hen Commonwealth Bank chief executive Matt Comyn returned from a US fact-finding trip this month after visiting the great and the good of the big tech artificial intelligence giants, his head was filled with questions that he knew his company couldn’t fully answer.
With the starter’s pistol in the AI race ringing loudly in the ears of many of Australia’s business leaders, speakers at the Summit and others who spoke toafterwards, showed many are already sprinting flat out, despite not knowing where the finishing line is … or even if they are on the right track. Lendlease is using AI to find building faults before they escalate. AirTrunk is using AI models to optimise its water and energy use in data centres. Suncorp is deploying an AI model trained on geospatial imagery and weather data to predict which homes may be in danger when a weather warning arrives.
“The challenge in regulating AI is that no one can tell you what the danger actually is,” says Anton van den Hengel, director of the Australian Institute for Machine Learning at the University of Adelaide. “We already have laws that protect against fraud and breach of copyright, so most of the real risks are already covered.
Providoor managing director Sam Benjamin wants to take advantage of AI, but is worried about wasting money finding out how.So, with the industry hype free to run riot, it is cutting through to the boardroom. One senior executive at a large organisation, speaking toanonymously, says they attended a board meeting where an “inordinate amount of time” was spent by directors quizzing tech executives about the company’s AI posture.
He says the low-hanging fruit of using apps like ChatGPT in some circumstances is obvious, but is keen to avoid being taken for a ride by software vendors looking to capitalise on AI hype.