Meet the philosopher tasked with keeping Australians safe from AI

Dr Kate Conroy has been appointed the inaugural head of Australia's AI Safety Institute

Hiya!

I just published Kate Conroy appointed inaugural general manager of Australian AI Safety Institute

I’m pretty interested in the government’s yet-to-be-launched AI Safety Institute.

For context, the federal government ditched plans for a dedicated AI Act, mandatory high risk guardrails for AI use or a independent regulator.

Now, we’ve got a body that sits inside government, has no real powers, and a fairly modest budget that is supposed to contend with the enormous challenge of understanding cutting edge AI developments, testing, and advising how to avoid those risks.

Even the decision about risks to focus on is fairly consequential: there’s current risks (everything from deepfakes to misinformation to intellectual property etc) to existential risk (SkyNet et al.). And then there’s the risk of potentially failing to seize promised benefits.

Dr Kate Conroy has a long career working with government on how to use AI ethically. She’s very qualified. The choice to go with her, rather than someone from industry or someone with a real technical expertise, sends a message about what the government wants from this role.

Thanks for reading and would love to hear if you have any thoughts.

Thanks, CW

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