Three experts leading South Australia’s Royal Commission into Artificial Intelligence will begin their work today amid the “rapid pace” of changes the technology is already bringing to the workforce.
Former federal court judge Dr Iain Ross AO has been appointed to lead the royal commission in an announcement by SA Premier Peter Malinauskas on Thursday.
The other two commissioners selected were former Tech Council of Australia CEO Kate Pounder and artificial intelligence expert Christopher Manning.
“They start their work today. There is no point in mucking about here, particularly given the speed at which this is moving,” Mr Malinauskas said.
The royal commission is expected to deliver a report to the government no later than July 1 next year.
The premier also released the royal commission’s terms of reference, tasking the inquiry to examine the “economic societal opportunities and implications resulting from AI in South Australia”.
This included looking into opportunities, barriers and policy settings for AI to improve productivity, innovation and economic growth to “enable South Australian industry to be nationally and globally competitive.”
Kate Pounder (left) and Iain Ross (second left) will lead SA’s Royal Commission into AI alongside Christopher Manning (not pictured). (ABC News: Thomas Kelsall)
The royal commission will also look at how SA can leverage the social benefits of AI, while safeguarding people and society from any AI-related risks and challenges.
It will also examine legislative frameworks required in the state to encourage “safe and responsible development, deployment, adoption and use of AI across industry, government, research and the community”.
During the press conference on Thursday, Dr Ross was questioned whether he was confident the inquiry’s findings would not be out of date, given AI’s fast-evolving nature.
“Yes, there will be elements where the technology might move quickly, but the structural fundamentals around how do you get your settings right to enable innovation to flow through an economy — those are probably consistent features,” he said.
“I acknowledge the fast moving nature of it, but that also speaks to why it’s desirable to do it within that [July 2027] time frame.”
Minister for Articifical Intelligence Chris Picton said the technology has brought “changes at a rapid pace” to workforce, schools and the broad community
Who are the royal commissioners?
Mr Malinauskas said Dr Ross is Reserve Bank’s monetary board member, the chair of the Net Zero Commission and was president of the Fair Work Commission at “a time of great change within the labour market.”
Stanford University artificial intelligence expert Professor Christopher Manning. (Supplied: Xuthoria, CC BY-SA 4.0)
“Iain’s expertise are critical because one of the key focuses of the royal commission is to consider what the implications are of AI on the future of work more broadly,” he said.
“We know that AI is already changing the way people live, but most critically the way they work
“Iain has a full appreciation of how government policy can have an impact on the way we work.”
The premier said Ms Pounder would bring expertise on industry policy development while Professor Manning, who is based in California’s Stanford Univeristy, has been “at the forefront of the development of artificial intelligence technology”.
“He [Professor Manning] provides us access to the heartbeat of the industry and understanding the way this technology is evolving because of course it is moving at pace, but that’s something prof Manning has been a witness to and party to right from AI’s inception,” Mr Malinauskas said.