By https://www.abc.net.au/news/annika-burgess/13489366
Publication Date: 2026-02-25 06:25:00
A leading artificial intelligence researcher has warned Australia’s lack of technology guardrails is putting another generation of young people at risk of being “sacrificed for the profits of big tech companies”.
Professor Toby Walsh, the senior scientist at the AI Institute at the University of New South Wales, sounded the alarm in an address to the National Press Club in Canberra.
“Social media should have been a wake-up call to the harms of unregulated AI,” he said.
“We’re about to amplify the damage we’ve seen with social media with even more powerful and compelling technology.”
Toby Walsh says the government should seek independent advice on how to benefit from AI and limit its harm. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)
The address came a day after it was announced that the federal government had abandoned plans for a permanent AI advisory body promised by former industry minister Ed Husic in 2024.
Dr. Walsh, who has consulted with governments and the United Nations on the challenges…