Treasurer Jim Chalmers 'optimistic' AI can be 'force for good'

The Productivity Commission is warning the federal government against making new laws that would stifle the development of Artificial Intelligence.

Transcript

00:00Well, the Productivity Commission has warned against over-regulation of artificial intelligence

00:07to protect the economy, so what's been the government's response to that?

00:11This is an issue that has come up in the discussion about productivity that the government is

00:16having at the moment, as we know they're doing this big productivity round table at the end

00:21of this month, and the Productivity Commission has been making a lot of recommendations and

00:26requests of the government in the lead up to that.

00:29One of the things it's said about artificial intelligence is that it doesn't want the

00:33government to over-regulate because it is concerned that it will take away some of the economic

00:39benefit that it believes it could add, and it's put a number on it.

00:42It's estimated that it could add more than $116 billion to Australia's economy over the

00:48next decade.

00:49Now, the government is trying to maintain a balance.

00:53It also needs to appease the unions who are concerned about people's jobs.

00:58And so, as part of these discussions, we'll need to balance the concerns about those jobs

01:04and job losses, but also the potential benefit that having some of these AI tools in the workforce

01:10could bring.

01:11Treasurer Jim Chalmers says that he believes they are on the same par here with the Productivity

01:17Commission.

01:18There's a lot of very smart people who have concluded that the opportunities for workers

01:24outweigh the risks, that it's about augmenting people's work, not always just automating

01:30it.

01:31And so the responsibility that we embrace is to make this work for people, not against

01:34them, to make them beneficiaries, not victims of this change, including in the workforce.

01:38With Jim Chalmers there, we also know that the former industry minister, Ed Husic, has talked

01:46about wanting an Artificial Intelligence Act.

01:49That is the sort of thing that the Productivity Commission is also cautioning against.

01:53that's it.

02:01So, we will continue to do everything that's which I will do to make this work really

02:04important, let me open it up.

02:06I'll do everything that I want to do to make this work really well, then they have to

02:11look at what I want to do to do, to make this work really well.