Brief note - I am continually tweaking and updating this post based on more insights and ideas that I have ... come back and visit it!
In my last post I talked about the 'Empire of AI' talk I attended at UNSW. At this Professor Joel Pearson posed a challenge - how does Australia prepare for the Age of AI?
I have taken this challenge as the topic for my latest assignment as part of my MA in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Southampton which forms the basis of my own thinking at the minute.
On 29th April 2025 a group of Australian philanthropists met to debate a simple but confronting question: “is Australia no longer the lucky country”? (Swan 2025).
Up until now we’ve been lucky because of our rich resource deposits and large-scale agriculture which has created jobs, opportunities and wealth.
Mo Gawdat, former Chief Business Officer for Google X, believes that Artificial Intelligence (AI) may lead humanity to a future Utopia but it’s going to be a very messy ride along the way (Gawdat 2025).
Evidence is emerging that he might be right (Seismic 2025) and AI is going to force us to rethink many of the way we do things (Wesch2007).
So how do we navigate this transition ensuring we prioritise 'people not profit' informed by our culture and values of giving everyone 'A Fair Go'.
I believe that our highest priority must be to teach Digital Fluency to all who serve Australians through our Public Service so that they can better make decisions about AI, and that this flow out to the Australian community through our Education system.
We could fund it through our Sovereign Wealth and Taxation.
In August 2025 the Australian Government held its 2025 Economic Round Table about which the Prime Minister, Hon. Anthony Albanese stated:
We want to make sure Australian workers and Australian business have the skills and safeguards to get the best out of new technology, including AI. (Albanese 2025).
Much of the focus of this Round Table seemed to be narrowly on Economic Productivity as witnessed by the Australian Industry Group’s overview of the event (AIG 2025) but comments by people such as Australia Future Fund CEO Greg Combet (Kehoe 2025) and the push by the Australian Unions for mandated training (Martin-Gruzman 2025) demonstrate a more holistic and realistic perspective.
The Australian Federal Government has already demonstrated leadership in ‘taking on Big Tech’ (See next blog). However Artificial Intelligence takes things to a new level and requires that all who serve in our governments (Federal, State/Territory and Local) develop a far more proactive and informed approach.
We need what Finance Sector Union National Secretary Julia Angrisano calls a ‘Just Transition’ (quoted in Martin-Gruzman 2025).
Artificial Intelligence can be thought of as an ‘adaptive capability’ woven throughout the entire digital information ecosystem. It has been around as long as digital computing and has been evolving since the 1950s (Zobel 2016). As it has been adopted it has influenced the relationship between citizens and governments and gradually a new social contract for the digital age is emerging (Le at al 2023 and Alexopoulou 2024) initially expressed itself through the Open Data and Open Government movements (see next blog).
The public release of ChatGPT in 2022, with minimal oversight or protection, has created a ‘race to the bottom’ (Hao 2025). US Government Agencies, driven by the Trump Administration’s desire for AI Dominance and Leadership (White House 2025), are rapidly adopting AI tools (Chen 2025) and US domiciled Big Tech Companies are pushing for a similar adoption in Australia (Ilanbey 2025, Puthucode2025).
Technology is neither good nor bad, but it is never neutral (Kranzberg 1986).
The Chinese Government has recently launched its own AI Strategy where it insists on forward planning to ensure an Intelligent Economy and Intelligent Social Development (Government of China, 2025).
We are neither China nor America nor are we the United Kingdom nor Europe.
We are Australia and we must find our own way forward.
In Australia our Digital Transformation Agency (DTA 2024) released its Policy for the responsible use of AI in government promoting a risk-based approach (DTA 2024) - we have to be a lot braver and a lot smarter than this.
Artificial Intelligence promises to be amongst the most revolutionary technologies invented by our species. We need to ensure that human flourishing is at the centre of all that we do and we can and should harness the AI tools themselves to help us do this.
Australia has a unique geography, history and context
Whilst we can observe and learn from other jurisdictions our approach must be our own.
Policy Objective: Australia has its own unique Long Term Plan to holistically, strategically and proactively prepare and manage for the impact of Artificial Intelligence.
Policy Recommendation: All Policies that relate to the use of Artificial Intelligence within Government Agencies, and which filter out through Education to the Australian population, must embody the values of “A Fair Go” and be informed by long term thinking.
AI can analyse large data sets, run simulations and help us frame scenarios for policy choices.
Australia is home to the oldest continuous cultures in the world, our First Nations. We acknowledge this but must ensure that this wealth of precious knowledge and wisdom about humanity is enshrined in, and informs, our plan for Artificial Intelligence.
