QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Mr ALBANESE (Grayndler—Prime Minister) (14:14): I thank the member for Macquarie for her serious question about a real issue facing Australians. Echoing comments yesterday from Anthropic and others, today the Director-General of the Australian Signals Directorate, Abigail Bradshaw, has raised the prospect of an early warning system for advanced AI models. Companies are working together with governments to identify and address AI risks immediately, before release, rather than when it is too late.
Our national security community already works closely with frontier AI companies because safety and security is a key to building trust and to getting the benefits of AI, including for our national security. And we do that by making sure AI works in Australia's interests because AI is not neutral and we must make sure that we use the capacity that we have to ensure that artificial intelligence reflects Australian values, that it works for people, that it enhances rather than undermines our democracy, that it helps to build our future economic resilience and backs our jobs, that our creative industries are protected and that the price of using AI is not higher energy bills or scarcer water.
That's why we're going to legislate Australian standards for artificial intelligence. That's why we've established the parliamentary AI committee, chaired by the member for Maribyrnong, with the deputy chair, Senator Duniam, from the other place. We seek to shape artificial intelligence in Australia's interests, and of course we are not alone.
This Friday, I will travel to the United States for talks with tech companies but also with the United Nations in New York. There will be a real focus by countries, who are all dealing with this challenge that is before us, seeking to harness the incredible benefits of AI, but doing that so as to take responsibility for its impacts. Artificial intelligence doesn't stop at anyone's borders, and our leadership and our collaboration with our partners overseas will help us to make the most of AI at home so that artificial intelligence happens and is rolled out the Australian way, with Australian values in Australia's national interest.