Item Catalogue

Week of 21 October 2024

AI Now Institute – Publications(Global) 22 Oct 2024 52

New AI Now Paper Highlights Risks of Commercial AI Used In Military Contexts

AI Now paper argues commercial foundation models integrated into military targeting systems pose underappreciated national security risks.

Key points

Systems like Gospel and Lavender, deployed in Gaza, illustrate risks of personal data exfiltration and adversarial exploitation in military AI.
Recommendations focus on insulating military AI from commercial foundation models - not a direct APS procurement or governance mandate.

Week of 14 October 2024

AI Now Institute – Publications(EU) 15 Oct 2024 42

Redirecting Europe’s AI Industrial Policy

AI Now Institute publishes a multi-author critique of Europe's AI industrial policy, challenging competitiveness and sovereignty framings.

Key points

Essays cover public procurement, cloud infrastructure, trade policy, and open AI as levers for public-interest outcomes.
Limited direct APS operational relevance; useful as a critical-lens counterpoint to mainstream AI industrial policy thinking.

Week of 7 October 2024

Good Ancestors – AI Policy & Governance Newsletter(Multi) 9 May 2026 62

AI Policy and Governance Newsletter — October 2024

Good Ancestors' October 2024 newsletter covers three distinct AI governance developments across Australia, the US, and the UN.

Key points

Australia's voluntary AI safety standards and mandatory guardrails consultation paper are the primary Australian thread.
California's SB 1047 veto and UN Advisory Board recommendations round out the international coverage.

Week of 30 September 2024

MIT AI Risk Repository – Blog(Global) 2 Oct 2024 42

A framework for ethical AI at the United Nations

MIT AI Risk Repository summarises a UN-focused ethical AI framework identifying 13 AI risk categories.

Key points

The framework covers risks relevant to APS governance work: bias, transparency, manipulation, and exclusion.
The underlying paper is from 2021; this is a secondary summary with limited new analytical value for APS readers.

AI Now Institute – Publications(US) 1 Oct 2024 38

AI Now Associate Director Kate Brennan Testifies at the New York City Council Committee on Technology Hearing on the MyCity Portal

AI Now Institute testified against NYC's MyCity portal, citing corporate capture and citizen surveillance risks.

Key points

The case illustrates risks when public AI infrastructure embeds vendor data advantages and opaque governance.
Limited direct APS applicability, but the digital wallet and behavioural tracking scenario is a useful cautionary case study.

Week of 9 September 2024

The Gradient – Substack(Multi) 10 Sep 2024 Excerpt 25

Mini-Update #47: First International AI Safety Treaty and the WavTokenizer Codec

A Gradient Substack mini-update covers an international AI safety treaty and a technical codec development.

Key points

The international AI safety treaty angle may be relevant to Australian AI governance and AISI positioning.
Extracted text is paywalled - substantive content is not accessible for analysis.

The Gradient – Substack(Multi) 11 Sep 2024 22

Update #83: AI Music Fraud and PlanSearch

The Gradient's issue 83 covers AI music streaming fraud, a new LLM search algorithm, and several AI news briefs.

Key points

A legally binding Council of Europe AI treaty signed by the US, EU, UK, and others is briefly noted — Australia is not mentioned.
Mixed-topic tech newsletter; no single item is developed in depth — low priority for focused APS reading.

Week of 26 August 2024

The Gradient – Substack(Global) 27 Aug 2024 38

Update #82: AI Lawsuits and SOPHON

A multi-topic AI newsletter covering copyright lawsuits, a novel misuse-prevention technique, and AI governance vignettes.

Key points

The SOPHON research introduces a framework to prevent pre-trained models being fine-tuned for harmful or restricted tasks.
Primarily US-focused content with limited direct APS relevance; useful as a broad AI landscape signal.

Week of 5 August 2024

Good Ancestors – AI Policy & Governance Newsletter(Multi) 9 May 2026 58

AI Policy and Governance Newsletter — August 2024

Good Ancestors' August 2024 newsletter covers deepfake legislation, US AI content bills, and regulatory sandboxes.

Key points

Australia's Criminal Code Amendment (Deepfake Sexual Material) Bill 2024 has passed the Senate and is now in force.
US legislative items are proposed only and not yet voted on; California's SB 1047 is flagged as a breaking development.

Week of 29 July 2024

AI Now Institute – Publications(US) 1 Aug 2024 52

Lessons from the FDA for AI

AI Now Institute draws on FDA pharmaceutical regulation as a model for ex ante AI regulatory design.

Key points

The report examines premarket scrutiny, regulatory functions, and industry capture risks - all live questions for Australian AI governance.
Published mid-2024; the political climate the authors describe as hostile to premarket AI enforcement remains broadly unchanged.

Week of 8 July 2024

Good Ancestors – AI Policy & Governance Newsletter(Multi) 9 May 2026 62

AI Policy and Governance Newsletter — July 2024

Good Ancestors' July 2024 newsletter covers three distinct AI policy developments across Australia and California.

Key points

Two Australian items dominate: a joint federal-state-territory AI assurance framework and new deepfake criminalisation legislation.
California's proposed $100M training-cost threshold for mandatory AI safety testing is the international item covered.

AI Now Institute – Publications(US) 11 Jul 2024 35

AI Now Co-ED Amba Kak Testifies at Senate Hearing on AI and Privacy

AI Now Institute testified to the US Senate that federal data privacy law is effectively AI regulation.

Key points

Arguments centre on data minimisation, purpose limitation, and anti-monopoly checks on Big Tech AI development.
US-focused advocacy testimony; limited direct applicability to Australian regulatory settings or APS practice.

Week of 1 July 2024

AI Now Institute – Publications(EU) 1 Jul 2024 42

Public Interest AI for Europe? Shaping Europe’s Nascent Industrial Policy

AI Now Institute launches a research program scrutinising Europe's emerging AI industrial policy and Big Tech dependencies.

Key points

The piece warns that poorly designed industrial policy may entrench rather than challenge AI monopolies held by US and Chinese firms.
Limited direct Australian policy relevance - useful context on global AI sovereignty debates Australia faces analogously.

Week of 24 June 2024

AI Now Institute – Publications(Global) 25 Jun 2024 48

Safety and War: Safety and Security Assurance of Military AI Systems

AI Now Institute argues military AI systems like Lavender and Gospel lack safety assurance, oversight, and accountability.

Key points

The paper calls for safety engineering frameworks applied to military AI - directly relevant to defence AI governance debates.
This is introductory framing for a future research series; substantive technical guidance is not yet published.

Week of 15 April 2024

AI Now Institute – Publications(EU) 19 Apr 2024 38

AI Now co-ED Amba Kak’s Speech at the German Green Party’s Shaping AI Conference

AI Now Institute argues AI development is dominated by a handful of US and Chinese tech companies controlling core infrastructure.

Key points

Speech advocates for public-interest AI industrial policy and rigorous EU AI Act implementation over market-led approaches.
Limited direct APS relevance; a normative advocacy address to a European political audience, not a policy instrument or research finding.

Week of 11 March 2024

AI Now Institute – Publications(Global) 14 Mar 2024 20

Power and Governance in the Age of AI

A small number of Big Tech firms control AI infrastructure, research incentives, and de facto standard-setting globally.

Key points

Fragmented national regulation allows large AI firms to self-regulate and venue-shop, undermining effective governance.
Item is a 2024 think-piece framing problems rather than offering operational guidance - signal value is contextual.