For the world to realize the benefits brought by AI, it is important to ensure artificial intelligent (AI) systems are responsibly developed, used throughout their entire life cycle, and trusted by the humans expected to rely on them.1 The goal for AI adoption has triggered a significant national effort to realize responsible AI (RAI) in Australia. CSIRO Data61 is the data and digital specialist arm of Australia's national science agency. In 2019, CSIRO Data61's worked with the Australian government to conduct the AI Ethics Framework research. This work led to the release of eight AI ethics principles to ensure Australia's adoption of AI is safe, secure, and reliable.a It is challenging to turn high-level AI ethics principles into real-life practices.

AI in the workplace is a phrase that tends to stir up angry sentiments. Will we be replaced by machines? Will automation make us redundant? But our tendency towards revelling in dystopian rhetoric has a flaw – some people dream of a utopia instead. Some dreamers collaborate on CSIRO Data61's $12 million Collaborative Intelligence (CINTEL) Future Science Platform, which aims to shift the focus of AI in the workplace and find ways to improve it.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is steadily becoming a familiar tool for many Australians. We have come to know it through our pocket voice assistants, like Siri and Alexa, and as the brains behind Google's predictive searches. Australian businesses, particularly in the mining sector, view it as a means to gain a competitive advantage, and we have even seen its potential to fight COVID-19. As AI begins to permeate every aspect of our lives, the Australian government has recognised the economic and social opportunities it affords us in its newly proposed AI Action Plan. The discussion paper, released on 29 October 2020, is the latest in a suite of Australian initiatives targeting AI regulation and development, following on from the AI Ethics Framework.

Gernot Heiser is chief research scientist at CSIRO Data61 and Scientia Professor and John Lions Chair at UNSW Sydney, Australia. Gerwin Klein is chief research scientist at CSIRO Data61 and a conjoint professor at UNSW Sydney, Australia. June Andronick is chief research scientist at CSIRO Data61 and a conjoint associate professor at UNSW Sydney, Australia.