It has been strangely quiet at Parliament House in Canberra this week, considering a national economic summit was being hosted by Treasurer Jim Chalmers.
All the action was taking place behind the closed doors of the Cabinet room, with just 30 or so invited participants.
But news has been trickling out, including what is being described as a “breakthrough” – a very big word for meetings like this – in discussions between the union movement and tech businesses on the thorny subject of AI.
Specifically, Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus and Tech Council of Australia chief executive Damian Kassabgi are said to have found common ground, according to the AFR, on issues like worker representation in AI in the workplace, as well as paying for copyrighted content.
Details have yet to emerge. The union movement has clearly been doing a lot of work in understanding the workplace implications of AI – it is worth listening to this podcast on the subject with ACTU assistant secretary Joseph Mitchell – and have shown themselves to be open to the upside.
But if Sally McManus is describing discussions between the ACTU and the Tech Council as a “ breakthrough” then it is worth taking note. The Tech Council articulates its views here.
Meanwhile, the stoush within Labor over whether to enact a specific AI Act to regulate artificial intelligence appears to have been postponed.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the government will conduct a review of gaps in the regulation of artificial intelligence before looking at a separate AI Act. The government will also elevate the frontier technology to a “national priority”.
This work seems to be a continuation of the regulatory analysis done over two years in the last term of this government under former industry minister Ed Husic.
This work culminated in proposals for ‘mandatory guardrails’ for high-risk AI, proposals that subsequently disappeared from view, never to be seen again.
Productivity Commission chief Danielle Wood was at the National Press Club this week. She says AI will provide a massive productivity boost for the nation, acknowledging it as a general-purpose technology like electricity, the internal combustion engine, or the internet.
But she is not persuaded that government needs to get involved in supporting the development of sovereign AI or infrastructure, saying it makes more sense to acquire it from elsewhere.
This is not an unexpected position from the Productivity Commission. But UTS business academic Marina Yue Zhang puts forward a very different view.
In the news:
Productivity tsar hoses down sovereign AI support hopes – InnovationAus [Subscriber]
AI won’t drive productivity without targeted govt policy – InnovationAus
Big tech and unions ‘breakthrough’ on paying for AI content – AFR [$]
Jim Chalmers commits to another AI review – The Australian [$]
Gap analysis shows existing laws ‘inadequate’ for AI age – InnovationAus [Subscriber]
Google to pay $55m fine over secret ad deals with Telstra, Optus – InnovationAus
Trump administration in talks to take 10% stake in Intel – InnovationAus
Do you know more? Contact James Riley via Email.