Former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard has entered the debate on regulating AI, urging governments to build their “muscle” on intervention because the challenges of the new technology would continue to come in waves of change. Source: The Australian.
She told a panel event at the UK Labour Party annual conference that “AI and anti-AI” would be one of the biggest features of the next American presidential election, with implications for leaders around the world.
Ms Gillard who is chair of the Wellcome Trust, which funds health and scientific research, said: “The AI challenge is going to mean all of that (regulation) has got to be done again and again and again. That’s going to be a big part of the debate going forward.”
Ms Gillard who is now based in London, was in Liverpool where Andy Burnham is leading his first party conference as prime minister. She sat alongside Louise Haigh, Britain’s First Secretary of State, for a discussion on political trust, the role of the state, AI and gender equity.
Ms Gillard, who was prime minister from 2010 to 2013, said she had not foreseen when social media first intersected with politics, that “we were going to end up in the negative world that we’re in”.
Twitter and other social media had seemed “quite benign new communication tools for politicians and for public debate … And then this evil underside has become more and more apparent”.
“There was a period when politicians were looking at that and going, ‘I’m not sure what we can do’. I think we’ve moved past that now, and people are more pro-regulation, more prepared to grab the issue and take it on,” Ms Gillard said.
She said Australia’s ban on social media for children was “hugely popular”.
“The public know that this is not good for their kids, not good for themselves, not good for the community, and for debate generally, and they are very open to seeing action,” she said.
FULL STORY
Julia Gillard urges governments to keep building on regulation of AI (By Helen Trinca, The Australian)
