Artificial intelligence (AI) can provide operational efficiencies, support decision-making, and enhance the government’s ability to respond to complex challenges. To realise these benefits, entities need to effectively manage ethical risks and ensure the way they use AI aligns with public sector values and community expectations.

This audit focused on policies the Queensland Department of Customer Services, Open Data and Small and Family Business (CDSB) has issued that guide entities in managing ethical risks with AI. It also assessed how the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR), in collaboration with the Queensland Revenue Office, managed ethical risks and controls of two AI systems it uses.

The report provides department-specific recommendations. It also provides one recommendation for the benefit of all public sector entities to implement ethical risk assessment processes for AI systems in use or under development to more comprehensively identify and manage ethical risks. All recommendations have been agreed to.

Key findings

• The CDSB has designed an effective policy to guide the public sector’s ethical use of AI.
• CDSB could improve the effectiveness of the policy by enhancing guidance to entities on the application of ethical risk assessments for AI systems.
• CDSB needs a better understanding of how AI is being used across the Queensland public sector.
• The TMR is not effectively identifying and managing aspects of ethical risks associated with its Mobile Phone and Seatbelt Technology image-recognition AI and the QChat generative AI system.
• TMR needs to perform full ethical risk assessments to determine whether its governance arrangements and mitigation strategies for these systems address risks effectively.
• At a whole-of-department level, TMR needs to do more to ensure it assesses and manages ethical risks in a structured and consistent manner.