Week of 13 July 2026
Good Ancestors' July 2026 newsletter covers PM Albanese's landmark AI speech, a new Office of AI, and several major international developments.
Key points
- Albanese announced a national Office of AI within PM&C, mandatory data centre standards, and strong copyright protections for Australian creators.
- The roundup also covers the AI Safety Forum in Sydney, FLI's Safety Index, Illinois AI law, UN Global Dialogue, and frontier model export-control developments.
Week of 15 June 2026
Good Ancestors' June 2026 newsletter covers eight major AI policy developments across Australia and internationally.
Key points
- Key Australian threads: AISI launch, US export controls cutting Claude model access, data-centre trust strategy, and AISI resourcing concerns.
- International threads include Anthropic's pause proposal, Trump's voluntary pre-release EO, and Pope Leo XIV's AI encyclical.
Week of 11 May 2026
Good Ancestors' May 2026 newsletter covers biosecurity-AI risk, Australia's AI strategy, Mythos cyberattack capability, CAISI testing agreements, and DTA policy.
Key points
- DTA's Policy for the Responsible Use of AI in Government v2.0 is now mandatory; AI use-case registers due across non-corporate Commonwealth entities by mid-2026.
- Australia is excluded from Anthropic's Project Glasswing defensive coalition; frontier AI cyber risk to critical infrastructure has no current Australian mitigation mechanism.
Week of 6 April 2026
Good Ancestors' April 2026 newsletter covers a dense fortnight of Australian and international AI policy developments.
Key points
- Top Australian items: Anthropic–Government MOU, SOCI Act review gaps, Defence AI policy, DISR Senate response, and $52b NSW data centre approvals.
- International threads include Anthropic's undisclosed Claude Mythos cyber capabilities, AI workforce displacement, and a cross-partisan superintelligence moratorium call.
Week of 9 March 2026
Good Ancestors' March 2026 newsletter covers six major AI governance developments across Australian and international contexts.
Key points
- OAIC review finds no federal agency with ADM authorisation is fully transparent about automated decision-making use.
- Additional threads include the Anthropic–Pentagon dispute, the 2026 International AI Safety Report, and Australia's data centre scrutiny.
Week of 5 January 2026
Good Ancestors' January 2026 newsletter covers Australia's AISI hiring, Grok deepfake crisis, Productivity Commission AI regulation findings, and global safety warnings.
Key points
- Multiple items directly affect APS work: MYEFO reveals $166M GovAI Chat, AISI founding team roles, ACCC agentic AI warnings, and automated welfare liability.
- Roundup format means each item warrants separate engagement at source; this is a curated signal, not a single-issue analysis.
Week of 8 December 2025
Good Ancestors' December 2025 newsletter covers Australia's National AI Plan, AISI announcement, and multiple international developments.
Key points
- The Australian AISI ($30m, early 2026 start) and National AI Plan are the headline items, with APS AI Plan also featured.
- Newsletter spans AI espionage, model releases, deepfake legislation, CSIRO restructure, and EU AI Act delays across 15+ distinct items.
Week of 3 November 2025
Good Ancestors' October/November 2025 newsletter covers a dense cluster of Australian and international AI policy developments.
Key points
- Key Australian threads include Treasury's light-touch ACL review, eSafety's new AI chatbot codes, and the pending National AI Plan.
- Australia's IMD digital competitiveness ranking fell from 15th to 23rd, with its AI laws ranking dropping from 8th to 34th in one year.
Week of 8 September 2025
Good Ancestors' September 2025 newsletter covers major Australian and international AI governance developments across two months.
Key points
- Australian threads dominate: a national AI Act debate, six new AU-focused reports, GPT-5 oversight gaps, and calls for an Australian AISI.
- International threads include the US AI Action Plan, China's competing governance vision, EU GPAI Code of Practice, and UK AISI pre-release testing.
Week of 7 July 2025
Good Ancestors' July 2025 newsletter covers EU GPAI Code of Practice, Trump AI Action Plan, and OpenAI's Australian economic blueprint.
Key points
- OpenAI's Australia-specific blueprint and the OAIC privacy self-assessment tool are the most directly APS-relevant items.
- Also covers Switzerland's sovereign LLM, US state AI laws, and a brief roundup of international regulatory developments.
Week of 9 June 2025
Good Ancestors' June 2025 newsletter covers four lead items and a broad 'in case you missed it' roundup of AI policy developments.
Key points
- Australian-relevant items include the Albanese-AWS $20B data centre deal, the government's 'light-touch' regulatory posture, and AI workforce concerns.
- International items cover California's AI policy working group report, G7 AI-for-prosperity statement, and tech giants' superintelligence pivot.
Week of 5 May 2025
Good Ancestors' May 2025 newsletter covers three distinct developments: US AI safety rollbacks, OpenAI's Stargate global expansion, and Federal Court GenAI consultations.
Key points
- The Federal Court of Australia item is directly relevant to APS practitioners - submissions were open until 13 June 2025.
- US deregulation under Trump is framed as increasing pressure on Australia and other middle powers to fill the governance gap.
Week of 9 December 2024
Good Ancestors' December 2024 newsletter covers three distinct AI policy developments across Australia, Singapore, and Canada.
Key points
- Australia's Senate AI inquiry final report recommends dedicated whole-of-economy AI legislation with a risk-based approach.
- Singapore has enacted deepfake election content bans; Canada has announced a national AI Safety Institute with research partners.
Week of 7 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 5 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 8 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.