Not just ‘memes’: Andrew Hastie warns Australia could become ‘supplicant state’ without AI

Without a sovereign AI model Australia will become a “supplicant state”, Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie has warned, as OpenAI reveals it is in negotiations with the Albanese government over copyright rules.

Ms Hastie told the Sydney Dialogue on Monday that without a frontier AI model – one that was at the bleeding edge of the emerging technology – “we are going to be a supplicant state, not a sovereign state”.

“This is big stuff here,” he said.

“People think it’s making memes on ChatGPT, (but) we’re talking about the global order being changed and Australia falling behind.

“I want us to stay in front.”

Speaking later, OpenAI vice-president for global policy Ann O’Leary reportedly told the NSW conference the tech giant was “very eager to have a bigger and broader relationship” with Australia.

“I don’t have to tell any of you how important Australia is from a geopolitical standpoint,” she said.

“We very much recognise that having a diversification of where we train is going to be important as you move forward.”

Anthony Albanese earlier this year announced the first nationwide plan for AI, which the government claimed would balance the potential for economic growth with widely warned environmental harms, including theft of Australian copyright to train AI models.

‘10 per cent chance’

Mr Hastie’s warning comes after Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei last week called for a slowdown in AI development to allow safeguard mechanisms to catch up – a proposal Donald Trump has so far rejected, citing the threat posed by Chinese AI models.

A researcher at Anthropic, an AI safety and research company, also warned AI was advancing so quickly that there was a greater than 10 per cent chance it “could kill all humans” within the next decade.

Asked about the warning, Angus Taylor on Monday said the government “had a role to play”, but “companies need to do the right thing, too”.

“I think absolutely central to this is our cyber defences as a country,” the Opposition Leader said.

“The way we will make that work is by having a close relationship with the United States administration so our companies, our businesses, our government gets access to those models early for cyber defence purposes.

“But, this has not been on the priority list of the Prime Minister because he’s too busy telling Australians how wonderful the economy is when Australians know they’re getting poorer.”

The US government ordered Anthropic in June to suspend access to its Fable 5 and Mythic 5 models to foreign nationals. That order was later rescinded.

Senate motion

Addressing the Senate, Greens senator David Shoebridge said “a 10 per cent chance of extinction is a reason for urgent action”.

“That is why we’re saying ‘act on this now’,” he said.

“And we’re calling on the Albanese government to legislate mandatory safety testing and transparency obligations for AI systems, rather than relying on the industry for regulation.”

Senator Shoebridge urged the government to reach out to other “middle powers”, such as Canada, Japan, and South Korea, for “a global treaty on AI regulation” and to “push back against the likes of Donald Trump”.

“We don’t pretend Australia can do this by itself,” he said.

“We could lead … we could bring forward legislation to put mandatory guardrails around AI.

“We could set out rules for an IA industry that constrains frontier models, puts them back in the box, and makes sure the checks are done before they’re rolled out and send into the wild.”

Senator Shoebridge had sought to suspend standing orders to debate AI regulation; however, the motion was lost without support from Labor.

‘Rushing into this’

Industry Minister Tim Ayres instead lashed Senator Shoebridge, calling him “galaxy brain” and accused the Greens of “a desperate cover-up”.

“If there was any seriousness at all, any political seriousness at all, from the Greens political party … then they would not give 10 minutes’ notice of something that they claim is a species risk,” he said.

Senator Ayres said the Albanese government’s approach was “straightforward” to “ensure AI in Australia is in the national interest”.

Supporting the motion, however, independent senator David Pocock said there was “huge potential” from AI “but if there is the downsides we are being warned of … we should be taking a precautionary approach”.

“Even if, as some people in the government has suggested, that this is just AI companies trying to pump up their valuation before potential IPO (initial public offering), there are many who aren’t in these companies who’ve been warning about similar things for much longer,” he said.

Senator Pocock said he was concerned the government was not “capable of responding” and just did “whatever the US wants rather than actually standing up”.

He also urged for the government to work with Canada and other middle powers to reign in frontier models.

“We can’t just be saying, well, it’s too hard. It’s too hard for a little power. The best we can do is allow these big hyperscalers to come here, use our land, use our energy, use our water, train their models and not ask the question for what?” he said.

“Why are we rushing into this?”