AI is enabling foreign interference and hackers, home affairs department says
Luca Ittimani
Australia faces growing threat from overseas agencies’ and hackers’ use of AI and does not have the tracking tools that AI companies can use, home affairs department officials say.
Kira Spencer, a deputy secretary, has told a parliamentary committee a key risk for Australia is AI in “information operations”, which are security agencies’ use of deception and psychological warfare. She said:
double quotation markAI’s quicker, easier, nastier. And it enables it to be much more realistic and so the language is better. If you’re looking at targeted foreign interference, they scroll all your parliamentary speeches, your social media profiles, everything about you so they can find a really targeted way to engage with you and make it more likely that you will engage back.
Spencer said some AI companies had been able to track false communications from state actors but the government could not match the companies’ large-scale tools.
Officials also said AI made it “easier, faster, cheaper” for malicious actors to hack Australia’s key systems.
Part of the argument for Australia to bring in AI companies to train AI here is that law enforcement could better address threats or law breaches. Fergus Hanson, head of the Office of AI, told the committee:
double quotation markIf you’ve got an AI training firm physically located here, it enables a different type of collaboration, for example law enforcement cooperation. So if there is a threat to Australians’ lives, through misuse of those platforms … This just invites a different level of collaboration that you can have, that is not possible if you don’t have the companies necessarily located in your jurisdiction.
Updated at 22.44 EDT
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Thanks to Stephanie Convery for being our guiding light this morning. I’ll be with you for the rest of the day.
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Stephanie Convery
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ShareLuca Ittimani
AI firms want right to use vast amounts of global and Australian content, government says
AI companies have ruled out training models in Australia without reforms to copyright laws because the amount of local and global data they want to process is too vast to do individual deals, the attorney general’s department has confirmed.
The government has made its first wide-ranging comments on copyright negotiations at a parliamentary committee hearing today.
Jenna Priestly, assistant secretary, said rights holder groups claimed AI companies could make a “relatively small number” of deals under current rules, to access plenty of material to train their models on.
But AI companies have told the department they won’t train here under existing copyright rules. Priestly said:
double quotation markWhat we’ve heard from them is that because the magnitude of copyright material they need to use for this training is so large, it’s practically, I guess, impossible to … strike the number of voluntary deals that they would need to be able to manage their legal risk.
Priestly said copyright applies in the country where activity occurs, implying any local reform would affect companies’ access to overseas-made content.
double quotation markAs Australia’s copyright framework protects not only copyright material that’s Australian in origin, but worldwide, I think it is a fairly large number that [companies] would need to go and strike deals with.
Priestly said the government late last year consulted on giving AI companies the full legal right to access content that wouldn’t have let rightsholders opt out of their material being used in AI training. The government has moved to considering a narrower data training authorisation in response to feedback and has not made decisions on its reform plans, she said.
Updated at 23.47 EDT
Achol Arok
Runaway Tasmanian devil back in her sanctuary after weeks on the loose
A runaway Tasmanian devil named Mary has returned to her home at Paradise Country on the Gold Coast after spending weeks on the loose.
Mary escaped from her enclosure at the theme park in June and spent several months in recovery after being found.
The marsupial has spent recent months exploring the wildlife park and will soon return to the public exhibit, where she can interact with visitors.
Mary the Tasmanian devil has returned to her habitat within the wildlife park. Photograph: Paradise Country
Paradise Country curator of wildlife, Lauren Mousley, said:
double quotation markIt has been a long road to recovery for Mary, but we are incredibly pleased to see her back exploring her habitat so confidently.
Throughout her recovery, Mary has defied all the odds, with her improvements being phenomenal, and we can’t wait to welcome guests to the park to watch as the mischievous Mary explores.
Our team have been so dedicated in supporting Mary throughout her recovery and it is amazing to see their reactions when she took her first steps back into the habitat.
Updated at 23.42 EDT
BoM updates website with new rain radar features
The Bureau of Meteorology has made some changes to the way its website shows rain radar, a year after it launched an unpopular new site design for which it later apologised.
The new update, which went live on Friday, includes the addition of radar locations, radar quick links, changes to how rainfall is displayed and “radar range rings”, which the Bureau says “provide a visual measurement guide to how far rainfall is from familiar landmarks and locations.”
There are also new features that the Bureau says are designed to feel more like “the old radar view”.
In a statement today, the Bureau said rain was “better detected and more accurately displayed on the weather map”, with higher definition and detail when very light to moderate rainfall is observed and when data from overlapping radars is used.”
Each radar also had a unique URL.
Bureau of Meteorology CEO Dr Stuart Minchin said in today’s statement that the updates were in response to community feedback:
double quotation markWe know how much value the community places on their local rain radar, so we’ve listened to feedback and made these updates to help you get to your local radar faster and estimate how far away rain is.
There are more updates planned for later this year, including some changes to Australian places with dual-names.
We encourage the community to continue to share their website feedback, and we will respond with enhancements and adjustments.
