View from The Hill: behind the cheesy smiles, Albanese and Trump couldn’t be further apart on AI and social media controls

Anthony Albanese was quick to put up a cheesy selfie with Donald Trump when the two rubbed shoulders at the president’s reception for those visiting the United Nations for leaders’ week.

“Always good to catch up with @POTUS. We spoke tonight on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly,” the prime minister posted.

The staged image of faces close, the hint of dialogue, belied the reality that this week has seen Trump and Albanese at odds about how the international community should be approaching AI.

And, while the prime minister is in New York, the US embassy in Canberra – which now has its Trump man in residence – issued a blistering attack on the government’s proposed Digital Duty of Care legislation, casting it as an attack on free speech, among other objections.

Albanese’s schtick during his time in New York has been how AI and social media need guardrails. He’s highlighted Australia’s forward-leaning work in these areas, through its social media ban for under-16s, its proposed Digital Duty of Care legislation, and its advocacy of balancing the positives and risks when it comes to AI.

Australia was one of 19 countries plus the European Commission that issued a statement this week declaring: “To realise AI’s potential, industry, governments and society must act now to address the risks and strengthen the oversight – without widening the gap between countries in access to the benefits of AI”.

Albanese said Australia had played a “central role” in the statement.

Then the prime minister joined the French and Spanish leaders to launch the Coalition for Children’s Rights and Protection in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.

Trump is having none of the concerns of many other leaders about where this technological revolution might take humanity.

In his address to the UN General Assembly he said: “The United States totally rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme of control for the Artificial Intelligence being spoken of so much now — hereinafter officially called ‘Super Intelligence’.

"America has never been a nation that retreats from a frontier or shrinks from a challenge, no matter how great or how daunting that challenge may be. Freedom was not a gift that Americans won easily. After 250 years, it is not one that we will ever, ever, ever surrender.”

For Trump, AI is at the centre of the competition between the US and China. He judges the US is ahead and will give no ground to others’ fears of a lack of guardrails.

Meanwhile the new US ambassador to Australia, David Brat, arrived last Friday. This week, with a critique issued through the embassy, the US publicly bought into the debate about the government’s Duty of Care exposure draft. Saying it welcomed the opportunity to provide input on the draft legislation, it didn’t mince words.

“Preserving a free, open internet and protecting freedom of expression online are top priorities for the Trump Administration,” the US response said. In offering views on the draft legislation:

our objective is to ensure that any resulting measures respect freedom of expression and fair competition, by avoiding restrictions on speech that should be protected, and preventing prescriptive product design mandates or expanded litigation risks that unduly burden American companies.

There followed a detailed set of US gripes and questions. In general:

the United States has serious concerns about the Australian government’s stated goal of mandating broad duty of care requirements that dictate how platforms manage content and users’ feeds. Concerns include: 1) how the Australian government, or the Communications Minister, would designate what constitutes “foreseeable harm”; and 2) any resulting requirement that platforms alter their algorithmic systems to suppress expression that should be protected in order to avoid liability, or, if not an explicit requirement, any approach that would likely result in platforms defaulting to pre-emptive censorship to avoid the risk of liability.

Asked about the embassy’s statement, Albanese said “I’ll always stand up for Australia’s national interest”. He said the legislation was “not about giving government control, it’s about giving people back control over what they receive on their devices. Which is why it is framed in that way”.

Having done with leaders’ week, Trump readied to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington. Their talks on AI would be crucial. The middle powers may talk commonsense, but the superpowers will have the loudest voices in the AI debate.

Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.