BRAN BLACK: Over-regulation would strangle Australia’s AI ambitions

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was right this week to put AI at the centre of Australia’s economic agenda. But pitfalls lie ahead.

The decisions Australia make over the next 12 months could shape our economy for decades and, importantly, our standard of living for generations.

If we get the settings right, Australians will benefit through better health care, safer workplaces and through investment, good jobs and higher living standards.

If we get them wrong, we won’t stop AI, we will simply push the investment and jobs of the future away.

As the Prime Minister said, Australia must avoid “cutting ourselves off from the opportunities which are there to be seized and leaving ourselves open to risks created elsewhere”.

That is exactly the challenge before Australia, and so community trust and partnership will be vital.

For most Australians, AI will not be judged by the sophistication of the technology or the billions of dollars invested.

It will be judged on whether it makes our lives better.

And we’re already seeing AI doing that right now. Microsoft is helping an aged care provider to use artificial intelligence to reduce the time staff spend on administration, giving carers more time with residents.

Rather than replacing the human connection, the technology is strengthening it, allowing staff to focus on caring for people.

The Commonwealth Bank is using AI to identify suspicious activity faster and more accurately, allowing fraud specialists to spend less time sorting through false positive applications and more time protecting customers.

BHP and Lendlease are using AI to make workplaces safer, while Transurban is using it to reduce energy consumption across its tunnel network.

These are examples of technology helping people, not replacing them.

Artificial intelligence represents one of the greatest opportunities in generations to lift our sluggish productivity and improve Australians’ living standards.

If we get the settings right, Australia can be more than an adopter of AI. We can help build the industries and attract the investment that create the jobs that come with it.

Understandably, many Australians also want to know what AI means for their jobs.

Last week, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations found no significant impact on overall employment growth since AI emerged. Employment continues to grow across the economy, while software development roles have increased by 25 per cent.

Jobs are changing, just like they do when any technology evolves, but they are not disappearing.

That does not mean community concerns should be dismissed, or that the present situation will remain static.

Every major technological advancement has created uncertainty before creating prosperity.

And so Australians deserve confidence that AI will be introduced safely and transparently.

Trust is what makes AI adoption possible and that’s why careful consideration of the Government’s proposed AI standards will be important.

We support the concept of Australian standards and an Australian approach to AI, however the devil will be in the detail. And the detail matters.

Over-regulate and the opportunity will pass us by.

We also support the Government’s view that workers and the community should be empowered by Australia’s AI transformation.

More than anything else, that means workers should be supported to build new skills, because that’s how we get ahead and stay ahead of the opportunity and avoid the risks.

We can do this by expanding initiatives such as the NSW Digital Skills Compact, which is bringing together employers, education providers and governments to rapidly build the digital capabilities the economy needs.

We can also do this by recognising something that often goes overlooked in policy debates: Australia’s employers are already some of the nation’s most impactful educators.

Every day, businesses invest millions of dollars training workers in digital capability, cyber security, data analytics, AI applications and technology changes.

Much of that learning occurs on the job, and much of it delivers skills every bit as valuable as those acquired through formal education.

Around the world, governments are competing to attract the industries that will define the next generation of economic growth, because artificial intelligence is fundamentally an investment race.

Australia is ahead of the pack with our stable democracy, world-class education, abundant resources, energy and space and highly skilled people.

However, the consistent feedback I get both in our country and overseas is that Australia can lose out to Asia, India, Canada, the US and many other countries that have their own competitive edges if we’re not careful.

That’s why getting the policy settings right matters.

We need planning systems that enable data centres to be built quickly and in a manner that supports Australia’s digital economy and the broader community.

We need copyright settings that appropriately protect creators while allowing innovation to grow.

We need workplace settings that deliver balance, not union demands.

We need a regulatory approach that provides certainty without discouraging investment.

The countries that succeed won’t simply be those that adopt AI the fastest.

They’ll be the countries that get the balance right by earning community trust, equip their people with the right skills and create the confidence for businesses to invest.

The Prime Minister has challenged Australia not to miss the opportunities AI presents.

Business shares that ambition.

Bran Black is the chief executive of the Business Council of Australia