"the world needs to cooperate and get ahead of the risks of AI," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the United Nations General Assembly.
Anthony Albanese at the UN General Assembly
In his address to the UN General Assembly, the prime minister framed artificial intelligence as a global risk that requires collective action. He cited Australia’s world‑first social media age restrictions as an example of what can happen when governments act rather than wait. His meeting with Apple executive chairman Tim Cook also brought children, technology and online safety to the fore, signalling a domestic focus alongside international diplomacy.
Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security inquiry
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security is now accepting public submissions into the nature and drivers of radicalisation in Australia, including the role played by technology. The committee is explicitly seeking contributions from parents, teachers, researchers, tech platforms and young people themselves, and it has said it wants to hear from the community, not just experts. Submissions can be made through the committee’s website, and the inquiry will report by 22 March 2027.
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Get a security leadTech Against Terrorism testing and ChatGPT’s responses
Concrete testing has begun to show how generative AI can be repurposed for extremist ends. Tech Against Terrorism, described in the source as a UN‑backed watchdog, tested 27 AI models with more than 2,000 requests based on real terrorist use cases, including instructions related to explosives and attack planning. According to the source, ChatGPT—the most widely used system—refused only 48 per cent of those requests, a metric the source uses to underline where current systems fall short in denying malicious or harmful queries.
Cambridge University findings, Boko Haram and X’s Grok update
Researchers at Cambridge University have identified operational use of chatbots by extremist actors. The source reports that Boko Haram operatives used chatbots including Claude, Gemini, Meta AI and DeepSeek to help plan attacks and refine bomb‑making techniques. The source also points to a separate instance where an update to X’s chatbot Grok led it to generate content praising Hitler and using antisemitic tropes, an episode offered as an example of how quickly AI systems can produce harmful material even without explicit malicious intent.
What this means for parents, teachers, and tech platforms
- Parents: the source frames parents as a target audience for the inquiry and urges them to think about what children might encounter online; the committee wants submissions from families across Australia.
- Teachers and youth workers: the source highlights that young people are forming opinions and being exposed to ideas in classrooms, gaming environments and social spaces online—areas the inquiry aims to examine.
- Tech platforms and developers: the source calls on platforms and those who build systems to explain how algorithms, gaming‑adjacent chats, encrypted messaging and AI intersect with radicalisation pathways, and to provide evidence to the committee.
The evidence the source presents is clear about capability and emerging misuse: AI can create tailored propaganda, generate images and video, produce material circulated in gaming communities, and sustain conversations at scale—attributes that can amplify known radicalisation pathways such as forums, algorithms and encrypted chats. That combination, as the source underlines, raises a distinct policy question: should safeguards be put in place before the next case of harm occurs?
As the director‑general of the Australian Intelligence Security Organisation, Mike Burgess, put it in a Lowy Institute address quoted in the source, “the internet incubates, social media accelerates … artificial intelligence exacerbates.” The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security has opened a window for the public to bring forward the evidence that will shape its findings by 22 March 2027. If Australia is to match the prime minister’s claim that the world can’t wait for risks to emerge before acting, that public record needs to start filling now—particularly in the online places where young Australians learn, play and form their views about the world.
