AI policy needs to protect future Australians

In the past few weeks, the CEOs from some of world’s largest companies have begun saying the quiet part out loud when it comes to AI. Telstra, the Commonwealth Bank and JP Morgan have all put their employees on notice; AI is being implemented, and in the not-too-distant future, it will replace you.

Telstra CEO Vicki Brady told investors last month: “We will embrace AI, as every business will need to, and we expect the pace of change over the next five years to be extraordinary… We can’t predict exactly what our business will look like in 2030, but we expect our workforce to be smaller than it is today.”

Similarly, the Commonwealth Bank is currently exploring the possibility of “replacing thousands of local call centre staff with a ChatGPT-style platform”.

After years of platitudes that AI wouldn’t replace workers, but rather augment their role, the truth is becoming clearer.

As the government considers its stance on AI regulation, protecting workers — or at the very least ensuring employers do everything in their power to find another role and/or upskill them before retrenching them — should be a priority. There is too much to lose if the policy settings don’t strike the right balance — and some of AI’s biggest companies are already seeking to tip the scales.

White collar bloodbath

Ahead of the government’s economic reform roundtable in mid-August, OpenAI — ChatGPT’s creator — last week sent its chief economist Ronnie Chatterji to Canberra to spruik tax breaks for businesses implementing AI.

His pitch included the usual ‘AI will complement workers, not replace them’ line. But as we’ve seen, the big end of town is thinking very differently. Already, the next generation of Australians are facing an increasingly difficult job market — thanks in large part to GenAI.

Consider this: in the UK, entry-level roles have already fallen by almost a third since ChatGPT’s launch as organisations turn to AI to cut back their workforce.

There’s even confirmation of the pending ‘white collar bloodbath’ from one of OpenAI’s biggest competitors, Anthropic. Its CEO, Dario Amodei, warned AI would wipe out half of all entry-level office jobs in the next five years.

It’s clear the writing is on the wall and there are storm clouds on the horizon. The decisions we make today will have a huge impact — not only on Australia’s next generation, but the untold numbers of current employees who will find themselves displaced in the coming years.

National urgency

The foundations we set today will determine the shape of our society when the AI rubber truly hits the road.

Tax could be part of the equation, though not in the manner OpenAI envisions it — which essentially boils down to a subsidy on its own technologies. Rather, these tax breaks should be offered to organisations that invest in upskilling their employees in the skills they’ll need in the new economy. Similarly, financial incentives could go to those offering graduate positions so the students of today don’t graduate into a black hole — in a similar manner to the current apprentice system.

To be clear, my argument is not that there should be no AI. It is already here. Rather, we as a nation need to unpack and understand what an AI-driven economy means for future Australians.

Employment is only one side of this discussion. There’s also the safety, security and privacy implications of letting LLMs increasingly make decisions that impact people’s lives. This technology is too powerful to just ‘let it rip’. What GenAI can deliver today is far more powerful than what it could do at this time last year — who knows what it will be able to do in 12 months from now.

There is only one chance to set the policy foundations around this technology. When the Albanese government hosts its economic reform roundtable next month, all voices need to be heard — employers, employees, unions, students and vendors — but those voices need to be honest with the implications of AI. After all, in 2026, GenAI might make it easier to submit a claim to Centrelink, but I doubt that’s the future any of us want for our children. *Tony Butler is the Managing Director of data and analytics consultancy Decision Inc. Australia.

Top image credit: iStock.com/DNY59