Australia Launches AI Roadmap, Resigns From Strict Regulation Plans

Australian Federal Industry Minister, Ayres Team (photo: x @ayrestim)

JAKARTA Australia on Tuesday 2 December released the National AI Plan, a new roadmap to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) across the economic sector. However, the government chose to continue to rely on existing regulations, leaving its original plans to introduce stricter rules on high-risk scenarios.

To date, Australia does not yet have a special law on AI. The Labor Party (Labor) government last year only expressed its intention to make voluntary guidelines in response to public concerns about privacy, security and transparency.

In the National AI Plan document, the government stated that their strategy would be directed at:

Attractive investment to build a high-tech data center

Develop AI skills in the world of work to protect and create jobs

Ensuring public safety in line with the increasing use of AI in daily life

The government's regulatory approach, wrote the document, will remain based on Australia's already solid legal framework. Every institution and regulator in various sectors will be responsible for identifying and handling potential AI-related risks in their respective working areas.

The roadmap was published a month after the government announced plans to form an AI Safety Institute in 2026, which will help authorities monitor the growing risk of AI technology and respond to new threats.

Global concerns regarding misinformation triggered by generative AI tools such as OpenAI ChatGPT and Google Gemini are one of the reasons the government is accelerating this initiative.

Federal Industry Minister Tim Ayres said the roadmap was designed so that Australians could take advantage of new technologies while maintaining a balance between innovation and risk management.

"Along with the evolution of technology, we will continue to improve this plan to seize new opportunities and act decisively to maintain the safety of Australians," he said.

However, a number of experts think the document is not strong enough. Niusha Shafibadi, Associate Professor at the Australian Catholic University, said the government's latest plan is indeed ambitious in terms of data utilization and increased productivity, but still leaves a "critical void".

"This plan is ambitious in opening data and increasing productivity, but less in terms of accountability, sovereignty, sustainability, and democratic surveillance," he said.

With the rapid development of global AI, Australia is now trying to balance between the push for economic innovation and the protection of the public from the fast-growing risks of technology.