Sydney [Australia], September 20: The risks posed by the growing use of AI need to be mitigated, the prime minister has warned, as he spruiks Australia's world-leading social media ban with tech titans.
Anthony Albanese met with former Apple head Tim Cook and other executives at the company's headquarters in California on Sunday morning, Australian time.
The one-hour, closed-door meeting followed a phone call between Mr Albanese and Mr Cook in June after Apple rolled out child safety features on its devices, some inspired by Australia's social media account ban for under-16s.
International rules surrounding the use of artificial intelligence were also raised during the discussions as the prime minister joined a push among other middle powers at the United Nations for more regulations in the sector.
While Australia could not be left behind in the global AI race, safety features also needed to be front of mind, Mr Albanese said.
National AI standards were unveiled in July to require data centres to be powered by additional, renewable energy.
Mr Albanese said a balance needed to be struck between the benefits of the technology and mitigating its potential harms.
The push at the UN coincides with OpenAI head Sam Altman and Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei calling for a slowdown in the technology's development.
But US President Donald Trump has rejected calls for further guardrails, warning America could lose the AI race to China as a result.
Mr Albanese said writers and other creative artists would still have ownership of their work ahead of looming changes to copyright laws brought on by the rise of AI.
Source: Fijian Broadcasting Cooperation
