Breaking: SA launches royal commission into artificial intelligence

Royal commission into artificial intelligence launched in South Australia

SA will hold a royal commission into AI technologies and industries. (Igor Omilaev, Unsplash)

Artificial intelligence will be the subject of a royal commission in SA, which will examine future approaches to the technology and policy around it.

Premier Peter Malinauskas said while there were potentially great benefits, AI represented a "material risk to the way society operates" if unchecked.

The royal commission is expected to commence in October and report by the middle of next year.

South Australia will hold a royal commission into artificial intelligence and the policy around it, with the state government warning of its potentially destructive impacts as well as acknowledging its upsides.

Premier Peter Malinauskas said AI, if unchecked, presented a "material risk to the way society operates".

He said the inquiry was intended to maximise benefits and minimise unwanted impacts from the growth of AI.

The royal commission is expected to begin on October 1 and deliver a report to the government no later than July 1 next year.

"Or we can choose to set the agenda. We can choose to set the guard rails and the policy frameworks to ensure that we use AI in a way that puts people first.

"The use of artificial intelligence is an exciting opportunity to advance the cause of humanity but it is also true that unchecked artificial intelligence does represent a material risk to the way our society operates and a risk to the future of work if not thought through carefully."

Mr Malinauskas said the royal commission would follow his recent trip to the United States where he met with representatives from AI heavyweights OpenAI, Anthropic and Apple.

SA Premier Peter Malinauskas says, when it comes to artificial intelligence, society is at a fork in the road. (ABC News)

The premier said he wanted AI companies to participate in the inquiry, which would shape future approaches to the technology and potential restrictions on its use.

"We've seen different approaches in different states — in some states in Australia there have been flat-out bans on ChatGPT, whereas we haven't gone down that path in South Australia," he said.

"In a regulated way, we want to teach kids how to use AI but I don't think we've done as much work as we potentially can or should.

"A sign of success might be that a royal commission makes a bunch of recommendations that are well thought through, able to be adopted by state governments and that others may follow."

The inquiry's terms of reference will be announced in the next four to six weeks.

Three royal commissioners will also be appointed in that time.

Mr Malinauskas said he expected the cost of the royal commission to be around $3 million.

"The cost of the royal commission is really chicken feed in comparison to the cost of society if we don't think through the complex questions that are going to be asked of us with the deployment of this technology," he said.

"If we don't do this properly we could see very significant changes in the way that people work … [and] a more rapid destruction of demand in some areas of the labour market."