Science Minister Tim Ayres has pitched the potential productivity benefits of Artificial Intelligence, while insisting that unions have a role to play in representing the rights of workers during the introduction of the new technology.
That’s a challenge the movement is gearing up to accept, with senior union leaders stating that responsible regulation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) will protect local workers and industries alike.
Meanwhile, Chief Executive Doug Hilton has spruiked a role for CSIRO as part of the Federal Government’s larger challenge to boost economic productivity across the Australian economy.
In comments to an AI summit in Sydney earlier this month, Minister Ayres said Australia must “lean in, to secure a stake in global digital and AI development”.
“The Australian challenge is to lean in to adopt AI to lift productivity and living standards, deliver investment in infrastructure and capability and protect our security… other countries in the region are moving fast and so must we.”
The Minister said that the government would work with trade unions to “make sure that AI adoption makes jobs better”, adding that “confidence in AI adoption is key” and could be built by upskilling Australians.
“I will be looking in particular at how we can strengthen worker voice and agency as technology is diffused into every workplace in the Australian economy and I look forward to working with our trade union movement on all of this,” Minister Ayres said.
It’s an approach welcomed by the union movement. “We want to work with employers and government to realise the positive ambition,” ACTU secretary Sally McManus said.
“To achieve good adoption of AI, Australia needs responsible regulation which both protects Australian workers and Australian industries from malicious use and theft by overseas big tech,” Ms McManus said.
Meanwhile, CSIRO Chief Executive Doug Hilton welcomed the policy focus on Australia’s productivity challenge, but says it presents the government with some stark choices in the funding of science.
In an interview with InnovationAUS, Dr Hilton said the challenges of falling government funding and business investment in research and development were not new, but they had become more urgent.
“It’s a fork in the road for Australia. We have an opportunity to consider the role of science in our national life in a way that is pretty stark,” Dr Hilton said.
“If I think about what CSIRO does for many different sectors of Australian industry, the two things that come to mind are productivity improvement and sustainability.”
“If we want Australia to be prosperous, if we want to maintain the standard of living for our kids and our grandkids, then we really need science and ideas to drive that productivity.”
“And CSIRO can certainly help. That’s not the only part of the (productivity) solution, but we can certainly help,” he said.