There are numerous resources that can inform this including the Indigenous Protocol and Artificial Intelligence Working Group and Australian academics and practitioners such as Professor Angie Abdilla (Abdilla 2025).
Policy Objective: Our Australian AI Preparedness Plan incorporates and expresses our unique values and culture through practical application.
Policy Recommendation: All Policies that relate to Artificial Intelligence must be informed by the culture and legacy of our First Nations through consultation and advice.
AI can help us interrogate governance tools and mechanisms to ensure that algorithms embody Australian values. We need to ensure we are conscious of inadvertent bias and AI tools can strengthen the framing of policy process.
Whilst Australia has spawned a number of successful Technology companies (McKeith 2021) we are not a major player in the technology space (Working Mouse 2025). What we do have is a wealth of socio-technical expertise both within these companies, within Government Agencies and within our broader community.
There are numerous research institutions in Australia and internationally with decades of knowledge and expertise in Artificial Intelligence (Appendix Two). We also have local companies are developing AI models that respect and conform to Australian laws, such as Sovereign AI (the Ginan AI model and Maincode (the Matilda AI model) (Smith 2025). Both of these must be consulted and included as part of the planning process.
Policy Objective: Australia is harnessing local and international expertise to ensure that we incorporate ‘best practice’ in our framing of our AI Preparedness Plan.
Policy Recommendation: Identify a small group of people from a diverse range of backgrounds to inform how we prepare for the impact of AI on Australian Society. Engage with these people through focus groups and workshops to help inform an AI Preparedness Plan.
AI can assist by identifying individuals and groups, helping frame meeting processes and capturing and distilling the knowledge generated in all interactions.
Initiatives to develop digital fluency programmes have either been ignored or largely dismissed over the last 10-15 years by various governments and organisations around the world.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics sees Digital Preparedness as access to education, skills development and learning throughout life (ABS 2025) and Australia has made progress over the last few years (Australian Digital Inclusion Index 2021). But access, without education, is not enough, and in some cases has shown to be harmful (Haidt 2024).
In the age of Artificial Intelligence people need at the minimum Digital Literacy (Makhafola et al 2025 and Department of Employment and Workplace Relations 2020) or, preferably, Digital Fluency.
Digital Fluency differs markedly from Digital Skills or Digital Ability because it integrates the importance of Critical Thinking and ensures a more informed and contextual approach (Larson et al2024) (See Digital Fluency).
There are two other components that, through years of teaching experience, I believe are critical.
The first is the Theory of Affordances (Gibson 1977).
Affordances are the possibilities for action that an environment or object affords an individual which can be directly perceived.
In the physical/analogue world affordances are often intuitive, shaped by evolution and culture –we intuit that chairs are for sitting, balls are for throwing, buttons are for pressing.
In the digital world affordances are constructed and users must learn how to use them - for example number buttons on screens, hyperlinks or ‘like’ buttons, all of which are based on design conventions (Zuboff 2002, Neff et al 2012, Coyle 2015).
Understanding affordances is critical for Digital Fluency
The second is the importance of Science Fiction as a stimulant for innovation and imagination because it encourages empathy and facilitates critical thinking (Druzhinina 2023). Science Fiction has inspired many of the technologies we now use in everyday life from the concept of Cyberspace (William Gibson’s Neuromancer), virtual reality (Neil Stephenson’s Snow Crash), the World Wide Web (Azimov’s Foundation) and Artificial Intelligence (Azimov’s Laws of Robotics) (MIT Technology Review, 2018). The Chinese government, which until recently has seen Science Fiction as spiritual pollution, now embraces it as a means to foster technological advancement and soft power (Latham and Paley 2024).
When it comes to preparing for an AI future we need people who can imagine and play with different futures.
Finally, in a world where 'the machines' can take our jobs people need to 'learn how to learn' to adapt and ensure that we don't create a 'useless' class (Harari 2016).
In their list of Leadership Capabilities (APSC 2021) none of the above are mentioned. Nor were they in the Australian Public Service ‘State of the Service’ Report 2023-2024 (APS 2024) despite its focus on developing community trust and promoting AI adoption through regulatory clarity and having ‘Government as an exemplar’.
This is going to require much more digital fluency than currently exists.
In 2013 Intersticia worked with senior Public Servants and ANZSOG (the Australian and New Zealand School of Government) (Rowland-Campbell 2013, 2014) whilst also undertaking research into the impact of digital technologies on government (ANZSOG 2013, University of Southampton 2019).
Concurrent collaborations with like-minded organisations such as Decoded and Code for Australia, part of the global Code for All Movement, also informed our work.
