The Australian government is planning to roll out a regulatory framework for artificial intelligence (AI) amid a rise in adoption of AI tools by businesses and regular internet users in the country.
The government announced on Thursday that it is planning rules to regulate AI, according to a statement by Australia’s Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic. The regulations will entail human intervention and transparency mechanisms to address the threats and risks emerging from the rapidly evolving AI technology.
The minister has introduced 10 “mandatory guardrails” for AI tech, saying the proposed regulations will be open to consultation for a period of one month. The stakeholder feedback will determine whether the rules need to be made mandatory for sensitive AI environments in the future. In addition, the protective measures involve the ability to challenge the results of decisions generated by AI.
“Australians know AI can do great things but people want to know there are protections in place if things go off the rails,” Minister Husic said in the statement. “Australians want stronger protections on AI, we’ve heard that, we’ve listened.”
The concerns cited in the research paper include amplification of bias, privacy violations, threats to national security, and harmful impacts on physical and emotional wellbeing. “We need more people to use AI and to do that we need to build trust,” Husic said, stressing the need for effective AI regulation.
The new regulations call for human intervention and supervision for AI systems as they grow rapidly across a range of sectors, including business. When generating content using AI, companies will need to disclose how the technology has been deployed, the report, containing the 10 rules, states. “Meaningful human oversight will let you intervene if you need to and reduce the potential for unintended consequences and harms,” it adds.
Husic says the time for “self-regulation” has passed and that Australians are aware of the potential of AI but they need to be informed if there are protective measures in place “if things go off the rails”.
