Experts say Australia needs AI regulations. 

Australian companies are failing to introduce artificial intelligence (AI) responsibly, according to the second annual Australian Responsible AI Index. 

Experts have warned that governments need to step in and help companies deal with the economic, social and ethical problems raised by AI. 

The report calls for the Australian government to set up a dedicated AI safety commissioner, in line with a recommendation from the Australian Human Rights Commission made in 2021. 

The benchmark, led by Dr Catriona Wallace of the Responsible Metaverse Alliance, aims to track how well organisations are designing and implementing responsible AI systems with a view to fairness, accountability, transparency and their effect on people and society.

Although 82 per cent of companies surveyed believed they were taking a best-practice approach to responsibly using AI, less than a quarter (24 per cent) had any measures in place to ensure that was actually the case. 

Worryingly, only one in three companies’ chief executives are involved in leading AI projects, even though involvement from the top leads to better AI practices, the report found.

Calls for heightened AI regulation come amid fears that uncontrolled AI could have unforeseen consequences, including entrenched discrimination against minority groups or women, large-scale unemployment, and the total subjugation of humanity by machines. 

Tech luminaries including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Elon Musk have called for a global moratorium on rampant AI development, and for governments to create new and capable regulatory authorities dedicated to AI to ensure it is used responsibly.

Dr Wallace said the data was proof that AI use needs regulation, and that Australian companies simply do not know what to do in order to build responsible AI. 

She urged the government to extend the funding and powers of existing regulators such as the eSafety Commissioner and the ACCC, and to set up a dedicated AI regulator in the long term. 

Professor Toby Walsh, chief scientist at the University of NSW’s AI Institute, also backed a 2021 call from the Australian Human Rights Commissioner to set up a dedicated AI regulator. 

Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic has faced criticism for not having done enough to further the goal of making Australia a global leader in responsible AI.