Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has created the Office of AI within his own department to coordinate government policy. Photo: Thomas Lucraft.
Anthony Albanese is taking control of artificial intelligence policy by creating an office within his own department to coordinate a whole-of-government response to the revolutionary technology transforming society.
The Prime Minister is making the move in an effort to assure Australians he has heard their concerns over AI’s threat to jobs and the scale of energy new data centres will need.
But he also wants to let tech companies around the world know that Australia is open for business and ready to fast-track investment proposals.
Mr Albanese is outlining his case in a landmark delivered speech in Sydney today (15 July) titled AI in Australia’s Interests.
The central theme of the speech is that if Australia embraces AI in the Australian way, applying Australian values and our standards, the technology can be used to the nation’s advantage.
The PM insists that Australia will be the first country in the world to bring all AI-related issues – economic, social, environmental, and national security – under a single policy and management umbrella.
“Every country on Earth is grappling with these challenges right now. Australia will be the first country in the world to bring these issues into a single, national framework,” he says.
“And getting this right will enhance our appeal to international investors by delivering greater clarity and speed for approvals and a streamlined process for verifying compliance.
“It also imposes an important discipline on government.
“AI touches on the work of every minister and department, so it is only natural that, up until now, our response has been issue-by-issue, sector by sector.
“But just as government developed coordinated approaches for other significant technologies – from civil aviation in the 1920s to genetics in the 1990s – we must do this with AI as well.
“Effective today, I am establishing the Office of AI in my own Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.”
The new office will work closely with Industry and Innovation Minister Tim Ayres and the Assistant Minister for Science, Technology and the Digital Economy, Andrew Charlton.
It will coordinate the design of new AI Australian Standards and bring together the work ministers are undertaking across all Federal Government agencies.
Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen will continue working with his state and territory counterparts and energy market bodies, Attorney-General Michelle Rowland has been facilitating consultation on copyright and artist protections where AI training is involved, and Treasurer Jim Chalmers will have responsibility for the pivotal role of AI in Australia’s productivity agenda.
Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth is engaging with employers, workers and unions on AI’s role in the workplace, while Education Minister Jason Clare is meeting with his counterparts today (Wednesday) to discuss the impact of AI in schools.
These efforts will now be coordinated through the PM’s own department to ensure a uniform approach to AI that serves the nation’s interests.
The new office will also be tasked with managing the risks of AI being hijacked by extremists for criminal and corrupt purposes.
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke are working closely with their agencies and Australia’s Five Eyes Partners on matters of national security.
“This is in addition to ongoing work in everything from the design of our digital duty of care, to the risks that chatbots pose to children to the intersection of AI and skills and manufacturing, and – importantly – AI in defence and national security,” Mr Albanese says.
“This year’s National Defence Strategy identified AI and machine learning as holding ‘the most significant potential for technological disruption’ in the years ahead.
“We know that both extremists and state actors already use AI to create propaganda aimed at young people – and to spread disinformation that targets democracies.”
The PM’s speech follows the release of an international statement by 200 leading economists and AI researchers – including 16 Nobel Laureates – calling for governments to implement urgent policy measures to address the economic impacts of AI.
Titled We Must Act Now, the statement says leaders must ensure AI benefits society rather than harms it.
“AI may become radically more powerful over the next 10 years,” the statement says.
“This could drive an unprecedented transformation of our economy, larger than the Industrial Revolution, but unfolding over a vastly shorter time frame.
“It could bring risks, including large-scale job displacement, as well as opportunities such as major gains in living standards.
“Economists, policymakers and technology leaders must act now to understand the economics of transformative AI and to build the incentives, guardrails, and institutions needed to steer AI in a direction that complements humans and benefits society.”
Original Article published by Chris Johnson on Region Canberra.
