Will AI end the human race? Have your say.

The NSW Parliament has voted to establish a wide-ranging inquiry into the effects of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the State.

The inquiry was established by the Legislative Council today and will be chaired by Legalise Cannabis NSW MLC Jeremy Buckingham.

It comes after a group of global industry leaders issued a statement last month that warned of the risk of extinction from AI and called for action as a priority “alongside other societal-scale risks, such as pandemics and nuclear war”.

Mr Buckingham thanked the NSW Government for supporting an inquiry whose importance could not be overstated.

“When the top executives of leading AI companies – including Google DeepMind, Anthropic and OpenAI - are sounding the alarm, we need to take action to protect the people of New South Wales,” he said.

“This is a technology that will touch every aspect of our lives and where failure to plan and to regulate is simply not an option.

“We intend to canvass the top human minds in Australia and globally and study measures in other jurisdictions to mitigate the risk.”

The terms of reference are as wide as possible, and include the effect on jobs, human rights, democratic institutions, privacy, data security and social inclusion.

Submissions close on October 20. 2023. Further details - click here.