Is Australia 'drinking the Kool-Aid' on AI policy?
This article critiques the Australian government's approach to AI policy, suggesting that officials are overly influenced by Silicon Valley hype. It highlights a recent comment by a government minister regarding the arrival of AGI as evidence of a shift in political discourse.
Why it matters
It raises concerns about whether national AI regulation is being driven by corporate narratives rather than independent policy analysis.
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Prefer Crikey OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei (Image: Crikey/Zennie) There was a revealing moment last month when Communications Minister Anika Wells appeared on the ABC’s Insiders to discuss the government’s latest duty of care provisions for social media. Asked about whether the government wanted AI development to slow down, she let slip an astonishing aside.
“AGI is here, isn’t it?”, Wells said , matter-of-fact, referring to “artificial general intelligence”.
The statement was not widely reported. An ABC write-up even changed Wells’ quote to remove the “G”, changing her remark to simply, “AI is here, isn’t it?”
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