The NSW government will be taking a "deliberate but cautious" approach when implementing new artificial intelligence technology in line with citizen trust around data and AI usage. NSW government chief data scientist and industry professor at UTS Dr Ian Oppermann told an Infosys and Trans-Tasman Business Circle event that trust is a "very big issue", with his work on the NSW AI assurance framework and a multitude of other government policies. "Ultimately, there are a whole lot of other elements around trust and demonstration of trustworthiness," Oppermann said. "We need to explore what happens when things go wrong. "We need to be very clear about what we will not do with data in order to help build confidence, that we're behaving appropriately and demonstrating trustworthiness.

You might be rolling your eyes as you see the drone take off to the skies and hover over the Australian coastline, camera angled straight down towards the glistening turquoise water. "Another TikTok influencer trying to get the perfect shot," you grumble to yourself. But if you look closely at the pilot, you'll notice they've got a sign next to them that says "Keep Clear" in bright yellow and red letters. Drones have been a helpful tool in spotted sharks from the skies. It's an Australian surf lifesaver, using the above drone to spot sharks at the beach before they get too close to swimmers like yourself.

The New South Wales government has named the 11 individuals who will form the NSW Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee and play a role in how AI is used in the state. He will be joined by Microsoft Australia national technology officer Lee Hickin; Services Australia chief data officer Maria Milosavljevic; Australian Human Rights Commission human rights commissioner Edward Santow; Women in Data Science Network Sydney ambassador and School of Illinois data and AI research fellow Theresa Anderson; University of Technology Sydney data science executive director Fang Chen; Innovations Accelerated chief legal and data ethics officer Aurelie Jacquet; Australian Computer Society AI and ethics technical committee chair Peter Leonard; Gradient Institute co-founder William (Bill) Simpson Young; Quantium Health and Government CEO Neil Soderlund; and Public Purpose principal Martin Stewart-Weeks. Minister for Customer Service Victor Dominello said the committee would advise the state government on the use of AI for decision-making and service delivery, and what ethical AI policies should look like. "AI is becoming more prevalent in our day-to-day life and the NSW Government is determined to lead the way in its use and to drive improvements wherever possible, while ensuring it's done in an ethical way." Establishing the committee is part of the state government's AI strategy in which it has pledged that transparency will be the focus and vowed to make the state the digital capital of the southern hemisphere in the next three years.

Safer and more efficient services will be delivered for NSW residents using Artificial Intelligence (AI), with a new world-leading AI Assurance Framework to come into effect in March 2022. All agencies across the NSW Government can apply the Assurance Framework to ensure increasingly sophisticated AI systems are safe, effective and delivering on state outcomes, improving the lives of people in NSW and the resilience of communities and driving the economy. NSW Government's Chief Data Scientist Dr Ian Oppermann said the Framework would ensure Government services using AI were aligned to state outcomes, easy to access and use by customers as well as being personalised and secure. "AI creates a huge opportunity to improve Government services. We are already piloting the technology with eHealth NSW to help doctors to earlier identify sepsis in patients attending emergency departments," Dr Oppermann said.

Apartment building defects are not uncommon these days, but the NSW government has been developing new solutions using AI and blockchain to crackdown on this. Speaking at the 2021 digital.NSW event, Office of the NSW Building Commissioner digital director Yin Man explained how the state government has worked with KPMG, Microsoft, Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), Western Sydney University, and Mirvac to build what is being referred to as a trustworthy index, within the state government's building assurance solution. The solution, based on ASX's blockchain technology, has been designed to track a building's provenance -- from the materials that are used, the drawings of the building, and people involved in the construction -- to enable the building industry, current and prospective owners, regulators, and insurers to compare and assess the trustworthiness of different buildings. "You, as a consumer, can now see one building differentiated from another and that helps the insurance companies and the financiers as well, because at the moment, they do not want to be in the market because all the buildings look the same to them, everybody has an occupation certificate, but why are some buildings still defective as we find in our audits, and some are not," Man said. According to Man, the trustworthy index will be piloted for the next six months with a brand new Mirvac building, along with over 200 buildings where combustible cladding is being replaced.

