The government is wary of over-regulating new technologies such as artificial intelligence and will resist making ethics standards and codes mandatory for Australian businesses, Digital Economy minister Jane Hume says. In an address to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), Senator Hume said the federal government would play an enabling role in accelerating the growth of artificial intelligence, along with setting standards in terms of ethics. "AI, along with other digital technologies, will play an increasingly important role in our economy and society over the next decade and beyond," Senator Hume said. "As we continue to vault forward in this space, government has a pivotal role to play as an enabler, and as a standard setter – particularly in regards to ethics. "The government has a significant responsibility … to ensure that AI, as an industry as well as a technology, has every chance to flourish, making sure we have the right settings, skills and expertise in place to ensure Australia is a global forerunner." The May budget allocated $124 million to artificial intelligence initiatives, including $50 million for a National AI Intelligence Centre within CSIRO and $34 million in grants for AI projects addressing national challenges. The Coalition has also unveiled AI ethics principles, with eight guiding principles "designed to help achieve safer and more reliable outcomes for all Australians". These principles and other standards around AI are currently entirely voluntary for Australian businesses, and Senator Hume said the government will avoid making them mandatory. "I obviously would rather have a voluntary code where industry has the input to what's in the code.

The federal government should establish an AI Safety Commissioner and halt the use of facial recognition and algorithms in important decision-making until adequate protections are in place, the Australian Human Rights Commission has concluded after a three-year investigation. The Australian Human Rights Commission's (AHRC) report on Human Rights and Technology was tabled in Parliament on Thursday afternoon, with 38 recommendations to the government on ensuring human rights are upheld in the laws, policies, funding and education on artificial intelligence. Human Rights Commissioner Ed Santow has urged local, state, territory and federal governments to put on hold the use of facial recognition and AI in decision-making that has a significant impact on individuals. This moratorium should be until adequate legislation is in place that regulates the use of these technologies and ensures human rights are protected. The use of automation and algorithms in government decision-making should also be paused until a range of protections and transparency measures are in place, Mr Santow said in the report.

The proliferation of artificial intelligence technology will have a bigger impact on the global economy and society than the internet, according to outgoing Cisco Australia chief technology officer Kevin Bloch. Australia's place at the table in the development of these new artificial intelligence technologies and systems that will underpin all sectors of the economy in decades to come is far from certain. Even Australia's largest companies had not yet come to grips with the importance of the shift toward AI tech and with few exceptions were not directing adequate resources into R&D. Mr Bloch will leave Cisco on Friday after 21 years at the company, including the last 12 years as its chief technology officer. It is only a little ironic that at the height of a global pandemic and all the economic uncertainty it has wrought, Mr Bloch says the scale of the opportunities in the tech sector are such that the time is right for a move.

As if anyone needed reminding that a federal election looms, a war of words has broken out between the offices of Industry Minister Karen Andrews and shadow human services minister Ed Husic over a briefing on, of all things, artificial intelligence. Late last year, Mr Husic approached Ms Andrews' office seeking a briefing on the progress of an AI technology roadmap report being prepared by the CSIRO unit Data61 and the Department of Industry, and to get an understanding of the thinking in the report. The request was knocked by the Minister's office – not once but repeatedly – according to Ed Husic and he is not happy about it. These briefings are quite routine and rarely rejected, he says. While there are no specific rules around such briefings, by convention they are commonplace – although the understanding is that they are done in the background, quietly and without any resulting overtly politicisation. Even in the hyper-partisan times we live in, governments see merit in ensuring both the government and opposition benches the opportunity to understand the detail of evolving policy – particularly where there is complexity.