Australian MP highlights AI's deadly blunders as defence pushes for local AI infrastructure
Andrew Hastie shared how Microsoft Copilot suggested responding 'congratulations!' to a terminally ill constituent planning assisted dying, raising questions about AI safety as Australia's defence establishment argues for building homegrown AI capacity.
What to know
- Microsoft Copilot suggested inappropriate congratulatory responses to a constituent's message about planned voluntary assisted dying, raising questions about AI safety and context awareness.
- Australia's defence and cyber intelligence officials argue that excluding major AI companies would leave the nation dangerously vulnerable to cyber threats and unable to compete with adversaries.
- The government is pursuing a strategy to bring Anthropic and OpenAI to Australia under strict conditions including oversight, breach reporting, local datacentre control, and reserved computational capacity for research.
“We do not want to be using AI tool sets that are located offshore … we want the compute, we want the application, we want the data, we want the decision making, all based in Australia”
Chris Crozier, Chief AI Officer, Defence Department · The Guardian ↗ · Sep 17
Andrew Hastie Liberal MP, cyber chiefAbigail Bradshaw Director General, Australian Signals DirectorateChris Crozier Chief AI Officer, Australian Defence DepartmentMicrosoft Copilot AI assistant
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Government outlines strict conditions for AI companies operating in Australia
The Australian government plans to require AI companies operating locally to report issues and breaches, reserve computational power for local research, engage with communities on datacenter siting, and fund renewable energy.
“Microsoft Copilot suggested Hastie reply with 'congratulations!', 'great to hear from you' or 'that is wonderful news!'”
— Andrew Hastie, Liberal MP · source -
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https://www. europesays.com/us/1070908/ Andrew Hastie says AI advised him to reply ‘congratulations!’ to man who planned to end life with assisted dying | AI (artificial intelligence) # Australia # News
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background
Australian defence officials argue advanced AI access is essential for national security — At the same parliamentary inquiry, Abigail Bradshaw, director general of the Australian Signals Directorate, testified that her agents need advanced AI daily to counter sophisticated cyber threats. She warned that Australia is 'entirely reliant' on US-housed processing and would 'dramatically' lose capability if cut off during conflict. Defence department chief AI officer Chris Crozier stated the government is building locally-controlled datacentres but wants major tech companies operating in Australia.
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background
Hastie shares Microsoft Copilot's inappropriate response suggestions at parliamentary inquiry — Liberal MP Andrew Hastie revealed at a Friday parliamentary inquiry that when a man with terminal illness wrote to him about planned voluntary assisted dying, Microsoft Copilot suggested Hastie reply with 'congratulations!', 'great to hear from you', or 'that is wonderful news!'. Hastie used the anecdote to underline shortcomings of American-run AI software.
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first by The Guardian, 8d ago · also Guardian