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AI agent infiltrated Australian government website, Albanese tells UN
The Prime Minister says the incident is why Australia has been setting its own AI standards, after joining other nations this week in a call to shape AI development.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has told the United Nations General Assembly that an artificial intelligence agent recently infiltrated an Australian government website, an incident he described as unacceptable.
Albanese said the incident was why Australia had been leading the way in setting Australian standards for AI.
"Standards to ensure that AI will work and deliver for people, not the other way around," he said.
He said Australia joined other nations this week in calling for action to "shape artificial intelligence development rather than be passively shaped by it".
"We can't ignore AI or prevent it," Albanese said.
He said AI could improve lives, boost growth and productivity and provide revolutionary breakthroughs in health care and other fields.
But he said leaders of AI companies had themselves warned of the potential risks of allowing frontier AI to develop too fast without guardrails.
Albanese opened his address by naming emerging technology as one of the challenges nations needed to work on together, along with climate change and the breakdown of international rules.
He said the UN's mission could not be entrusted solely to the great powers, the biggest countries or the loudest voices, "nor can it be subcontracted to the world's richest companies or dictated by the pace of technology".
He said the multilateral system was under immense strain and AI was evolving at a furious pace.
Albanese said there was a temptation to see today's issues as ones earlier generations could not have imagined, but "the fundamental stakes haven't changed".
On social media, he said Australian parents spoke to world leaders at last year's assembly about the campaign that led to Australia's ban for under-16s.
He said more than 20 countries were bringing in or had brought in age restrictions on social media.
"With the European community taking action, there are many more to come," he said.
Albanese said the government had more recently announced a digital duty of care, which he said was designed to give people control over what appears in their feeds.