He said the starting point for assessing high risk would be “anything that affects the safety of people’s lives,or someone’s future prospects in work or with the law. Those are areas that are likely to be targeted by future changes.
“These technologies are going to shape the way we do our jobs,the performance of the economy and the way we live our lives. So what we need to ensure is that AI works in the way it is intended,and that people have trust in the technology.”
The move to legislate safeguards for high-risk AI forms a key plank of the government’s interim response to a consultation process launched last year on the safe and responsible use of AI,to be unveiled by Husic this week. The government received more than 500 responses to its discussion paper,including from tech giants Google and Meta,major banks,supermarkets,legal bodies,and universities. It said almost all the submissions called for action on “preventing,mitigating and responding” to the harms of AI.
Many countries are grappling with how to respond to the emerging risks from AI without stifling innovation,as the rampant take-up of generative chatbots like ChatGPT and automated machine learning systems has highlighted the potential for the technology to revolutionise entire industries. Consulting firm McKinsey has calculated the technology could add between $1.1 trillion and $4 trillion to the Australian economy by the early 2030s.
But thebreakneck speed of AI development has triggered concern over the potential ethical and moral harms posed by its use and has led to a furious debate in tech circles. Last year,more than 350 researchers and executives working in AI,including ChatGPT creator and OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman,signed an open letter warning that mitigating the “risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war”.
Husic said the decision to focus on high-risk technologies while leaving low-risk applications unregulated was driven by the view that the vast majority of AI use was safe and driving major advancements in areas like education and medicine.