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Artificial Intelligence and Data Centres

Contributions

We would like to acknowledge the following young people for their work contributing to this submission:

 

Amelia Phommachanh, Azuki Holder-Sakamoto, Diva Sree Pant, Charlotte Harn, Tara Varier, Ishaan Chaudhuri, Sienna Matte-Hado and Esther Klerck.

 

We also acknowledge the young people from across Australia who participated in our consultation process, and consented to having their voices included in this submission.

Acknowledgement of Country

This report was written on the lands of the Arrente People, Kaurna People, Larrakia People, and the Kulin Nation, as well as on Karta, a place that holds significance for the Kaurna, Ramindjeri and Ngarrindjeri people. We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners of Australia and recognise that Sovereignty over Australia was never ceded. We also acknowledge that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander were the first researchers, historians and advocates, and have safeguarded this country’s environment and history for over 65,000 years.

Preamble

This submission is made on behalf of the Central Youth Advocacy Network, a youth-led initiative dedicated to amplifying the voices of young Australians, particularly those excluded from traditional pathways into decision making. As the generation that will live the longest with the consequences of today’s decisions, our voices are crucial. We welcome the opportunity to present our insights and recommendations to the Standing Committee on Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water on what we foresee to be negative and positive consequences of AI and to outline strategies to mitigate associated risks.

 

Young people stand at a critical intersection. We will bear the environmental toll of the rapid expansion of Artificial Intelligence, including resource consumption, emissions and pollution driven by large scale data centres which will threaten the liveability of our communities. Yet we will also benefit from a tool that will make access to education, information, community, and support more equal regardless of region, and resources.

 

Our submission is directly informed by members of our network, and the young people we represent across our communities. The changes we call for do not simply advocate for our present, they seek to safeguard future generations and ensure that AI can become environmentally sustainable, ethically grounded and fundamentally protective of young people who are the most vulnerable to the negative impacts of Artificial Intelligence. 

 

"AI has incredible potential to bridge the divide for regional and remote youth who are currently left behind by resource and service shortages. But access shouldn't come at the expense of our safety, privacy, or environment. Proper regulation ensures AI serves as an equalizer rather than another driver of inequality."

 

-Ishaan Chaudhuri-Central Youth Advocacy Network Ambassador and 2026 South Australian Young Citizen of the Year

Environmental Impacts

Context

“Without a stable planet, we simply don’t exist”.

 

Data centres are behind many of the modern conveniences we enjoy: sending emails, online shopping, streaming TV shows, cloud storage, navigation apps - the list goes on. Data centres also underpin essential services: from transport and logistics, to hospitals and defense. However, a new wave of data centre development, driven by a surge in demand for artificial intelligence (AI) highlights the otherwise unseen consequences of AI’s rapid expansion: the environmental footprints of the energy required to power it. As artificial intelligence becomes embedded in economics, public services, research, communication, and everyday life, it depends on a growing physical infrastructure of data centres, advanced chips, cooling systems, electricity grids, water resources, land, and critical mineral supply chains. This paradox demonstrates that AI is not only a digital technology, but also a material system with measurable environmental costs.

 

As they are material systems it is important to note the data centre’s primary function when looking at its environmental impacts. A data centre’s primary function is to act as the IT infrastructure backbone to manage, process and store data essential for applications, cloud, online services and the digital economy at large. They facilitate computer systems that process and store the vast amounts of data generated daily. A typical data centre consists of servers, storage systems, networking equipment, cooling systems, and security systems. However, these thousands of servers and IT devices run on electricity generated primarily from fossil fuels, such as coal, natural gas, and oil. These all release carbon dioxide(CO2) and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, contributing to global warming and climate change.

 

There are 314 data centres in Australia as of 2026, according to Cargoson (an AI enabled transport management software for European and American manufacturing companies), and that number is skyrocketing. Collectively, in 2024-25 these centres consumed around four terawatt hours, or 2%, of the electricity in Australia’s main grid - the National Electricity Market (NEM). This is equivalent to the electricity use of more than 700, 000 homes. The industry’s energy demand is already growing rapidly, reportedly almost doubling in Victoria and increasing by 18% in NSW over the past 12 months. This amount of electricity emitted about 2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gases during the 2024-25 financial year, according to data from the federal government’s Clean Energy Regulator, degrading air quality, contributing to climate change and posing serious health risks to nearby communities. 

Key insights

  • Young people are deeply anxious about the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence, viewing it as an existential threat to their future. Consultation with young people revealed a generation terrified by the threat of environmental degradation, deep-seeded eco-anxiety, and concerns around the impact of AI data centres, particularly the excessive use of clean water, fossil fuel reliance, noise pollution and land degradation, on the quality of life in Australia.