Intersticia developed pilot programmes for ANZSOG informed by Digital Fluency but these were discontinued. It seems ANZSOG had a 2024 course entitled ‘Public Leadership in the Digital Age’, but that seems to have been put on hold (View ANZSOG Website 2025).
A similar situation occurred at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government where Professor David Eaves created the world’s first Masters and Executive Education courses on Digital Government (Eaves 2021). The Kennedy School also failed to appreciate the importance or urgency of this initiative and Eaves left to join University College London in 2022 (UCL 2025). Since then Eaves and a group of others involved in the Open Government movement (in particular Tom Steinberg) have created a free online Educational Platform ‘Teaching Public Service in the Digital Age’ because they believe that:
Our institutions are equipping graduates with industrial-era skills and competencies to solve digital-era problems.
We can do better, and we have to do better (Steinberg, Eaves et al)
People in Public Service need to be able to envisage possible futures and plan for them.
We also need to recognise that just because technologies can do 'tasks' doesn't mean that they should. As people such as Daniel Susskind says we need to appreciate that in order to become a good lawyer or doctor or engineer the role of learning on the job, apprenticeships and mentoring, is invaluable. We mst not outsource this to the machines nor lose th value of early career learning and development.
The Chinese Government has recently announced mandatory AI education for all primary and secondary school students (Ramirez 2025) where they will receive a minimum of 8 hours of AI instruction annually and lessons will be integrated into existing subjects (maths, science, and computing, or taught as standalone courses). Within this framework:
Schools will use AI Teachers and Digital Assistants but it will take time to train teachers, integrate material into curriculum and manage ethical concerns about data and the use of surveillance technologies.
In Finland the New Literacies Programme aims to:
This is just part of preparing our upcoming generations. We must teach them digital fluency and how to have Brave Conversations.
In 2018 Intersticia tried to work with a number of schools in New South Wales and the United Kingdom to develop a pilot course for school children based on our Brave Conversations (Intersticia 2025). These never eventuated because, we were told, while the idea was considered extremely important there was no time for it in the curriculum - the kids were too busy!
We have been busy for over two decades not preparing for AI. We must act now.
Policy Objective: Australians from all walks of life are confident, informed, capable, ‘savvy’ and ‘smart’ around their use of Artificial Intelligence systems.
Policy Recommendation: A Digital Fluency programme, in partnership with the existing ‘Teaching Public Service in the Digital Age’, is to be developed and implemented for all members of the Political system, from elected representatives to Advisors and Public Servants from all three tiers of Australian government (Federal, State/Territories and Local).
Policy Recommendation (Community): Digital Fluency is taught as a core component of the school curriculum from Kindergarden onwards.
Policy Recommendation: A Data Trust be created as a national resource to hold and safeguard Australia data relating to this education programme with governance and safeguards based on Australian values.
AI can assist with all of these policies through: infusing Digital Fluency activities into learning tasks; assessment and feedback; training of teachers and facilitators and monitoring the learning cycle for continuous improvement.
AI can also help safeguard the personal and anonymised data generated and held in the Data Trust.
AI should be seen as extension of historical (Taylorist) management techniques and as such, similar to the Luddites in their resistance to the Industrial Age, there is value in understanding that forms of resistance to AI are expressions of social misalignment and discomfort (Carbonell 2025 and Sadowski 2021).
The Luddites had a point. New technologies create inequality and social disruption and AI will be no different.
The Australian Parliament Select Committee on Adopting Artificial Intelligence (2024) and the Social Policy Group (2024) both see the link between unemployment, job redefinition and the adoption of Artificial Intelligence. We don’t know how this will play out exactly but we do know from previous ‘revolutions’ that there will be major change and we need to proactively manage and prepare for this.
We need to create and fund a social safety net which supports,educates and retrains those impacted by AI and this may incorporate a Fair and equitable Universal Basic Income.
We need to rethink our existing tax system to ensure that the benefits of Australian resources, both physical (through mining and agriculture) and intellectual (through our ideas, our creativity, our science and our technology) are not taken offshore but remain here to benefit Australians. We can do this through taxing the companies which create and deploy AI models, robots and other ‘smart’ technologies and ensure that this wealth is redistributed back to Australia.
We can more effectively utilise Australia’s Future Fund which, as sovereign wealth invested for future generations, has a role to play in the amelioration of probable social disruption through AI, particularly since it’s CEO Greg Combet has publicly recognised this (Kehoe 2025).
