A parliamentary investigation into Australia’s AI landscape has left the door open to summon OpenAI and Anthropic back for further questioning before recommendations are finalised.
It comes as a bipartisan parliamentary committee issued “early advice” to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese overnight ahead of its final report due by November 30.
It urged the government to act immediately on four key areas, including strengthening AI safeguards, building sovereign AI capability, fixing copyright settings, and having nationally consistent data centre standards.
The seven-page letter sent on Monday evening included a recommendation to plant an independent oversight inside AI companies, give security agencies greater access and improve literacy, skills and adoption.
Labor chair Jo Briskey and Liberal deputy chair Jonno Duniam, who were signatories on the letter, said they had held a late-night meeting with fellow members to finalise the letter.
“This was just an early indication of where we think things are heading,” Ms Briskey said.
“There is a full report that will go to the Parliament before the end of this year, giving everyone across the committee the opportunity to contribute to final recommendations.”
The committee heard from tech giants OpenAI and Anthropic in hearings last week after Sam Altman’s company admitted that its autonomous AI agents gained unauthorised access to Medicare statistics via Services Australia in June.
Ms Briskey said the committee wouldn’t be shy to recall the Silicon Valley tech giants if needed before the end of the year.
“It is absolutely open to the committee to consider doing, and if that’s the case, then that may be what we seek to do,” she said.
Ms Briskey was asked about criticism from independent Senator David Pocock that the committee didn’t go hard enough on the big tech executives during their appearance, but also accusations that the Prime Minister’s office had been consulted on the letter before it was sent.
“It’s been a process by which we’re seeking advice and making sure that this is working across the board. There was engagement right across the parliament,” she admitted.
“Senator Duniam also worked with his side, the opposition. This is about the parliament doing the work on getting an outcome and progressing this for Australians.”
She denied the early advice translated to predetermined recommendations in the final report.
“We understood that there was consensus across some key things around safety, transparency, and accountability that we can put to government to pursue at pace and to keep ourselves ahead of this,” she said.
“There is more work to do for this committee. We have not finished our work. We’ve still got hearings this week and next week.”
Both Ms Briskey and Senator Duniam warned Australia needed to act swiftly to “get the settings” right to “keep Australians safe” and “play in the global response to artificial intelligence”.
“That is an opportunity that’s open to Australia right now, but it won’t be open forever,” Ms Briskey warned.
“We’ve got to make sure we walk through this window of opportunity but do so on our terms.”
Senator Duniam described it as the “biggest issue confronting our nation” and said a “dynamic response” was important.
When asked around the timeline, Senator Duniam said he felt the early advice issued in the letter needed to be acted on “this year”.
“This is the biggest issue confronting our nation at the moment. I don’t think a lot of people have a handle on that,” Senator Duniam said.
“There’s been no guidance, no interference. There has been a lot of discussion, a lot of consultation.
“We have to get it right. We have to do it on Australia’s terms. Those who want to be constructive can. Those who want to sit outside and cut from the sidelines and find points of difference will, but we’ve got to get this right.”
The letter also urges the government to build a competitive Australian AI industry spanning data sovereignty, critical infrastructure, skills, procurement, industry development, public-interest compute, and Pacific partnerships.
The Productivity Commission and Australian Electoral Commission are listed to appear before the committee on Wednesday.
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