Updated at 00.11 EDT
Achol Arok
Australian fashion retailer Cue Clothing Co to close five stores
Long-time Australian fashion retailer Cue Clothing Co, which operates Cue and Veronika Maine, will close five physical stores across Australia.
The five stores are Woden Cue, Parramatta Cue, Mosman Veronica Maine, Melbourne Central Cue and Armadale Cue.
The Sydney-based company, established in 1968, entered voluntary administration earlier this week after failing to find a buyer for the struggling business.
In a statement, administrators FTI Consulting said:
double quotation markA difficult decision has been made to close five stores across the network, which the Receivers believe is in the best interest of the businesses as a going concern.
No concessions are included in the closures. The Receivers will explore opportunities to re-deploy staff across the network where possible.
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Douglas Smith
Child protection roundtable expected next week
A national roundtable on Australia’s child protection system is expected to be held in Perth at the end of next week, following calls from Indigenous leaders and federal politicians.
Earlier this week, reporting by The Australian uncovered multiple failings by Western Australia’s child protection department in addressing reports of neglected First Nations children living unsupervised and in squalor in Port Hedland.
Lawyer and human rights advocate, Kurin Minang Noongar woman Hannah McGlade was first to call for a national roundtable, which has been backed by the independent senator for Victoria Lidia Thorpe, who said:
double quotation markWhat has happened in Western Australia is horrific. We need real action to keep children safe.
We cannot accept the status quo, which is seeing children across the country exposed to extreme risk and harm within these systems.
I support Dr Hannah McGlade’s call for an urgent roundtable of Aboriginal leaders working in child and family safety.
We also need a federal inquiry to hold the Albanese government to account. We are seeing failures in child protection systems nationwide, and the Albanese government is failing to act.
Minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, is expected to announce that the roundtable will be held in Perth on Friday next week.
The Guardian understands the roundtable will take steps to address calls from Indigenous leaders for a complete overhaul of child protection.
The government will also discuss how it can act on past recommendations, findings and policies that are already available.
Updated at 23.06 EDT
Andrew Messenger
Queensland police union pushed for changes to definition of victim of domestic violence
The Queensland police union has pushed for the changes to the definition of victim of domestic violence, in order to reduce paperwork for officers dealing with domestic violence callouts.
In a Wednesday press conference, general president Shane Prior said the union wanted domestic violence to only apply to people in a romantic partnership, and not to include, for instance, violence by adult children against their parents.
That change hasn’t been included in the bill, but Prior said he was still pushing for it:
double quotation markI certainly don’t stop when I’m told no the first time. No means not right now. So what I’m going to be focusing on is making sure that we deliver for police in this state.
Updated at 23.02 EDT
AI is enabling foreign interference and hackers, home affairs department saysLuca Ittimani
Australia faces growing threat from overseas agencies’ and hackers’ use of AI and does not have the tracking tools that AI companies can use, home affairs department officials say.
Kira Spencer, a deputy secretary, has told a parliamentary committee a key risk for Australia is AI in “information operations”, which are security agencies’ use of deception and psychological warfare. She said:
double quotation markAI’s quicker, easier, nastier. And it enables it to be much more realistic and so the language is better. If you’re looking at targeted foreign interference, they scroll all your parliamentary speeches, your social media profiles, everything about you so they can find a really targeted way to engage with you and make it more likely that you will engage back.
Spencer said some AI companies had been able to track false communications from state actors but the government could not match the companies’ large-scale tools.
Officials also said AI made it “easier, faster, cheaper” for malicious actors to hack Australia’s key systems.
Part of the argument for Australia to bring in AI companies to train AI here is that law enforcement could better address threats or law breaches. Fergus Hanson, head of the Office of AI, told the committee:
double quotation markIf you’ve got an AI training firm physically located here, it enables a different type of collaboration, for example law enforcement cooperation. So if there is a threat to Australians’ lives, through misuse of those platforms … This just invites a different level of collaboration that you can have, that is not possible if you don’t have the companies necessarily located in your jurisdiction.
Updated at 22.44 EDT
Andrew Messenger
Queensland to allow on-the-spot DV orders to be issued against victims
Queensland police will be able to issue on-the-spot domestic violence protection orders against victims of domestic violence, under new legislation tabled yesterday.
The legislation eliminates all exemptions to the state’s police protection direction system, and makes them the sole alternative to the civil DVO system available to police. Police will be now be able to issue them on behalf of other police, or against children.
It also permits so-called “cross orders” – a direction against both people in a relationship – “in exceptional circumstances”, where the officer cannot identify the victim or offender. According to documents tabled with the bill:
double quotation markCross applications and cross orders are used by perpetrators as a means of continuing to control, intimidate and terrify victims.
Experts have warned of potential police misuse of the new system, because there is less oversight. Police have been repeatedly found to have routinely misidentified perpetrators and victims by a string of inquiries, often due to a culture of disbelieving female victims.
The legislation is designed to make the system more efficient, by reducing the paperwork police are required to complete for a protection order.
Updated at 22.35 EDT