The Hon Dr Andrew Leigh on AI and competition, technology and productivity, and evaluating government.

Technology and Security (TS)

Dr Miah Hammond-Errey is joined by The Hon. Dr Andrew Leigh, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury and the Assistant Minister for Employment, to discuss artificial intelligence (AI) in the context of competition, the initial months of the Australian Centre for Evaluation and coordinating with overseas regulators on the complexities of AI. They also discuss Australia’s technology workforce challenges, charting a uniquely Australian approach to building industrial capacity, and the ongoing, global geopolitical technology competition.

Dr Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury and the Assistant Minister for Employment. He is the member for Fenner and has been in government for more than a decade, holding various Shadow Ministry positions, and was the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister in 2013. He previously worked as a lawyer and a Professor of Economics at ANU. He holds a PhD from Harvard in Public Policy and has written numerous books on inequality, economics, randomisation and innovation. His long running podcast, The Good Life is focused on ethics, health and happiness.

Technology and Security is hosted by Dr Miah Hammond-Errey, the inaugural director of the Emerging Technology program at the United States Studies Centre, based at the University of Sydney.

Resources mentioned in the recording:

• (Dr Andrew Leigh’s podcast) The Good Life
• (Dr Andrew Leigh, Address to the McKell Institute, Sydney) Competition and Artificial Intelligence
• (Ethan Mollick et al.) Navigating the Jagged Technological Frontier: Field Experimental Evidence of the Effects of AI on Knowledge Worker Productivity and Quality
• (Dr Miah Hammond-Errey) Big Data, Emerging Technologies and Intelligence: National Security Disrupted
• (Prime Minister and Treasurer, Treasury) Working Future: The Australian Government’s White Paper on Jobs and Opportunities
• (Claudia Goldin and Larry Katz) The Race Between Education and Technology
• (Dr Miah Hammond-Errey, Lowy Institute) AI will shape our world – even our brains – but it can be regulated
• (Digital platform services inquiry 2020-25, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) September 2023 interim report
• (OECD) R&D spending
• (Education Endowment Foundation) Taking Part in an EEF Project
• (The Laura and John Arnold Foundation) Arnold Foundation Announces Expanded Funding for Low-Cost Randomized Controlled Trials to Drive Effective Social Spending
• (World Bank) Independent Evaluation Group
• (USAID) Evaluation evaluation outfits
• (Julian H. Elliott et al.) Living Systematic Reviews: An Emerging Opportunity to Narrow the Evidence-Practice Gap
• (Global Commission on Evidence to Address Societal Challenges) Global Evidence Commission Report
• (Gabrielle Zevin) Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
• (Shehan Karunatilaka) The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
• (Henry A. Kissinger, Eric Schmidt and Daniel Huttenlocher) The Age of AI: And Our Human Future

Miah’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Miah_HE

The USSC website: https://www.ussc.edu.au/

Making great content requires fabulous teams. Thanks to the great talents of the following.

• Research support and editorial assistance: Tom Barrett
• Production: Elliott Brennan
• Podcast design: Susan Beale
• Music: Dr. Paul Mac

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Ngunnawal people, and we pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging — here and wherever you’re listening. We acknowledge their continuing connection to land, sea and community, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.