Beyond the Pause: Australia’s AI Opportunity – Part 1

Ever wish you could sit down with a real-deal AI technologist and ask them what’s on earth is going on? In this double-episode of Tech Mirror, Johanna chats with Bill Simpson Young and Tiberio Cataneo, CEO and Chief Scientist at Gradient Institute. This independent, non-profit research institute works to build safety, ethics, accountability and transparency into AI systems.

 

In Part One of this wide-ranging conversation, the trio:

-          define key terms like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Large Language Models, Frontier vs Foundation AI, Narrow vs General AI

-          chat about Bill’s biggest bugbear

-          talk about why Bill and Tiberio both signed the Pause Letter and

-          discuss if it is even possible to regulate Artificial intelligence (spoiler alert: it is)

-          and consider how liability could be used to incentivise improved AI safety.

 

In Part Two, they discuss:

-          the benefits and perils of open-source AI models

-          the possibility of securing an international agreement on AI safety, US and China dynamics and the opportunity for Australian leadership 

-          the practical work that Gradient is doing to facilitate the technical implementation of ethical AI frameworks to address AI harms today.

 

Links

-          Gradient Institute: https://www.gradientinstitute.org/

-          Australian Government Paper and call for submission on Responsible Artificial Intelligence: https://consult.industry.gov.au/supporting-responsible-ai

-          Gradient’s Submission on Responsible AI: https://www.gradientinstitute.org/posts/disr-safe-responsible-ai-submission/

-          The Pause Letter: https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments/

-          UK AI Safety Summit: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-safety-summit-introduction

-          The Future of Life Institute’s recommendations for the UK AI Safety Summit: https://futureoflife.org/project/uk-ai-safety-summit/

-          Gradient and National AI Centre: Implementing Australia’s AI Ethics Principles: https://www.gradientinstitute.org/posts/csiro-gradient-new-report/

-          The Coming Wave: Technology, Power and the Twenty-first Century’s greatest dilemma: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/90590134