China has an AI crisis plan. Australia should also | The strategist

China is the only country with a national plan to respond to an AI crisis. Australia’s National AI Plan, released in December, requires the country to manage AI incidents within its existing crisis management framework. Without a tailored approach, Australia could be left with cybercrisis regimes that are not well-suited to the specific threats, stakeholders and response mechanisms relevant to an AI crisis.

Good implementation of the National AI Plan requires updating the Australian Government Crisis Management Framework (AGCMF) to explicitly cover these situations and creating an AI Crisis Plan to address these situations. The AI ​​Crisis Plan would facilitate the National Coordination Mechanism (NCM) by bringing AI companies, experts and data center operators to the table to help the government effectively manage the crisis.

An AI crisis occurs when a border AI system is involved in a threat to public or national security. Such incidents could include:

—Abuse by malicious…