Can Australia play an outsized role in the global regulation of Big Tech? Do we have the middle-power muscle to bring together a coalition of countries that would have the combined heft to push back on tech overreach?
Of all the areas where Australia might claim to “punch above our weight” – to use that worn-out expression – leadership in the technology industry is not usually considered one of them. Perhaps a flea-weight contender boxing clever in the fly-weight division?
But Tech Policy Design Institute (TPDI) co-founder and chief executive Johanna Weaver says Australia is well positioned to take a lead on building multilateral partnerships for global tech regulation.
And by pulling together this coalition of the willing, our government will have a better chance of ensuring that technologies evolve in such a way that it supports the national interest.
In this episode of InnovationAus.com’s Commercial Disco, Ms Weaver – a former diplomat and Australia’s chief cyber negotiator at the UN – digs deep into the global forces that are shaping the world right now.
There are three things happening in the world right now that are each driving enormous change.
The first are the massive and accelerated advances in AI technologies (and Ms Weaver is deliberate in her use of the plural term).
The second are the tectonic shifts in the balance of power globally, driven in large part by US President Donald Trump and his approach to the world.
And thirdly, there are more significant and ongoing conflicts right now – think Israel/Palestine and Russia/Ukraine – than at any time since the Second World War, she says.
“We are in a situation where any one of those things happening would be a huge thing for policymakers to grapple with, or for innovators to grapple with,” Ms Weaver said. “But we have all three happening at the same time.”
“It’s kind of the equivalent of the invention of electricity at the same time as the fall of the Berlin Wall, but probably with more negative connotations for democracies like Australia.
“And so the question is, how do we step up into that vacuum that is largely being left by Trump and the approach of the US to engaging internationally to ensure that as the technologies are evolving, they are evolving in a way that serves Australia’s national interests,” she said.
As surprising as it sounds, Australia is being sought to provide a leadership role in bringing together a multilateral grouping that can use combined market power and political influence to push back on some of these forces.
Ms Weaver says that Australia has a well-documented track record in the international community in “tech diplomacy”, and a strong track record at home in regulating technology.
“I know there are a lot of problems with Australia’s domestic tech regulation, but compared to most countries globally, we have actually done stuff – [like our] eSafety regulations, or our digital platforms inquiries,” she said.
“We were the first country to have a Cyber Ambassador. And we’ve been involved in really quite detailed tech negotiations at the United Nations, for example, over a long time.”
With her TPDI co-founder Zoe Jay Hawkins, Ms Weaver wrote a piece for the ‘Tech Wars’ issue of Australian Foreign Affairs magazine.
They proposed this Interoperable Tech Regulation Initiative, a collection of countries seeking the safety of numbers in dealing with these issues of technology that are complicated by the fraught geopolitical times we are living through.
“How do we now say we want to have better balance, basically reassert national sovereignty to regulate technology within our borders,” is the fundamental question that governments are grappling with.
Where the US has been seen by Australia as a reliable partner with values that align with Australia’s own, this was a non-issue.
But with the US now a less reliable partner and with values that don’t necessarily align with Australia’s – and coupled with rapidly evolving technologies dominated by US giants – we find ourselves looking for global partners in addressing these power imbalances.
“In principle, if there is economic coercion being applied to any one of the countries within [such a] coalition, we will stand with that country,” Ms Weaver told the Commercial Disco podcast.
“You’re bringing the market power of not just Australia [in] standing up to them. You’re bringing many more countries to bear.”
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