The Department of Finance developed the following practices that are mapped to Australia’s 8 AI Ethics Principles, demonstrating how the APS and governments can practically apply them to their assurance of AI.
Their application may differ according to jurisdictional specific governance and assurance protocols. Similarly, different use cases present different risks with some requiring a higher standard of assurance than others. Therefore, not all AI use cases will require the detailed application of all available practices to be considered safe and responsible.
These practices were developed by drawing extensively from the existing practices of the Australian, state and territory governments, as well as these publications:
- NSW Artificial Intelligence Assurance Framework (Digital NSW 2022)
- Adoption of Artificial Intelligence in the Public Sector (DTA 2023)
- Safe and responsible AI in Australia consultation: Australian Government’s interim response (DISR 2024)
- Implementing Australia’s AI Ethics Principles (Gradient Institute and CSIRO 2023)
- Responsible AI Pattern Catalogue (CSIRO 2023)
- How might artificial intelligence affect the trustworthiness of public service delivery? (PM&C 2023)
Eight broad principles are outlined in the study with a number of guidelines provided to give a better understanding of how to approach AI and its use by government.
- Human, societal and environmental wellbeing
- Human-centred values
- Fairness
- Privacy protection and security
- Reliability and safety
- Transparency and explainability
- Contestability
- Accountability
For further explanation of the full principles, read the whole original published Implementing Australia’s AI Ethics Principles in government article.
