Donna Demaio: Australia Correspondent on the Government pushing ahead with regulating AI and social media

The Australian Government is pushing ahead with regulating of social media and AI, despite the incoming Trump administration's opposition to both. 

It's in the process of developing "guardrails" for high-risk uses of AI. 

Donald Trump is promising to repeal American regulation of AI, claiming it hinders innovation and imposes radical left-wing ideas. 

But Correspondent Donna Demaio told Ryan Bridge the Australian Government believes the public wants action. 

She says the Government's planning to work with other countries if possible, but is prepared to act alone. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Donald de Mayo's our Australia correspondent Don a good morning.
Good morning, is elbow pecking a fight with Trump over
social media?

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Kind of but not really.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
No, it's a case of what am I making this
story sound more interesting than it is.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
It's a case of what happens next, isn't it really?
There's all questions being asked in the aftermath of that
election win. So Australia is I suppose reassuring the federal government,
I should say, is trying to reassure the Australian public
that it will still pursue AI regulation, social media regulation,
despite as it says, that Trump administration opposing it. It's

(00:37):
going to push through with these regulations in these areas.
And we heard from the Industry Minister, Ed Husseick. Now
the minister says that he needs to reassure Australians that
he and his government will pursue what it calls the
national priorities. And we know that Trump is promising to
roll back AI regulation while Australia is saying we are

(00:59):
going to devel The federal government says what they've described
as guard rails for high risk uses of AI. For instance,
there's going to be some new laws and also they're
looking at their social media policies as well, and the
Minister says the public expects action in these fields. He says,
where possible, Australia will work with other countries, but if

(01:23):
we need to, it will be localized and that will
be pursued. And to quote the Minister, we need to
take these steps necessary so that people can have the
confidence to actually use AI into the future. So it
was a very interesting comments to be made.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
What type of guardrails are they talking about?

Speaker 2 (01:39):
How do I was afraid you'd ask that things like
being able to have human intervention and oversight. For instance,
when we are using AR you want, of course.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
You want a human Yes, if it starts you know,
I don't know if it's the computer starts fizzing, blowing
up or shooting people. You want a human to be
able to press the button and turn it off, not.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
To sensationalize in any way, shape.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
Or for money. Australia's first Anti Slavery Commission has been appointed.
What is this?

Speaker 2 (02:08):
This is a very serious matter. Of course, there's an
estimated forty one thousand people living in modern slavery in Australia,
and so we have heard from the government and they've
appointed the former Labor Senator Chris Evans, and he's going
to address these exploitative practices. We're talking about deceptive recruiting,
we're talking about debt bondage, we are talking about forced marriages,

(02:29):
human trafficking and forced labor. It's a five year term
for the former Immigration and Workplace Relations Minister. And we
also heard from the Attorney General who said that of
course modern slavery deprives the victim of the dignity, fundamental
rights and freedom.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
All Right, Donna, thank you very much for that. Donald,
our Australia correspondent.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
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