AI Safety, Ethics, and Society
A free, non-technical AI safety and governance textbook from a credible research centre offers a ready-made capability uplift resource for APS policy and governance staff.
Key points
- Centre for AI Safety has published a free interdisciplinary textbook covering AI safety, ethics, and governance.
- The course targets non-technical audiences including policy professionals - accessible to APS practitioners without ML background.
- The 2024 course application deadline has passed; the textbook remains freely available online as a reference resource.
Implications for Australian agencies
- Consider APS AI governance and policy teams could consider referencing this textbook as a structured, accessible capability uplift resource for staff without technical AI backgrounds.
- Monitor Agencies involved in AI safety and governance capability programs may want to monitor whether the Centre for AI Safety runs future course cohorts open to government professionals.
Implications are AI-generated. Starting points, not advice — see methodology for how they're framed.
View original source
Copied.
Appeared in:
Weekly digest, 4 May 2026
"AI Safety, Ethics, and Society"
Source: Centre for AI Safety – Blog
Published: (undated)
URL: https://safe.ai/blog/ai-safety-ethics-and-society
The Centre for AI Safety has released 'AI Safety, Ethics and Society', a free interdisciplinary textbook and associated online course covering AI risks, safety engineering, governance, ethics, and collective action problems. The material is designed for non-technical readers and draws on game theory, complex systems, international relations, and safety engineering to build a structured analytical framework for AI governance. Chapters on governance and collective action problems are particularly relevant for APS practitioners working on AI policy and risk. The associated 2024 online course has closed for applications, but the textbook is freely accessible online and forthcoming in print via Taylor & Francis.
Implications for Australian agencies:
- [Consider] APS AI governance and policy teams could consider referencing this textbook as a structured, accessible capability uplift resource for staff without technical AI backgrounds.
- [Monitor] Agencies involved in AI safety and governance capability programs may want to monitor whether the Centre for AI Safety runs future course cohorts open to government professionals.
Retrieved from SIMS, 18 July 2026.