From philosophy to inside a Poseidon P-8A<\/p>\n
The department spokesperson described Dr Conroy as a “global expert in responsible AI”.<\/p>\n
Dr Conroy comes to the role with a background of working with governments on AI ethics and risks, particularly around autonomous systems and robotics.<\/p>\n
Most recently, Dr Conroy was the lead of responsible AI at the Royal Australian Air Force, where she was involved in the introduction of its first AI system to run live inside a plane’s systems, the Poseidon P-8A, as part of AUKUS Pillar II.<\/p>\n
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Kate Conroy has previously worked with governments on AI ethics and risks. (LinkedIn: Kate Conroy)<\/p>\n
In a Department of Defence media release, Dr Conroy described the plane’s AI system working as “a helper, not a decider”.<\/p>\n
She said it would present incoming data and give the crew feedback on the plane’s operation but left the decision-making to the humans.<\/p>\n
In 2022, Dr Conroy authored an academic paper<\/a> warning militaries could “cook” personnel into “bad apples” if they delegated more parts of the decision-making process in war situations to AI.<\/p>\n Dr Conroy has also worked as the chief scientist for the Trusted Autonomous Systems Defence Cooperative Research Centre, where she co-authored technical reports and created toolkits for the ethical use of AI in armed forces.<\/p>\n Outside of the military, Dr Conroy had primarily worked with the government and as an academic.<\/p>\n Immediately before her role in the air force, Dr Conroy worked for the Queensland government, introducing rules to evaluate and manage the risks of AI in government.<\/p>\n She co-authored a framework for governments using AI that was adopted as the national standard in 2024.<\/p>\n She obtained a PhD in philosophy in 2013 and has held roles at the University of Queensland<\/a> and Queensland University of Technology.<\/p>\n Australia’s approach to AI safety<\/p>\n Dr Conroy’s appointment puts an AI ethics specialist, rather than a conventional technical specialist or former regulator, at the head of Australia’s first AI safety body.<\/p>\n She is the first confirmed member of the AI Safety Institute, which was announced in November 2025 as part of the rollout of the national AI plan.<\/p>\n Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science Tim Ayres said at the time<\/a> that Australia would only be able to seize the opportunities of AI if it was also able to manage its risks.<\/p>\n The AI Safety Institute would be used to assess these risks, Mr Ayres said.<\/p>\n “The institute will be the government’s hub of AI safety expertise. It will operate with transparency, responsiveness and technical rigour to make sure Australians are confident to use this game-changing technology safely,” he said.<\/p>\n AI body suddenly scrapped after 15 months spent finding experts<\/a><\/p>\n It took 15 months to narrow a field of 270 AI experts to 12 appointees for an AI authority, at a cost of almost $200,000, before it was suddenly scrapped by the federal government.<\/p>\n The institute has been given funding of $29.9 million over four years and was set to be established in “early 2026”<\/a>.<\/p>\n Its creation followed the government’s decision to move away from a proposed single AI Act, a central AI regulator and advisory body of experts, and instead rely on existing regulators and agencies to manage AI harms across their own areas.<\/p>\n Under the national AI plan, the institute will have to work on both “upstream” risks and “downstream” harms.<\/p>\n The plan defines upstream risks as the capabilities of AI models and the way they are built and trained.<\/p>\n Downstream harms are the real-world effects people experience when AI systems are used.<\/p>\n That gives the institute a wide remit: from advanced model testing and international AI safety research to the everyday consequences of AI systems being used in workplaces, government services, finance and consumer products.<\/p>\n Australians using AI but do not trust it<\/p>\n The institute’s imminent opening comes at an important time for AI in Australia.<\/p>\n Since the generative AI boom was sparked with the release of ChatGPT at the end of 2022, there has been a rapid growth in use of products and tools powered by the new technology.<\/p>\n At the same time, public polling consistently shows there is a broad distrust of the technology among Australians.<\/p>\n
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