New national centre to focus on safe AI

Graphic of man contemplating technology.
A new research centre will study safe and responsible AI. | Photo: Amgun (iStock)

Adelaide will be the focal point for Australia’s development of safe and responsible artificial intelligence (AI), with the launch of a national research centre.

A collaboration between the CSIRO and The University of Adelaide, will aim to place Australia at the global forefront of responsible AI through the new Responsible AI Research (RAIR) Centre.

CSIRO Digital, National Facilities & Collections Executive Director Elanor Huntington said the centre would bring together expertise from “two of the country’s leading responsible AI research institutions”.

Professor Huntington said the organisations would collaboratively tackle some of the most pressing challenges of our time.

“Responsible AI is an emerging field (and) this centre shows Australia’s very real commitment to strong global leadership in the development of innovative technologies for deploying AI.”

She said the RAIR Centre would initially focus research around four key themes:

  • Tackling misinformation: Developing methods that enable attribution of trusted data sources to AI-generated content to avoid misinformation and misuse.
  • Safe AI in the real world: Exploring the foundational science questions that underpin how AI interacts with the physical world, linking to areas including robotics.
  • Diverse AI: Developing AI systems that can accurately assess their own knowledge limitations and reliably express uncertainty, helping to reduce AI hallucinations.
  • AI that can explain its actions: Developing AI that understands cause-and-effect relationships, beyond correlations, particularly in complex and dynamic environments.