Australia needs to slow down its artificial intelligence use and create better security laws, the companies creating the technology have told the federal government.
In a submission to an ongoing inquiry, OpenAI said national leaders had a responsibility to work with other countries to stop global security threats.
“Many of the most consequential risks will not stop at national borders, making international co-ordination increasingly important,” the company said.
It said Australia was in a narrow “defender’s window” during which it could use the technology to find and fix cybersecurity threats, rather than create them.
Tech giant Atlassian, which runs AI system Rovo, used its submission to urge the government to bolster its laws.
International standards and work already undertaken overseas should be used to protect Australian consumers, it said.
“We need to embrace governance and regulation as a force multiplier for trust,” Atlassian’s head of regulation Anna Jaffe wrote, arguing that tighter privacy crackdowns would also benefit the tech sector as clients would be more likely to engage with them.
The comments come after OpenAI’s chief executive Sam Altman and Elon Musk displayed rare unity in backing Anthropic’s head Dario Amodei, who called for a slowdown in “reckless” AI development through a three-part essay.
Several cyber hacks have been linked to large AI developers that have been unable to contain their models. While the companies have privacy and security frameworks, they have regularly been criticised as doing too little.
Government departments will front the inquiry on Friday and are likely to be probed on their security measures.
One person set to appear, Australian Signals Directorate director-general Abigail Bradshaw, warned earlier this week that intelligence and security agencies needed to work with AI companies to identify early risks.
“What we are missing at the moment, which we have in a cyber context but we don’t yet have in a formalised AI context, is an early warning system,” she told an Australian Strategic Policy Institute event.
Australia’s outdated technology was little match for potential hacking as machines grew smarter, which she said needed to be addressed proactively.
Despite that, the intelligence agency has followed dozens of other government departments in beginning to use AI to streamline efficiency.
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