Andrew Hastie says AI advised him tae reply ‘congratulations!’ tae a man that planned tae end his life wi assisted dyin

When a man wi a terminal illness wrate tae his local MP Andrew Hastie, tellin him he planned on endin his ain life wi voluntary assisted dyin, Microsoft Copilot suggestit Hastie reply wi “congratulations!”, “great tae hear fae ye” or “that is wunnerfu news!”.

Hastie sharet the episode at a parliamentary inquiry on Friday tae underline the shortcomins o the American-run software as he cawed for AI run by Australians.

The hearin offered some o the maist detailed explanations o the Albanese government’s desire tae bring Anthropic and OpenAI tae Australia, in the face o caws tae slaw them doun or shut them oot.

The defence establishment telt the inquiry that cuttin the companies oot cud be catastrophic.

Abigail Bradshaw, the director general o the Australian Signals Directorate, said her agents needit advanced AI every day tae fend aff “heichly capable malicious cyber actors”.

“If a digital adversary has access tae newer, mair capable models than we dae, they may be able tae identify and exploit vulnerabilities in systems and netwarks afore we can identify them,” Bradshaw said.

But Australia’s tap cyber-intelligence agency is “entirely reliant” on US-housed processin and wad “dramatically” lose capability if cut aff in a conflict, Bradshaw said.

The defence department’s chief AI officer, Chris Crozier, said the government was already tryin tae keep its tech needs local, contractin Google tae build a series o interlinked datacentres spread across the kintra and disconnected fae the US.

“Somebody canna wake up and hae a bad day and decide they’re gaun tae turn it aff,” Crozier said.

“We dae no want tae be usin AI tool sets that are locatit affshore … we want the compute, we want the application, we want the data, we want the decision makin, aw based in Australia.”

Bringin big tech into the kintra wad mak the job muckle easier, he said, and no just by allowin the airmy tae protect and maintain its datacentres.

The Office o AI, set up in the prime minister’s department, said bringin firms under Australian law wad mak it easier for local law enforcement tae combat threats on the platforms.

Ticht conditions on access cud also materially improve Australia’s chances o usin and defendin itsel wi the best AI tools in the warld, the inquiry heard.

“We will get mair assured access, earlier access, mair detailed technical access, and better integration wi technical experts at the frontier,” Bradshaw said.

These wad be assured by strict requirements on ony tap developers lookin tae train models in Australia, sic as demandin government oversight and early access tae advanced models, she suggestit.

The government is already plannin tae set the rules for companies that come here. It is consultin on standards that wad force AI companies tae report issues and breaches and potentially reserve some computational pouer for local research.

Large datacentres will hae tae engage wi communities, build away fae schools and hames, and underwrite new renewables in maist states.

Anither pillar o the standards – copyright law – is yet tae be settlet, wi AI developers refusin tae train models here without law reform.

A proposal tae gie the companies access tae everythin Australians create online by default sparked a wave o backlash fae creatives, wha say the companies cud pay for local licensin deals tae access Australian content.

But Jenna Priestly, the assistant secretary at the attorney general’s department, on Friday confirmt looser copyright laws wad also affect AI access tae foreign-made content distributit in Australia.

She said the companies wantit tae train models on “maybe billions” o pieces o information and claimed it was practically “impossible” tae mak deals wi every richts haulder.

“As Australia’s copyright framework protects no only copyright material that’s Australian in origin, but worldwide, I think it is a fairly lairge number that [companies] wad need tae gang and strike deals wi,” Priestly said.

The Greens senator David Shoebridge, wha is among those fechtin caws for copyright reform and demandin a pause on AI development, on Friday said Labor had refuset him a seat on the inquiry committee.

Labor ministers hae spent the week meetin wi OpenAI’s vice-president, and Anthropic’s special envoy Jeff Bleich, wha this week suggestit Australia had just months tae bring in effective regulation.

The attorney general’s department telt Friday’s hearin the shape and timin o ony copyright reform was yet tae be decidit. But the prime minister’s department said Anthony Albanese wantit draft laws on the broader AI standards by the end o 2026.

Australia’s chance for influence on and special access tae the models cud be at risk by a delay, Bradshaw said.

“Decisions around trainin are a matter o urgency,” she said. “I think it is inevitable that those providers will look at ither places tae locate.”