Twiggy’s tour rages against tech titans, AI

Billionaire Andrew Forrest has labelled the unchecked rise of artificial intelligence one of his key concerns.

Andrew and Nicola Forrest at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Kym Smith

Billionaire Andrew Forrest has labelled the unchecked rise of artificial intelligence and big technology companies like Facebook and Amazon as one of his key concerns, saying that when it comes to the digital realm, people “are like mice in a laboratory where no one is in control”.

Mr Forrest will highlight the issue during a week-long tour around the country promoting his billion-dollar Minderoo Foundation, starting on Monday, during which he and wife Nicola will meet state premiers and ministers and federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley in Canberra.

The foundation has added dealing with technology and artificial intelligence as key causes the Forrest family is backing, along with helping end slavery, ending childhood cancer deaths, cutting plastic waste and reducing the disparity between indigenous and non-indigenous people.

Mr Forrest will also launch his foundation’s 2019 annual report, showing it has net assets of $1.35bn after a $655m injection earlier this year from the mining magnate. The foundation spent $75.2m on projects and partnerships in 2019.

In the report, Mr Forrest says one of the biggest challenges society faces is a “lack of meaningful accountability for data aggregators and AI developers of all stripes” and that the technology industry comprising the likes of Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Alibaba and Tencent “is particularly stark in this regard”.

Facebook copped a blast from Mr Forrest over fraudulent advertising on its platform. He said the tech giant was moving too slowly to take down ads by fraudsters using his likeness as “celeb-bait” to try to scam people.

In the Minderoo annual report, Mr Forrest writes that he is starting initiatives with the premise that “we have just two to five years to execute on a range of projects that will define the governance of AI in our saturated world”.

Mr Forrest said he first began to learn about the huge power of machine-based learning in 2010 when he was considering automation of some of the processes at his Fortescue Metals Group, al though it would have “dramatically disempowered” about one-third of the iron-ore miner’s workforce. “It taught us there is a huge downside of what is artificial intelligence,” he said.

Minderoo will launch a series of initiatives during the 2020 financial year focused on “civic-minded and rights-based” responses to “frontier technologies”, including a series of AI Eminent Thinkers forums in Beijing, Washington and Perth.

Mr Forrest said there was a need for third-party involvement and a rebalancing of power and interests, along with potentially more regulation, as the giant technology companies with “accountability problems and transparency failings” were domin-ating the funding and supporting of both artificial intelligence advances and ethics and governance initiatives.

“It is like the wild west but you don’t have a sheriff,” he told The Australian.

The Minderoo foundation has also committed $US300m ($442m) to help end plastic waste worldwide as part of the Sea the Future program launched at the United Nations in September, and also launched a $5m collaboration with the Zero Childhood Cancer program this year.

While he remains chairman of Fortescue Metals Group, Mr Forrest said he was deriving an even bigger sense of satisfaction seeing Minderoo grow.

“I think there is only a small change of mindset (from running a big business) and it gives you at least equal or even greater sense of satisfaction. It used to be that I devoted 90 per cent of time to FMG and 10 per cent to Minderoo. Then it grew to 50/50 and when I was able to step back from the business that has become 95 per cent now on local and global causes with Minderoo.”