On Tuesday 21 May 2024, HTI and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) hosted the ASIC x UTS: AI Regulators Symposium to discuss emerging issues and critical questions for the effective regulation of AI.
How do we bridge the divide between the AI regulation we have and the AI regulation we need?
The symposium consisted of a series of discussions, including an interactive roundtable with AI thought leaders, and public panels facilitated by Professor Nicholas Davis, Co-Director, HTI. The final panel featured several leading Australian regulators, including Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Commissioner Liza Carver, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind, and Australian Securities and Investment Commission Chair Joseph Longo.
Across the day, participants shared a wide range of insights, including:
While there are clear gaps in legislation and an opportunity for law reform, the effective application and enforcement of existing laws can address many of the harms arising from AI systems.
Although regulators would be better supported by law reform and additional resources, they can provide guidance, undertake enforcement action, and coordinate with other regulators on AI-related issues.
Australia can play a leadership role in the protection and enforcement of people's rights in response to harms caused by AI systems.
The regulators panel explored these issues through a discussion of their current obligations and powers, new risk areas, and how AI is changing their work. The audience heard that:
Regulators are deploying AI to support staff and assist with investigative and enforcement functions.
AI is impacting regulators by creating new sources of harms and ‘turbocharging’ existing ones. Many of these issues overlap and regulators are aware of the need to work together to coordinate their responses to AI harms.
Traditional enforcement strategies are being challenged by AI for practical reasons (e.g. scale and accessibility of AI technologies; consumers unaware of rights or breaches yet burden on them to bring complaints) and legal reasons (e.g. uncertainty around liability for AI systems; application of Australian laws to foreign developers who dominate the market).
Regulators would benefit from more resources. Additional financial resources are needed for regulators to investigate and bring AI-related enforcement actions. Regulators also need to upskill staff and build technical expertise.
ASIC Chair Joe Longo set the scene for the regulators panel, emphasising the emerging consensus around the need for a strong regulatory framework for AI. In his view, such a framework would allow AI-driven innovation to flourish, delivering the economic benefits and productivity improvements that it promises.
Government and regulators can – and must – have a hand in shaping how AI technology is designed and deployed. It needs to accord with the values and rights on which our social stability and individual liberties depend - Joseph Longo, Chair Australian Investment and Securities Commission
The Hon Stephen Jones, Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, provided the keynote address.
We attach responsibility for decisions to people, to directors, to corporate entities, to responsible persons inside organisations… to licensees, and those decisions cannot be outsourced to a machine or anything else. - The Hon Stephen Jones, Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services
The regulators panel and subsequent discussion built upon insights generated from a roundtable discussion featuring 40 AI thought leaders from government, industry, civil society and academia.
HTI has collated the key insights from the symposium into an Insight Summary: ASIC x UTS: AI Regulators Symposium.