Targeted AI guidelines in Australia soon

Australia plans to introduce targeted artificial intelligence (AI) guidelines that includes human intervention and transparency.

Its Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic unveiled 10 new voluntary guidelines on AI systems and said the government has opened a month-long consultation on whether the government should make it mandatory.

“Australians know AI can do great things but people want to know there are protections in place if things go off the rails,” Husic said in a statement.

“Australians want stronger protections on AI, we’ve heard that, we’ve listened.”

The report containing the guidelines said it was critical to enable human control as required across an AI system’s lifecycle.

“Meaningful human oversight will let you intervene if you need to and reduce the potential for unintended consequences and harms,” the report said.

Companies must be transparent to disclose AI’s role when generating content, it added.

There have been growing concerns worldwide over AI contributing misinformation and fake news due to the rising popularity of ChatGPT and Gemini.

European Union in May passed AI laws with strict transparency obligations on high risk AI systems.

“We don’t think that there is a right to self-regulation any more. I think we’ve passed that threshold,” Husic told ABC News, Reuters reported.

Australia has no specific laws to regulate AI, though in 2019 it introduced eight voluntary principles for its responsible use. A government report published this year said the current settings were not adequate enough to tackle high-risk scenarios.