Tuesday, 28 May 2024

Artificial intelligence

Gaelle BROAD (Northern Victoria) (13:37): Last Friday I hosted a big ideas forum in Bendigo with my Nationals colleague Senator Bridget McKenzie about artificial intelligence and the potential for AI to benefit our regions. People came from across the state to this public forum to hear about the impacts of AI on employment and benefits for regional areas in business, education, agriculture and medical care. I would like to thank all those who attended and contributed to this important discussion, especially the members of the panel: Nathan Vincent, technology columnist for McPherson Media Group; Shainal Kavar, La Trobe University chief information officer; Daswin De Silva, professor of analytics and AI at La Trobe University; Craig Hunter, director at Clear Dynamics; Doug Amos, sales manager at Ag Leader; and Dr Umair Masood, a GP and founder of ConsultNote.ai.

AI presents a new and exciting frontier, and it was great to hear the panel provide insights into this rapidly developing technology. Questions were also raised about how much trust we can place in the credibility of AI information and how that could be managed moving forward. The forum paid tribute to the life work of Bruce Nicholls, a Nationals member who was a former diplomat, businessman and author. Bruce was a big-picture person. He was passionate about public policy and promoted discussion on key issues. AI is rapidly changing. It presents risks as well as opportunities for our society. It is an important conversation and one that we need to have because it affects us all.