AI to be 'greatest change since electricity': Keating

Artificial intelligence is set to be the "greatest agency for change" since the introduction of electricity, former prime minister Paul Keating says.

Mr Keating made the comments at a sold-out Sydney Writers' Festival event on Wednesday evening.

He spoke at Sydney Recital Hall with international affairs expert James Curran about the historian's new book, Grand Ambition.

The book details Mr Keating's vision for Australia's role on the world stage during his time in power.

While speaking about what Australia needed to do to boost its productivity, Mr Keating said structural change - which had been lacking since the introduction of the GST in 2000 - was required.

He said Australia needed to boldly take on the challenges posed by AI.

"(Artificial intelligence) I think is going to be... certainly since the discovery of electricity, the greatest agency for change," he said.

He commended the federal Labor government's recent changes to the capital gains tax to make housing more affordable as an example of the kind of change needed in the future.

"And if we've lost 10 or 15 per cent house values, so what?" he added.

Mr Keating has long been a critic of Australia's foreign policy, and in particular of the AUKUS defence agreement.

He reiterated on Wednesday that Australia needed to "look after itself" rather than rely on the US and the UK.

"In these arrangements with the Americans...and the British, we've lost sovereignty," he said.

However, Mr Keating said he broadly supported the foreign policy of US President Donald Trump, who he said was trying to avoid a third world war.

"He's the only one being prepared to deal with Russia (and) China independently," he said.