Policy-makers around the world are considering how to best harness the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) for productivity while trying to anticipate and limit any associated risks.

But as AI technology becomes more pervasive and sophisticated, each country is faced with its own unique challenges and opportunities.

Paper one outlines how Australia stands to benefit most from AI technology, and consequently, where governments should focus their policy efforts. It finds that Australia’s opportunities in the short-term are further down the AI value chain, in adapting general purpose models to more specific, local use cases; or in implementing the technology, particularly through digitised firms and software as a service. Australia could also play a role developing AI models that can be trained on smaller, high-quality datasets.

Paper two considers governments’ other major contribution to AI policy - regulation. Here too we must view Australia’s situation from a global perspective. Given our likely role in the AI value chain, Australian regulation will be driven, at least in part, by international approaches.

Paper three considers how AI raises the stakes for data policy, and what Australian policymakers should do to address the new questions about data rights and incentives that AI presents. One challenge is to improve public confidence in data‑sharing, including through enforcement of existing protections for individuals. Another challenge is to establish clear and consistent arrangements for text and data mining (TDM) for the purposes of training AI models.