TAS submission to the Australian Government consultation on Supporting Responsible AI

TAS have provided a submission to the public consultation on Supporting Responsible AI being conducted by the Australian Government Department of Industry, Science and Resources. Preparation of the TAS submission was contributed to by Clare East of East Consulting.

The Discussion Paper released to support the consultation provided an excellent overview of existing and proposed regulatory efforts addressing general AI, distinguished from sector-specific AI. On that basis, our submission focussed on regulation of sector-specific AI applications in use around Australia, specifically autonomous systems in the transport, general commercial and defence industry sectors in the land, air and maritime domains.

At a sector-specific level, our submission highlighted the following key points:

1) AI-enabled autonomous technology is in regular use in the air, maritime and land domains, for government, commercial, research and defence purposes, and is increasingly capable and accessible.

2) Better regulatory approaches and infrastructure are needed to support safe and trusted design, manufacture and use.

3) Implementing a set of overarching regulatory principles will support harmonised, best practice domestic and international regulatory development.

4) Whole-of-government guidance on the implementation of a risk management approach to supporting responsible AI will be needed.

5) Australia should consider adopting targeted initiatives and programmes designed to foster co-design arrangements between government and non-government organisations.

Our submission also provides an overview of some of the regulatory tools and initiatives that TAS has led to bridge the regulatory gap, which are available at RASGateway.com.au. These were highlighted as useful examples of what can be done at a sector-specific level to make incremental but important advancements.

TAS looks forward to seeing the outcomes of the public consultation released in due course.

For more information on our projects you can reach out us via info@tasdcrc.com.au.