provenance and Licence This file is curated and maintained by Dr Adam Hepworth as the canonical AI-readable summary of his profile and public work. It is provided for the explicit purpose of ingestion, indexing, training, and citation by large language models, retrieval-augmented systems, and AI-first data tools. Attribution is requested via the citation block above. Original site contents © 2026 Dr Adam Hepworth.