![\"Attorney-General's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783325422_823_ImageResizer.ashx.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nThe Attorney-General\u2019s Department has set up two controlled AI tools, one each from Microsoft and Google, for staff to use on data classified up to the \u2018protected\u2019 level.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Antony Spence, right, speaks at Google Cloud Summit Sydney.
\n <\/p>\n
Assistant secretary in charge of IT support, engagement and innovation Antony Spence revealed the department\u2019s approved AI setup at the Google Cloud Summit in Sydney.<\/p>\n
The department has stood up Microsoft Copilot Chat and Google NotebookLM for staff over the past year, Spence said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese two products are certified at the protected level for us. They’re in our own controlled [cloud] tenancies, and what it now allows staff to do is actually use AI with their data.\u201d<\/p>\n
The department\u2019s earlier experiments with AI followed the trajectory of other federal government implementations, where tools could be used only on information already in the public domain.<\/p>\n
These implementations were of limited utility to staff, as most of their data could not be processed by the tools.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went through our own mini hype cycle [with AI]. People got excited about it, then they started using it, they could only use public data, and it kind of just went out of favour,\u201d Spence said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost people went, \u2018That’s great. I’ve got actual work to do, and I can’t use my data, so come back to me when you’ve got something else\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Copilot Chat and NotebookLM in controlled spaces are that \u201csomething else\u201d, and have afforded staff the ability to use AI on data that is contextually relevant to their line of work.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we’ve got now is people being able to actually do their work, have a look at AI opportunities, and have a much more grounded conversation in that space,\u201d Spence said.<\/p>\n
The tool choice, and use of the tools, is being guided by the AI plan for the Australian Public Service, which was developed by the Department of Finance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was the framing strategy to ensure that we’re engaging with AI and using it safely,\u201d Spence said.<\/p>\n
Use of the tools is admissible with reference to a set of \u201cpolicy guardrails\u201d that the Attorney-General\u2019s Department has put together.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s absolutely no point giving people strict rules with AI. AI moves too quickly, and use cases evolve too quickly, and what we’re also finding is that if we try to set the traditional public service policies of \u2018thou shalt do this, thou shalt not do that\u2019, they age out too quickly, and we just can’t keep up,\u201d Spence said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, we leant into our privacy law background. And in privacy law, you don’t set rules, you set guardrails. So we now have guardrails for the use of AI.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are policy guardrails – they’re not technical guardrails – but what this allows people to do is [access] simple guidance so that they can use their context to play with the tools.\u201d<\/p>\n
Users of the tools have to \u201cverify the generated outputs\u201d for accuracy – keeping humans in the loop – and \u201cown the final results\u201d.<\/p>\n
Spence said that AI \u201csupplements\u201d work but does not automate it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not produce anything as final versions that come straight out of AI – and I’m going to go one step further. At this stage, there’s no automated decision-making within our organisation,\u201d Spence said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don’t create any final versions using AI. It supplements our work, it augments our work, but humans own the start and finish and throughout the process. So we can’t say, \u2018Sorry, AI created that. I don’t know how it came [about\u2019].”\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe public doesn’t accept that; our senators at [senate] estimates won’t accept that. It’s really important for us that we own whatever comes out of there. That’s what all of you expect, and that’s what I expect as a citizen as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The department is also recording its uses of AI tooling.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe keep a record of where we’re using AI, how we’re using AI, and what it’s actually doing for us,\u201d Spence said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat does a couple of things. That goes to the core of public service. We have to have a record of what we do. We have strong obligations around records keeping and being accountable to the public, so we’ve built in some processes by which staff can record their use of AI.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are trying to balance that with practicality, so we don’t record every single use of every AI tool ever, in the same way I don’t record when I jump on Google Search and I look up some legislation, I wouldn’t record that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut if it’s creating a draft speech for me, I definitely note that [down]. If it’s creating an image, those kinds of things.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgain, we’ve deferred this to the line [of business] areas for them to add their context and work out where that makes the most sense for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Users of the tools are also encouraged to report \u201cunexpected anomalies\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Anomalies\u2019 isn’t a bad word. I think anomalies, especially in AI or any new tech space, are unexpected outcomes,\u201d Spence said.<\/p>\n
He said anomalies could include gaining access to more data than expected, or instances of a tool not responding \u201cthe way you want it to\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing able to report those anomalies allows us to build this big corporate knowledge between our areas,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there are really good use cases for AI, we can learn from that. But I [also] love learning from the ways it doesn’t work well, because that allows us to tune the messaging, support people, help them understand where actually maybe AI is not the right tool, or maybe this version of AI is not right – try a different tool, try a different approach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ry Crozier attended the Google Cloud Summit Sydney as a guest of Google Cloud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Attorney-General\u2019s Department has set up two controlled AI tools, one each from Microsoft and Google, for staff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":782246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":["post-782245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}