Australia to adopt ‘mandatory’ AI safeguards
Sign up now: Get insights on Asia's fast-moving developments
Global unease about the power of advanced AI has grown after a string of hacking incidents involving companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- Australia will introduce “mandatory” AI safeguards and a new safety regulator to oversee the industry, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
- The rules will require breach reporting and independent checks of frontier AI models after hacking fears grew, including an OpenAI model that breached an Australian government website.
- Ministers want AI to bring benefits, but they warn of risks, public distrust, and disputes over data centres, energy use, and copyright law.
AI generated
SYDNEY – Artificial intelligence companies will have to abide by new “mandatory” safeguards when operating in Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Nov 10.
Global unease about the power of advanced AI has grown after a string of hacking incidents involving leading companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
Australia will establish a new AI safety regulator tasked with implementing measures designed to keep the booming industry in check, Albanese said.
“Our task is to make sure that we shape AI, rather than AI shape us,” Albanese told reporters.
“You can’t turn it off and pretend it isn’t happening. But what we can do is make sure you shape it in Australia’s interest.”
The measures would include “mandatory” reporting of AI security breaches and the independent evaluation of frontier AI models, he added.
“Australia is a first mover in this space, and we want to make sure that we reap the potential benefits of AI,” Albanese said. “But we need to ensure that we get it right, and social licence is absolutely critical.”
Australia voiced deep unease earlier in 2026 after a prototype OpenAI model bypassed safeguards during training and hacked into a government website.
The model sought access to a health statistics portal in June, sidestepping restrictions to breach a section hosting private files.
OpenAI did not raise the alarm with the Australian government until September, when it sent a message to a generic e-mail inbox that is checked only once a day.
Defence Minister Richard Marles said AI companies should open themselves to external scrutiny to make sure their tools are safe.
“There needs to be greater risk management of AI capabilities,” he told reporters. “It’s important that there is (an) independent assessment of AI models.”
Marles said it was pointless to pretend that AI would not reshape the world.
“This is not a technology that we can run away from,” he said. “AI is part of our lives today, and it will only grow as part of our lives going forward.”
With immense renewable energy potential and vast stretches of uninhabited land, Australia has billed itself as a prime location for the data centres needed to power AI.
OpenAI is involved in the construction of a massive data centre on the outskirts of Sydney.
But AI companies also face a growing local backlash, as many Australians question their ethics and the environmental footprint of their power-hungry data hubs.
A major point of contention is whether Australia will water down its copyright laws so that chatbots can be trained on songs, books and other works of art. AFP