Anthony Albanese to discuss ‘international protocols’ on AI in US visit

Anthony Albanese will discuss “international protocols” around artificial intelligence as tech leaders call for a global slowdown, conceding there is a risk humans could lose control of the technology.

Mr Albanese was at Apple HQ in California on Sunday for a meeting with chairman Tim Cook.

He will travel on to New York next week for a meeting at the United Nations General Assembly where he will spruik the government’s action to reduce online harm, including the under-16s social media ban and the forthcoming Digital Duty of Care.

Speaking to the ABC on AI, Mr Albanese said there were three issues: whether companies were putting their own safeguards in place, nation states needing to act and engage with AI, and what are the “international protocols” around the use of AI.

“But I’m looking forward to engaging with leaders this week about what form that might take and what role Australia will play in that.”

However, when pressed on whether he believed AI posed an existential threat following a warning from a former Anthropic researcher who said there was a 1/10 “extinction risk” from AI within the next decade, he played down the rising fears.

Pressed on whether AI was a threat, Mr Albanese continued: “Well, it is indeed, but potentially because the risk is that AI develops in a way in which humans are no longer in control of what AI is producing.”

The Albanese government is currently consulting on its first-ever national standard for AI.

US President Donald Trump has fiercely resisted calls for a slowdown in the development of AI, citing competition with China.

Grilled on Australia’s US ally, Mr Albanese said he hoped Mr Trump’s forthcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping would result in “progress”.

“We’ve seen that in the past with new technologies, even on nuclear weapons, for example.

“We also, I think, (as) middle powers such as Australia, have a role to play here as well.”

Mr Albanese said he thought Mr Trump “knows that, at the moment, the US is essential ahead of China when it comes to the race that is on”.

“He does applaud the development of this new technology, but it is in the world’s interest that there be engagement,” he said.