UNSW Scientia Professor Toby Walsh calls out Big Tech and demands Australian government action on AI regulation and investment.
Prof. Toby Walsh, one of the world's foremost artificial intelligence (AI) researchers, will deliver an address to the National Press Club today. In his speech titled AI: doom or boom?, he warns that AI represents both an extraordinary opportunity and a serious threat to Australian society - and that the government is dangerously unprepared for both.
He will call for urgent regulation to ensure AI is developed and deployed safely, ethically and in the national interest - arguing that Australia has previously shown global leadership in standing up to powerful technology companies on social media harms and must now show the same resolve on AI.
Speaking from a lifetime of work in AI, Prof. Walsh will outline the genuine promise of AI in sectors such as healthcare, retail and education, before turning to despair at the conduct of major technology companies and the failure of government to respond.
"In hindsight, the title should not be boom or doom, but boom AND doom. Because my childhood dreams are turning into a reality that is both good and bad."
— Prof. Toby Walsh, National Press Club, 25 February 2026
Platform accountability: Scam ads and broken laws
Toby Walsh says that AI is being used extensively to generate scam advertisements - citing internal Meta documents (the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) revealing 10% of its 2024 revenue - more than $16 billion - came from scam ads and banned goods.
"Imagine that 10% of the goods on the shelves at the Good Guys were counterfeit or illegal. You'd demand that Fair Trading shut them down by the weekend. So, I don't understand how we continue to let Meta trade in Australia."
— Prof. Toby Walsh
Government failure: Anger turning to despair
Prof. Walsh reserves equal criticism for Australia's government, pointing to chronically low AI investment compared to peer nations and a decision not to proceed with a permanent independent AI expert group, despite earlier commitments. Canada has invested six times more than Australia in AI over the past five years; Singapore - with less than a quarter of Australia's population - fifteen times more.
"What makes Australia so special that we'll see the benefits of AI without making the sort of investments other nations are?"
— Prof. Toby Walsh
He warns that while Australia has cracked down on social media use for children, we are allowing AI's unregulated technology to harm citizens, particularly young people - with a far more powerful tool.
"What I fear most is that I'll be back here in 3 or 4 years time saying: 'We tried to warn you. But another generation of young Australians has now been sacrificed for the profits of big tech.'"
— Prof. Toby Walsh
Lacking AI safety: Consequences of inaction
Toby Walsh will discuss the case of 16-year-old American Adam Raine, who died by suicide in April 2025 following months of escalating conversations with ChatGPT about self-harm. Shortly before Adam's death, ChatGPT offered to help him write a suicide note, and had actively discouraged him from speaking with his family.
Prof. Walsh also cites OpenAI's own data showing that among 800 million weekly ChatGPT users, 1.2 million people indicate plans to harm themselves, 560,000 show signs of psychosis or mania, and another 1.2 million are developing potentially unhealthy bonds with the chatbot.
"Before Adam's suicide, OpenAI knew that lots of people contemplating suicide were talking to ChatGPT. You would have thought that this necessitated stronger, not weaker, guardrails."
— Prof. Toby Walsh
About UNSW Scientia Professor Toby Walsh
Toby Walsh is one of the world's leading researchers in AI. He is a Scientia Professor of AI at UNSW Sydney, Chief Scientist of the UNSW AI Institute and was a member of the Australian Government's Temporary AI Expert Group. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and a regular contributor to public debate on the social impact of AI.
