Australia should take a lead role on AI: Google

Anticipating AI’s risks and unlocking its potential aren’t mutually exclusive. Picture: iStock

For young Australians with a passion for technology, the chance to work overseas will always have a powerful draw. We took that path ourselves, and got the chance to work with technology pioneers from all over the world.

Part of the reason we left is because Australia didn’t have the same critical mass as global centres of innovation like Silicon Valley. A big part of the reason we’re back — leading our research hub in Australia — is because we believe Australia has a golden opportunity to start changing that. Google’s establishment of an Australian Digital Future Initiative in 2021 was one important sign of the private sector’s commitment to being part of the solution.

Since then, the world has reached a tipping point in artificial intelligence, with generative AI tools and large language models capturing people’s imagination everywhere. The breakthroughs we’re seeing today, many years in the making, create enormous potential to strengthen our economy and make progress on challenges from climate change to healthcare. That’s why we choose to work on AI, and why there’s never been a better time for Australians to do so too, whether at the cutting edge of the field, or in applying the latest advances through their everyday work. We can use this moment to harness the talent of the next generation — and put Australia at the forefront of a new era of technological progress.

To do so, we should focus on three overlapping priorities, and one national mindset shift.

First is building up Australia’s base of knowledge and skills in deep technology research. This means contributing to a strong research community, including fostering a more diverse pipeline of students and researchers through initiatives like ExploreCSR, a Google-supported program encouraging more women to pursue computing research.

It is exciting that Australia is creating new jobs in technology-related fields, growing the tech workforce by 8 per cent in 12 months. At the same time as building on this momentum, we need to help workers across all industries — and students at school or in higher education — understand AI and learn to use the new tools it creates. The Careers in STEM magazines that are distributed to schools across the country are one example of how we can spotlight diverse role models working in all areas of tech. These magazines help students make more informed decisions on their career and convey to the next generation that AI literacy can open up a range of opportunities in sectors beyond the technology itself.

Over the longer term, we should invest in developing a pipeline of talented researchers who can build Australia’s expertise, as ANU is doing through a new postdoctoral program supported by Google and concentrated on foundational machine learning research.

Second, we should ensure that we’re deploying advances in AI and other technologies across our economy and communities to improve decision-making, complement human skill and imagination, and create new products and services.

It means focusing on areas where Australia has natural strengths and a history of innovation. One example is hearing technology, where Cochlear, the National Acoustics Laboratory, Google and other partners are working with AI and machine learning applications to develop listening and communications technology for the 1.5 billion people globally with some form of hearing loss. Another is bushfire recovery and conservation. AI has helped the WWF, Conservation International and other partners track the extraordinary recovery of species after the 2019-20 Australian fires, and enabled land managers to make more informed conservation decisions. A third area of opportunity is the potential of marine ecosystems to store carbon — the focus of a collaboration between Google, the CSIRO and DFAT.

The third priority is making sure Australians play their part in developing AI safely and responsibly.

Some AI-related risks have the potential to cause harm in ways specific to Australia. For instance, the danger of unconscious discrimination has a distinct flavour locally and could have unique consequential harms. Other challenges are global in nature, like provenance — making it clear when something has been generated by AI — or the risk that misinformation and disinformation is amplified by AI tools. Then there are the norms, rules and regulations that should govern AI, which we need to decide on as Australians, and in co-operation with other nations and global bodies.

Google was one of the first companies to recognise the importance of avoiding these risks, publishing a set of AI Principles in 2018. It’s another big reason why we agreed to set up a Google research hub in Australia. We have committed at a global level to helping ensure that AI works equally for everyone, and to being part of the deep, robust discussions needed on the path to AI regulation. Here in Australia, the Federal Government is taking encouraging steps, including most recently the announcement of a review, Safe and Responsible AI, that aims to give Australians the confidence to embrace this new technology by ensuring risks are appropriately managed.

Anticipating AI’s risks and unlocking its potential aren’t mutually exclusive. On the contrary, they go hand-in-hand. And the discussion about how we guide AI responsibly should go beyond scientists and technologists, from people with a grounding in humanities subjects like history and philosophy, to those using AI in every field of industry. It’s critical that we engage Australians of diverse ages, backgrounds and aspirations in this debate.

There’s one final lesson Australia should learn from technology leaders overseas, and that’s to think big. Students and young entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley are encouraged not just to advance technology that already exists, but to imagine entirely new ways of solving problems or improving lives.

Australia can do the same. We have a proud track record of innovation. We can play an even larger role in shaping the transformative tools and platforms of the future, building new solutions to our biggest challenges, and ensuring that the benefits of AI are shared openly and equitably. Australians have the talent and vision to seize this moment of opportunity, if we pursue the right priorities — and think big about the possibilities ahead.

Grace Chung and Peter Bartlett lead research for Google Australia.