The Labor party's $3 million pledge for a new artificial intelligence centre of excellence will aim to make Australia a hub of "ethical" AI development at a watershed moment of backlash against the internet giants, opposition spokesman for the digital economy Ed Husic has told The Australian Financial Review Innovation Summit.

Mr Husic said 2018 would be remembered as a "threshold year" in technology as momentous as 2007, when the internet surpassed 1 billion users, the iPhone and the Android operating system were launched, and Airbnb and bitcoin were conceived.