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Joel Pearson
Australia faces an urgent AI reckoning. AI capabilities are advancing exponentially while our safety frameworks, governance systems, and family and workforce readiness lag catastrophically behind. We're seeing AI systems exhibit concerning deceptive behaviours while their capabilities double every seven months, yet our response remains fragmented and reactive. Every month we delay coordinated action across AI safety and readiness, binding governance, and comprehensive change readiness is a month closer to being governed by technologies we neither understand nor control. Our sovereignty and future depend on acting now with the urgency this moment demands."
Prof. Joel Pearson, PhD
Director
Future Minds Lab, UNSW
ARC Future Fellow
Head of Innovation & Enterprise, School of Psychology
School of Psychology
University of New South Wales
Sydney, Australia 2052
Yanni Kyriacos
The international AI governance race isn't just about economic competitiveness. It's about ensuring catastrophic risks don't fall on the next generation. 69% of Australians want AI regulation, but our government is playing catch-up while Silicon Valley builds the infrastructure shaping our children's future. We need Australian leadership on global AI treaties and capability limits now, because the cost of reactive policy might be measured in lives, not just livelihoods."
Cheers,
Yanni
Co-Founder & Director - AI Safety, Australia & New Zealand
Doug Taylor
Every transformational technology has impacts on humans and their lives, some understood (usually the good stuff) and some ‘unexpected’ impacts (the bad stuff). Social media is a good example, everyone in digital marketing (me included) jumped into the social revolution, and encouraged their marketing clients to invest big. What we now understand is that social media has negative impacts on mental health and has adversely impacted a whole generation of children. With the advent of AI, we will have many benefits for society and science, but we need to do better mitigating the risks (for example cognitive skills and mental health) for the next generation of young people. That’s why this initiative; this conversation is critical.
Raffaele Ciriello
The message is loud and clear: without structural reform, AI will repeat and amplify social media’s harms. Under Australia’s current approach, the benefits of AI will accrue to a privileged few at the expense of everyone else, particularly the vulnerable, and especially children. We are already policytakers, not policymakers, in our own digital territory, at the mercy of offshore Big Tech executives. Put bluntly: Australia is at risk of becoming Silicon Valley’s digital colony. We owe future generations a sovereign digital infrastructure that reflects Australian values of community, fairness, and inclusivity.”
Suresh Sood
I support this paper because it confronts a truth we have all avoided for too long in an AI-driven world. Where is the onramp for young Australians? As businesses quietly retreat from early career programs and apprenticeships, assuming automation will do the rest, we risk leaving our next generation stranded. The Lucky Country can no longer rely on luck any longer. We must deliberately invest in pathways equipping young people not just to use AI, but to lead ethically, creatively, and confidently. This paper is a clear call to act with purpose before the opportunity gap becomes a chasm.
Suresh Sood, Co-Founder Brain Value, Industry/Professional Fellow Australian Artificial Intelligence Institute (AAII), University of Technology Sydney
Louise Cummins
We’ve seen what happens when we don’t act soon enough. Social media, vaping - these were warnings. With AI, we have a chance to get it right. But only if we move with urgency and intention. I worry about what happens if we don’t especially about the kids who get left behind because of where they live, how they learn, or the support they didn’t have. I worry about the future of work, of families, of human connection. This paper matters because it’s the beginning of a conversation we should’ve started yesterday. Let’s not miss this moment."
Louise Cummins, Founder, Australian Centre for AI in Marketing
Noddy Sharma
I support this campaign because my life's work is dedicated to helping communities and the next generation flourish. AI, in its essence, is a new form of creation, and how we shape it will determine the kind of world our children inherit.
This isn't about stopping progress; it's about guiding it with intention and faith. We have a moral responsibility to ensure that this technology serves humanity's highest good, fostering creativity and deepening our connections rather than isolating us.
By advocating for a future where AI is built with safety at its core and families are equipped to navigate it, we are not just building a better world—we are fulfilling our calling to protect and nurture the generations to come.