The Australian government will push on with regulation of social media and artificial intelligence despite the incoming Trump administration’s opposition to both, Ed Husic has signalled.
On Monday the industry minister sought to reassure Australians that the Albanese government would pursue “national priorities” despite Donald Trump’s promise to roll back AI regulation in the US, as well as the potential influence of the billionaire X owner, Elon Musk, who opposes regulation of social media.
Australia is in the process of developing “guardrails” for high-risk uses of AI such as a European Union-style artificial intelligence act.
Trump, by contrast, has promised to repeal a President Joe Biden executive order on AI, which Trump’s platform claimed “hinders AI innovation and imposes radical left-wing ideas on the development of this technology”, such as requiring it to be free of biases.
Husic told reporters in Canberra that Australia needed to be able to “work effectively with like-minded countries”, given AI technology “crosses multiple borders”.
“The US may adopt in time a different approach to what the Biden administration had undertaken – we’ll wait and see and let that play out,” he said.
“But there are a lot of other countries that are thinking deeply about this and acting on it,” he said, citing the Bletchley AI safety summit convened by the UK.
“We have a job we’ve said we’ll do for the public, and there’s an expectation … we will continue to do that, and we will.
“We will harmonise where we can and localise where we have to.
“That is, we will work with other [countries] where we absolutely can find common ground, to give people the assurance in the Australian context about the use of AI. We will take the steps necessary so people have the confidence to use it.”
The Albanese government has also introduced legislation to allow the Australian Communications and Media Authority to force social media companies to upgrade their policies to respond to misinformation and disinformation on their platforms.
Asked whether the influence of Musk in the incoming administration could see Trump pressure Labor to dump the bill, Husic replied that “we take our responsibility to the Australian people seriously”.
“I think people here want us to be able to deal with issues in a way that reflects our national priorities. And so I think you’ll see we continue to do what we have to do.”
In September JD Vance, now the vice-president-elect, warned America’s allies in Nato to “respect free speech” by not imposing excessive social media regulation on Musk’s platform X.
“Nato wants us to continue us being a good participant in this military alliance – why don’t you respect American values and respect free speech?” he said in an interview with YouTuber Shawn Ryan.
“It’s insane that we would support a military alliance if that military alliance isn’t going to be pro-free speech.
“I think we can do both, but we have to say that American power comes with certain strings attached, one of those is: respect free speech.”
