Australia considering world-first criminal charges for AI companies
Australia could become the first country to prosecute AI companies for failing to take reasonable steps to prevent harmful conduct by their models.
Australia is reportedly considering introducing world-first criminal charges for AI companies that fail to prevent their models from causing harm. This follows a review of September's OpenAI hack of the Medicare statistics portal. The government aims to release further AI standards by the end of the year. The potential criminal offence could see tech companies prosecuted for not taking reasonable steps to stop harmful conduct by their AI models.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese emphasized the need to keep pace with the rapidly evolving AI landscape. The government has pledged to consider both criminal penalties for egregious breaches and reform the criminal law to enhance AI safety. The AFP has not formally reported the OpenAI incident as a crime and initiated no criminal investigation.
While other countries have introduced AI-specific criminal offences, Australia's proposed law would be the first of its kind nationally.
Written by urgent.news from ABC News AU's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
