Date coming
What do we actually want from AI?
We're bringing in a couple of people who work in the field to explain where things genuinely stand, and then we want to hear what this community makes of it. Register below and we'll tell you when and where as soon as it's set.
Why we're running this
AI is going to reach into work, services, energy use and privacy, and nearly all of the decisions about how it gets handled are being made a long way from Sturt. Most of what people hear about it is either a sales pitch or a scare campaign, and neither is much help when you're trying to work out what it means for your job, your kids or your power bill. We'd rather start somewhere more useful.
How the session will work
It runs in two halves, and the second half is the one that matters most to us.
First half
Subject matter experts, talking in plain language about where the technology has actually got to, what it is already changing, where the real opportunities sit and where the risks are. Not a product demonstration and not a doomsday lecture. There will be time for questions, and no question is too basic.
Second half
The floor is yours. We want to hear your wants, your needs and your concerns, in your words rather than ours. We'll be taking notes rather than defending positions, because we haven't settled on any yet.
The sorts of things we expect to come up
- What it means for work around here, in the trades, in offices, in the care sector and for people starting out
- What it costs in energy and water, and who ends up paying for the infrastructure
- Who captures the productivity gains, and what it would take for workers to see a share of them
- How much of this Australia should be able to run itself, rather than depending on a handful of overseas companies
- What protections are worth having, and what would count as overreach
- Where it might genuinely help, in health, in services, in small business
What happens with what you tell us
AI is one of the few areas where an independent can genuinely do something a party cannot, because there is no party position to defend and no donor to keep happy. What comes out of the night goes into our policy work, and we'll publish what we heard rather than only what we decided.
You don't need to know anything about it
Plenty of people in the room won't. Scepticism is welcome and so is enthusiasm, and if your position is that the whole thing worries you, that is exactly the sort of thing we're there to hear.
Speakers are being confirmed now and we'll name them here once they're locked in. Registering doesn't commit you to attending. It puts you on the list to be told the date and venue, and helps us judge the size of the room.