Google, Meta & OpenAI Asked To Explain Their 'Unbelievably Powerful' Technology To Australian Parliament

Tech titans like Google GOOGL, Meta META and OpenAI are being summoned to Australia’s first parliamentary inquiry into artificial intelligence where they will be asked to explain issues like censorship by their essentially unregulated technology and how that and other issues are affecting the country.

What’s particularly interesting about this parliamentary inquiry is who called for it and why. Australia’s Legalise Cannabis Party pushed for the meeting. Its members have become increasingly frustrated with how often their posts are removed from social media sites by AI censors, because of the party's name and/or cannabis leaf logo, reports Financial Review.

“For political parties that’s a death sentence if you can’t communicate through the largest channels that now exist,” said Jeremy Buckingham, Legalise Cannabis Party's New South Wales (NSW) MP, who is chairing the inquiry.

Why it matters: NSW state parliament approved the inquiry Wednesday, and it is expected that many other important issues concerning AI will be tackled. Per the report, questions such as whether AI can take people’s jobs, impact salaries, etc. will also be discussed.

The news comes on the heels of the party's introduction of a bill to legalize personal cannabis use in parliaments in Victoria, NSW and Western Australia.

It’s no secret that various artificial intelligence systems have been criticized for various reasons like promoting racist or sexist stereotypes, making things up and providing inaccurate or completely fabricated quotes.

There’s also the question of using the news data to train new AI systems...should the media business be paid for it?

One thing is definitive – these questions are just the tip of the AI iceberg.

Though AI censorship was the impetus for Legalize Cannabis to push for the inquiry, other issues will be discussed at the parliamentary session, which will be conducted by the upper house Portfolio Committee. Participants such as the Labor Party’s Bob Nanva, the Liberals’ Damien Tudehope and the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party rep Robert Borsak will also take part.

What’s next: Submissions to the inquiry will be open until October.

Will other countries join Australia in the effort to appropriately regulate this rapidly evolving and potentially dangerous technology? Time will tell. 

Photo: Courtesy of ilgmyzin on Unsplash