Innovatia

The AIIA position is that government needs to work with industry in developing appro- priate responses to issues as they emerge; after all, the experts best placed to make these calls are almost always those who con- trol them day-to-day, inventing the technol- ogy and building the code or hardware. The Australian Government’s own best practice regulatory guidance is to hold reg- ulation as a last resort; however, this is reg- ularly ignored. The overlapping laws around cyber security regulation and compliance in Australia are so complex that the government introduced a Cyber Security Coordinator to provide a more integrated, whole-of-feder- al-government-and-industry approach. AI is not magic, but mathematics. It is a powerful productivity tool that each of us use every day via smartphones and desktops. It is not a new technology; however, the recent emergence of generative AI and large lan- guage models has been transformative, war- ranting closer examination by governments as use cases and the technology evolve. AI and generative AI are powerful augmen- tative tools; a co-pilot that has emerged from the digital economy and scientific advance- ments in training large language models and neural nets. The opportunity is for Australia and the world to harness AI, alongside auto- mation and robotics, in a way that is respon- sible and intelligent, and the AIIA has already taken several crucial steps in this direction. In March, the AIIA partnered with KPMG to launch “Navigating AI”, an industry paper with a practical checklist to assist private or- ganisations in deploying AI with confidence. The AIIA is also a member of the CSIRO-led

National AI Centre’s Responsible AI Network. Where the risks are near-term and signifi- cant enough to warrant government over- sight, AI should be regulated. We aren’t concerned about the extinction risk of AI; however, government may seek to regu- late in cases where bias might impact legal rights, deep fakes might confound democra-

cy, or driverless trains might pose risks to hu- man safety. Government must be guided by demon- strable and acute risk, use a principles-based approach, and ensure that the pressing op- portunity of AI is always at the forefront, just as it seeks to ensure that industry-led frameworks such as the AI Ethics Principles are taken up by organisations of all size. “Cyber security, ESG reporting and AI governance: in these key policy areas, our government should be a leader, yet is a laggard.”

The technology industry is critical to the functioning of a modern digital economy, with tech at the heart of every named crit- ical industry or System of National Signifi- cance – from Defence to energy, transport, banking, retail and health. Given this reality, it is no surprise that government will look to regulate our sector more, not less, moving forward. The AIIA will continue to work with government to ensure that regulation is targeted, effective, and streamlined, and practical and effective to implement. Simon Bush is the CEO of the Australian Infor- mation Industry Association.

https://youtu.be/JL5OFXeX- enA?si=w9d9DW6GFubLfHcR

The urgent risks of runaway AI -- and what to do about them.

INNOVATIA

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INNOVATIA

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