The State Government will establish a nation-leading Royal Commission into artificial intelligence to ensure South Australians maximise benefits and minimise unwanted impacts from the AI boom.
The ongoing expansion of artificial intelligence presents the world's most significant technological shift since the industrial revolution.
While the technology raises significant challenges for our social and economic fabric, it also presents substantial opportunities, some of which South Australia has a competitive advantage to leverage.
A dedicated, independent Royal Commission will give the South Australian Government advice and recommendations to best position the state now, and into the future, as artificial intelligence further develops.
The Government intends to appoint a panel of commissioners with relevant expertise to lead the Royal Commission.
The Commission is expected to hear evidence and receive submissions from a broad cross-section of the South Australian community, including business, industry bodies, unions, technology developers, academics, independent experts and representatives of creative industries.
The Royal Commission is slated to start on 1 October, with a final report to be handed to Government no later than 1 July 2027.
In a similar approach to that which was taken in the Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care, and Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence, it is intended that the Commission seeks to propose policy solutions, rather than look retrospectively into issues from a judicial or legal perspective.
Terms of Reference will be developed focusing on the economic and social opportunities and challenges that AI will bring to South Australia, in particular:
- policy and regulatory settings, both at a state level and those that need to be managed nationally
- impacts and opportunities for education including schools and higher education (tertiary and vocational)
- impacts and opportunities on public services provided by the state including health
- impacts and opportunities for South Australia's skills and workforce
- opportunities related to AI related infrastructure including the interrelationship with energy transformation, water usage and associated impacts (such as electricity grid implications).
South Australia was the first to establish a Cabinet Minister for Artificial Intelligence, has established the Office for Artificial Intelligence, has developed a Data Centre Strategy, is home to the Australian Institute for Machine Learning at Lot Fourteen, and home to the Responsible AI Research Centre.
