The government has unveiled its National AI Plan, laying out a roadmap to scale up AI infrastructure and adoption that Industry and Innovation Minister Tim Ayres claims will help “create a fairer, stronger Australia where every person benefits from this technological change”.

But the plan did not include the mandatory guardrails that many expected would serve as proactive regulations for tech companies.

Professor Kimberlee Weatherall, co-director of the Centre for AI, Trust and Governance at Sydney University, joins the podcast to explain the government’s AI strategy, what’s missing from the plan and how Australia measures up against other countries when it comes to AI policymaking.

Weatherall’s book recommendations:

The Shortest History of AI by Toby Walsh and any from this list by London School of Economics and Political Science

Read more:

• Australia’s national AI plan has just been released. Who exactly will benefit?
• Labor goes hands-off in productivity-focused national AI plan
• Can wise heads fix the hard problem of AI policy?
• How Australia’s national security chief used AI to write speeches and ‘personnel communications’
• How data centres are killing Australia’s climate progress 
• How AI is reshaping religion and mental health

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