Submission – Safe and Responsible AI in Australia

As AI is influencing all aspects of our lives, it is time to re-assess and re-consider the legislation through this new perspective. In other words, while AI gets built by a small group of technologists, the decisions they make transform all our lives, therefore it is in all our interests to become informed and engaged. Regulation of AI is not anti-ethical to pro-innovation approach. Firstly, AI is not a new technology, it is a well-understood area of research and practice. Secondly, policy in the broadest sense is the combination of decisions made by the societies about what is permitted and what is encouraged. These decisions are already being made, but these decisions are mostly not addressed by policy-makers, except the most proactive ones.
Therefore, the key question is not whether AI policies are needed, but rather how the policy might become more systematic, informed, integrated, effective and anticipatory for the existing and future AI development. Safe and responsible regulation of AI in the Australian federation must be approached from the Constitutional basis of distribution of legislative powers in section 51 of the Constitution as well as the constitutional conventions of responsible government and principles of rule of law, transparency, accountability, protection of human rights and dignity and foundational principles of democracy.