One interesting way to invest in the future is what the Trump Administration is doing through its Invest America Act. This Act describes an account that holds an initial grant from the U.S. Treasury of $1,000 to every U.S. citizen born after July 4, 2026, with at least one U.S. citizen parent, invested in a broad equity index fund. The idea is to distribute national wealth through the stock market to ensure buy-in to the American system of free enterprise. It also may ensure that the productivity and profits of Artificial Intelligence are distributed through share ownership rather than a basic income. For the United States this makes sense as it is rooted in their Free Market DNA. For us in Australia with all of our natural resources (that we have happily been giving away to the highest bidder) there is something in this that perhaps we should consider and link to our Sovereign Wealth.
Which links to Personal Data and Intellectual Capital which should be treated as intellectual assets. We should give every Australian a stake in the digital future by create Personal Data Trusts. There have been numerous attempts to do this over the years and when I was with Fuji Xerox we worked with David Holton (who had an Australian Innovation Patent for the idea in 2006) and took it to Xerox Corporation, Lloyds Bank and Australia Post but these attempts came to nought because they had neither digital literacy nor digital fluency (Lamont 2012).
The governance and mechanics of this are not simple but we need to start now and learn whilst we're doing it.
We have wasted much time since and the internet would have been a very different place if personal data had not been so freely given away to the Big Tech companies through Social Media and digital apps.
With the Age of AI it is even more urgent that we embody digital fluency into our financial and taxation systems.
Policy Objective: The Australian community is supported through the process of societal change due to AI by the Australian government and our Sovereign Wealth.
Policy Recommendation: That Australia extend the current taxation system to tax the profits of Technology companies and ensure its redistribution back to the Australian community through support and education.
Policy Recommendation: That Australia harness the Future Fund as a mechanism to provide leadership and support as an investment to fund our Preparedness for the AI future.
Policy Recommendation: That a Personal Data Trust for every Australian child under the age of 5 years of age and all Australian child born hencforth be created.
AI can help through more effective monitoring of financial data and reporting, governance procedures and providing policy advice to the Australian Treasury, Australian Tax Office and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
The Australian Government is not doing this alone. There is a wealth of other organisations, communities and people, both in Australia and overseas, who should be engaged in helping us develop our ‘AI – A Fair Go for All’ Plan.
We must learn from other Governments facing similar challenges and develop partnerships, exploit learning and collaborate wherever is appropriate and useful - Singapore, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and China are all leading in their own way addressing the rise of AI generally and can provide some useful lessons.
When it comes to innovation and creativity we can look to what other countries, like Switzerland, are doing to promote a link between ideas and better public services and culture (See the 2025 Global Innovation Index and Mehran Gul's book The New Geography of Innovation).
Non-Government Organisations, Philanthropic Funds and Charities are concerned about the impact of Artificial Intelligence on Australian society and their resources, communities and expertise in terms of how to reach and serve everyday Australians is crucial as part of the consultation and planning process. They can also help reach communities who need education and support.
We must also learn from history. In her 2025 University of Southampton Annual Computer Science Regius Chair Lecture Verity Harding suggested that the 1966 Outer Space Treaty provided an example of how nation states and other organisations around the world can work together to ensure that AI is developed "for all mankind". This treaty has held for over fifty years and is an example of global partnership and collaboration.
Policy Objective: Australia collaborates and shares with other governments and third sector organisations to develop its unique ‘AI – A Fair Go for All’ Preparedness Plan.
Policy Recommendation: Identify, consult with, and include individuals within other Government Agencies, Non-Government Organisations, Philanthropic Funds and Charities within Australia and globally to help shape the ‘AI – A Fair Go for All’ Preparedness Plan.
AI can assist by identifying individuals and groups, helping frame meeting processes and capturing and distilling the knowledge generated in all interactions. It can also monitor other nations’ experience as a result of their own policies to determine the benefits, or otherwise, for Australia.
AI can also serve as a learning ‘AI Sandpit’ (as was developed in the UK with alpha.gov.uk, Lane Fox 2010).
Final Policy Recommendation: A basic prototype AI is to be developed which will serve as a testing ground (AI sandpit) to facilitate the AI Preparedness Plan supported and informed by all of the human, technical and financial resources already identified.
Artificial Intelligence comes with both promise and peril. For too long in Australia we have largely ignored the coming wave (Suleyman 2023) and remained in our ‘Lucky Country’ bubble only focusing on the peril when we had to.
We must also focus on the promise of AI, and this requires imagination,courage and determination to focus on what we in Australia need, rather than blindly following everyone else.
We have unique needs and aspirations, we have a wealth of resources to draw upon, and we have everything we need to ensure that Artificial Intelligence can be harnessed to ensure that everyone has ‘A Fair Go’.
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