Digital innovations to create smarter cities and technology to use and protect customer identities will be at the forefront of the 2021 Digital.NSW Showcase on Tuesday and Wednesday. NSW Government Chief Information and Digital Officer Greg Wells said the Digital.NSW Showcase would highlight the latest innovations used by NSW Government agencies including the Department of Customer Service (DCS). "The NSW Government is a world leader in delivering customer-centric digital outcomes, whether it is providing clear guidance on the safe use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) with the AI Strategy or investing $2.1 billion into digital transformation projects as part of the Digital Restart Fund," Mr Wells said. "During COVID-19 we were the first state to introduce a digital COVID-Safe check-in system which made it easier for people to safely visit venues and access essential services while supporting the efforts of NSW Health contract tracers. "We were also one of the first states to successfully integrate the digital COVID-19 vaccination certificate into the Service NSW app and to link it to the check-in system, allowing customers to provide vaccination status quickly and efficiently." The latest version of the of the Beyond Digital Strategy will also be released in conjunction with the showcase. Beyond Digital sets the strategic direction and objectives for NSW to continue its work in becoming a customer-centric, digitally enabled government. DCS's latest initiative, Digital Identity and Credentials, will also be in focus at the showcase, with the team behind the critical project demonstrating how customers will soon have more choice and convenience in the way they safely and securely prove their identity and share their information. Executive Director of Information, Communications and Technology and Digital Sourcing Mark Lenzner said the Digital.NSW Showcase would focus on four core themes including digital, data, ICT infrastructure and Smart Places, each exploring a different way technology can deliver more efficient and accessible services for customers "Digital products such as DCS's integration of the digital vaccination certificate, Dine & Discover vouchers and Digital Licensing play a critical role across NSW government by making sure customers can easily access and use important services, even when faced with a pandemic," Mr Lenzner said. "Presentations under the Smart Places stream will explore how the NSW Government can create a better quality of life for people through technology.

The one glaring gap in the Commonwealth government's AI strategy and action plan is a process to develop a coordinated governance framework around the development, use and procurement of AI services within commonwealth government agencies. This is where the NSW Government has taken a clear lead, setting out a mandatory customer service circular which all NSW Government agencies need to adhere to. There is practical guidance on adhering to principles, assessing risk, managing data, sourcing AI solutions, meeting legal obligations and more.

Three friends were having morning tea on a farm in the Northern Rivers region in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, when they noticed a drilling rig setting up in a neighbor's property on the opposite side of the valley. They had never heard of the coal seam gas (CSG) industry, nor had they previously considered activism. That drilling rig, however, was enough to push them into action. The group soon became instrumental in establishing the anti-CSG movement, a movement whose activism resulted in the NSW government suspending gas exploration licenses in the area in 2014.2 By 2015, the government had bought back a petroleum exploration license covering 500,000 hectares across the region.3 Mining companies, like companies in many industries, have been struggling with the difference between having a legal license to operate and a moral4 one. The colloquial version of this is the distinction between what one could do and what one should do--just because something is technically possible and economically feasible doesn't mean that the people it affects will find it morally acceptable. Without the acceptance of the community, firms find themselves dealing with "never-ending demands" from "local troublemakers" hearing that "the company has done nothing for us"--all resulting in costs, financial and nonfinancial,5 that weigh projects down. A company can have the best intentions, investing in (what it thought were) all the right things, and still experience opposition from within the community. It may work to understand local mores and invest in the community's social infrastructure--improving access to health care and education, upgrading roads and electricity services, and fostering economic activity in the region resulting in bustling local businesses and a healthy employment market--to no avail. Without the community's acceptance, without a moral license, the mining companies in NSW found themselves struggling. This moral license is commonly called a social license, a phrase coined in the '90s, and represents the ongoing acceptance and approval of a mining development by a local community. Since then, it has become increasingly recognized within the mining industry that firms must work with local communities to obtain, and then maintain, a social license to operate (SLO).6 The concept of a social license to operate has developed over time and been adopted by a range of industries that affect the physical environment they operate in, such as logging or pulp and paper mills. What has any of this to do with artificial intelligence (AI)?

A teenager in New South Wales recently died after a fatal shark bite, adding to four other unprovoked shark-related deaths this year. These tragic events send shockwaves through the community and re-ignite our fear of sharks. They also fuel the debate around the best way to keep people safe in the water while minimising impacts on marine wildlife. This was the aim of a five-year trial of shark-mitigation technology--the Shark Management Strategy – which finished recently. The NSW government created this initiative in response to an unprecedented spike in shark bites in 2015, particularly on the north coast of NSW.

We've got the roads, the rail and the airport to keep growing this nation, keep getting those products out of the warehouses and into people's shops and into people's homes," he said. Amazon's new hub is a "boost for this community," said NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian. "People won't need to travel those longer distances to get the best jobs available. They'll be able to live and work near their communities, which is exactly what we want," Berejiklian said. Other retailers in Australia are gearing up for an increase in automation in their own logistics.