Labor frontbencher Andrew Charlton has played down doomsday forecasts over an AI extinction threat, insisting Australians should not be overly focused on public warnings from tech bosses. Source: The West Australian.
At the weekend, Anthropic boss Dario Amodei called for the pace of development to slow down and aligned with warnings from AI researcher Jacob Coxon of an impending AI apocalypse.
However, despite the rallying cry for regulation – which was also echoed by fellow tech titans Elon Musk and Sam Altman – Dr Charlton used an Australian Strategic Policy Institute forum yesterday to soothe public anxiety.
“We’ve seen a lot of news in the last couple of days from some of these technology companies talking about their desire to slow things down,” Dr Charlton said.
“I don’t think we should care very much about what individual executives say.
“I think we should care about what is actually happening, and what’s actually happening is that we’re building the capability of these machines in a scaling environment, which is not bending, which is becoming more and more capable.
“Australia has a lot of agency here.”
Prime Minster Anthony Albanese made a familiar reference to Pope Leo XIV’s inaugural papal encyclical Magnifica Humanitas which was released in May and warned AI posed a major threat to humanity while referencing the warnings from tech bosses in Parliament Question Time yesterday.
“Anthropic and others pointed to the serious risks that can emerge alongside the development and implementation of artificial intelligence,” Mr Albanese said.
“When AI companies themselves make these observations, it is even clearer that this change is something that we all must shape together – companies and governments alike, taking responsibility. “
He said his government’s approach to AI – which was announced during a landmark address at the University of Sydney in July – showed that Labor was taking “risks seriously”.
It comes as multiple parliamentary inquiries will examine AI across Australian society.
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Labor downplays AI extinction fears as tech bosses warn superintelligence race could put humanity at risk (By Caitlyn Rintoul, The Nightly via The West Australian)
