Albo takes AI fight to UN + Why we’ll never win the 'war on drugs'

Chris Spyrou (0:07)

Hey, it's Chris Spyrou with you. Happy Monday and welcome to The Briefing. Australia is one of the world's biggest consumers of illicit drugs, and our country's top cop reckons a conversation about how our habits are filling the pockets of organized crime might just be enough to curb our appetite. But my guest today says that conversation misses the point.

Alison Ritter (0:27)

64% of government spending is in law enforcement, and 1.6% is in harm reduction. So that's not a very balanced picture.

Chris Spyrou (0:38)

That chat about how Australia should be tackling the quote war on drugs is coming up in the second half of this episode. First, let's get into the headlines with Sacha Barbour Gatt. It's Monday, the 21st of September.

Sacha Barbour Gatt (0:51)

Hey, Chris and happy Monday to you listening. Now starting in the US where Anthony Albanese is today launching Australia's bid for a temporary seat on the United Nations Security Council. It is the UN's most powerful body, the one that makes the calls on global peace and conflict. And the PM is pitching the campaign, We Listen, We Partner, We Protect, to dozens of world leaders who are gathered in New York for this year's UN General Assembly.

Chris Spyrou (1:16)

And as to his selling point, he's going to push really hard that Australia is a first mover on online safety, AI and tech rules, plus a leader in climate change discussions. Now there are two seats up for grabs on the 15-member council from 2029 Australia last held one back in 2013 and 2014

But this is a long game. The vote doesn't open until mid-2028. And that is a secret ballot where Australia needs two-thirds of UN members onside. That's at least 128 countries.

Sacha Barbour Gatt (1:49)

Yeah, and I believe it's just Australia and Finland who have nominated at this point and said we'd like those seats. So Australia is looking good, but yeah, it is a long game. Not till mid-2028. We're still two years away from the actual vote. And look, this all comes after Albanese kicked off his US trip in Silicon Valley, where he met with the former Apple boss Tim Cook. Now Cook walked him through the safety features that Apple's built into its devices, extra parental controls and screen time limits as well. Now, AI has been such a hot topic of conversation. And Albo, after this meeting with Tim Cook, did double down on his call to reign in AI, arguing governments and tech giants must keep humans in control.

Anthony Albanese (2:30)

And that's a theme of all of the actions that we are taking, whether it's the social media ban, whether it is the digital duty of care, or whether it be the AI Australian standards. How do we make sure that people are in control, rather than the technology in control of us?

Sacha Barbour Gatt (2:49)

The PM on ABC's Insight is there. He also called for a global framework and said he wants the US and China to strike a deal.

Anthony Albanese (2:57)

President Trump, of course, will act in the interests of the United States, but also there's a need for all of us to act in the interests of humanity. I think it's a positive sign that President Trump is meeting President Xi this week, and I am hopeful that there will be positive engagement out of it.

Chris Spyrou (3:20)

Yeah, so this all comes after those big bosses of the AI labs were like, hey, we got to slow down on AI development. And then Trump was like, no, we're not going to go slow because China is going to beat us there and we want to win this race. Interestingly, in that interview, Albo kind of referred to it very similarly to the nuclear arms race and he was kind of framing AI in that way. Look, this is going to be spoken about all week long with Albo there. He's there with Penny Wong as well. And I'm pretty sure Communications Minister Annika Welles, so they will be talking up a lot of what Australia is doing on this front.

I don't think we're going to get any new announcements or new developments, just a whole lot of, hey, hey, well, this is what we're doing.

Sacha Barbour Gatt (3:57)

Yeah, well, it's interesting because Donald Trump has really been coming out hard in support of AI specifically kind of as it is. He's looking at the conversation of, you know, AI could destroy humanity and it's dangerous as a hoax or a conspiracy. He actually announced his government's AI force and revealed he's going to appoint an AI czar to keep the industry from engaging in bad practices. So there's some caps and limits that he's looking at. But in terms of, yeah, like you said, slowing down the growth of AI, he's not interested, he wants to beat China.