Australia’s AI Ethics Principles

• Authority: Government of Australia
• Jurisdiction: Other countries
• Collections: Miscellaneous documents
• Most recent activity: Enacted
• Most recent activity date: 2019-11-07

Risk subdomain coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the risk subdomain are explicitly described.

• Unfair discrimination and misrepresentation
• Compromise of privacy
• AI system security vulnerabilities
• Overreliance and unsafe use
• Loss of human agency and autonomy
• Lack of capability or robustness
• Lack of transparency or interpretability

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the risk subdomain are described.

• Unequal performance across groups
• False or misleading information
• Disinformation, surveillance, and influence at scale
• Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation
• Power centralization and unfair distribution
• Environmental harm
• AI pursuing its own goals

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has good coverage of approximately 10-12 subdomains, with strong focus on discrimination and fairness (1.1, 1.3), privacy and security (2.1, 2.2), misinformation risks (3.1), human-computer interaction (5.1, 5.2), and AI system safety (7.3, 7.4). Coverage is concentrated in fairness, transparency, accountability, and system reliability domains.

Sector coverage

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the sector are described.

• Agriculture, Mining, Construction & Manufacturing
• Trade, Transportation & Utilities
• Information
• Finance & Insurance
• Professional & Technical Services
• Scientific Research & Development Services
• Management, Administrative & Support Services
• Health Care & Social Assistance
• Public Administration (excl. National Security)

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

This document establishes cross-sectoral ethical principles that apply to AI systems across all industries and sectors. It does not target specific sectors but rather provides universal governance principles applicable wherever AI systems are designed, developed, deployed, or operated.

Legislative Status

Soft Law

Legislative Status Summary

This document establishes voluntary ethical principles for AI systems using aspirational language ('should') throughout, with no enforcement mechanisms, penalties, or binding legal obligations specified.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Government of Australia
• Summary: The document is authored by the Government of Australia as indicated in the authority field, establishing ethical principles for AI governance.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Developer, AI_Deployer
• Summary: The document applies to 'organisations designing, developing, deploying or operating AI systems' and 'those responsible for the different phases of the AI system lifecycle', indicating it targets both developers and deployers of AI systems.

Enforcer

• Summary: No enforcement body or enforcement mechanisms are specified in this document. It establishes voluntary ethical principles without designated enforcers.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: The document references 'independent oversight bodies' and 'external review' mechanisms for accountability, though no specific monitoring entities are named.

AI Lifecycle Stages

Lifecycle stages covered by the documents, as defined in the OECD Framework for the Classification of AI Systems

• Plan and Design
• Collect and Process Data
• Build and Use Model
• Verify and Validate
• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document explicitly covers all stages of the AI lifecycle, repeatedly emphasizing that principles apply 'throughout their lifecycle' and addressing design, development, deployment, and operation phases. It provides comprehensive guidance spanning from initial planning through ongoing monitoring.

Technical Scope

Terms relating to technical scope that are mentioned or implicitly referenced in the document

• AI Systems

Technical Scope Summary

The document uses the general term 'AI systems' throughout without defining specific technical categories. It does not explicitly mention AI models, frontier AI, general purpose AI, foundation models, generative AI, predictive AI, open-weight models, or compute thresholds.