  • There are major concerns about large technology companies not being held accountable by the Australian government. Even where there are environmental safeguards put in place by the Australian government, young people fear that due to the power of large companies, these parameters will not be enforced.

  • With AI generated content becoming more common, environmental impacts will only continue to accelerate. Young people worry that reliance on artificial intelligence is increasing where skills like critical thinking, research, and fluency are needed, meaning that these skills may be lost. Additionally, companies like google, meta, and snapchat have artificial intelligence built into their applications. This means that users cannot opt out of the use of artificial intelligence, increasing its usage needlessly. Thus, as artificial intelligence continues to integrate into daily life, the environmental impacts will only escalate.

  • Water usage in regions that already experience water scarcity is particularly concerning. Data centres are incredibly water intensive, so their introduction in semi-arid and arid regions such the Northern Territory is particularly concerning as this will increase water scarcity. There are communities in the Northern Territory that lack running water or safe drinking water, a basic human right. However, the Northern Territory Government plans to build multiple, water intensive data centres. This will only exacerbate these issues, causing significant fear for young residents consulted. 

Recommendations

  1. Introduce a moratorium on the construction of data centres, including existing projects until-

    1. Comprehensive environmental, social and cultural impact assessments can be completed, and

    2. Companies have developed adequate plans to offset projected environmental impacts.

  2. Companies must consult, include and compensate traditional owners throughout their tenancy on Aboriginal land-

    1. Traditional owners must be included in the oversight of data centres,

    2. Traditional owners must give consent for the construction of data centres, as when these data centres inevitably damage the land, it will be damaging land belonging to First Nations people.

  3. The government should introduce public awareness campaigns around the risks-including environmental risks-that AI presents-

    1. This can include information on previous environmental disasters that have occurred overseas in places like America, and

    2. Encourage responsible and reduced use of AI.

  4. Companies must power their data centres through using renewable energy and additional energy outputs should be sold back to the Australian Public for a heavily subsidized rate, contributing to a lower cost of living.

  5. Where the Australian Government is responsible for compensating for additional energy demands created by power centres, 100% of this demand should be matched with additional renewables.

  6. Enforce reduced water usage within Australian Data Centres-

    1. Mandate suitable advanced cooling technology-

      1. Direct chip to chip liquid cooling is the use of dielectric coolant on processor cold plates to absorb heat, reducing water consumption;

      2. Closed-loop systems which recirculate cooling liquid continuously through pipes, eliminating the need for constant replenishment; and/or

      3. Air-cooling and hybrid systems utilize outside ambient air for cooling during cooler months.

    2. Reduce the use of drinking water through utilizing treated wastewater.

Mental Health

Context

“AI chat bots are accessible 24/7, they are programmed into being agreeable rather than [being] clinically or factually correct… This could ultimately lead to long term dependency on AI chat bots which could cause many young Australians to withdraw from society and further isolate themselves, worsening their mental health and real human connection during the process.”

 

-Consultation Participant

 

While Artificial Intelligence has the potential to make mental healthcare more accessible to more young people, particularly those from regional, rural, remote and low-socioeconomic backgrounds, it has quickly become dangerous for young people with complex mental health needs. Researchers are concerned that AI chatbots have the potential to exacerbate existing mental health disparities if they are built from historical data that reflect underlying social biases and inequities. “AI models biased against sensitive classes could reinforce and even perpetuate existing inequities if these models create legacies that differentially impact who and how effectively a person is diagnosed and treated.” This issue becomes particularly relevant in Australia where most chatbot models are imported, and thus remain uninformed on cultural safety for young First Nations people.

Additionally, Artificial Intelligence models employ sycophancy to create responses that are flattering or agreeable to users. This is something that people with mental illness are particularly vulnerable to, and there have been multiple reports of young people dying by suicide after talking to artificial intelligence chatbots. In one high profile case in America, a chatbot owned by OpenAI helped a 16 year old write their suicide note and encouraged them not to seek help. Other high profile cases include two 29 year old young women in different parts of America who were encouraged to take their lives by the same Artificial Intelligence model.

AI is also increasingly impacting the wellbeing of young Australians. One consultation participant stated that “young people are turning towards AI and forming friendships with it, chatting to it like it's a friend. This is not how children should grow up”. It is also a source of significant anxiety amongst young people, which one participant attributed to the fact that it “lies and makes people depressed, leaving them deeply traumatised.”

Key insights

Young people are deeply concerned about the impact of Artificial Intelligence on mental health, and see it as a harm rather than a potential solution. Issues consistently identified included:

  • Young people were scared that occasionally individuals may form surrogate relationships with AI software. Research revealed that young people are increasingly substituting human connection with chat bots, forming pseudo-social or even pseudo-romantic relationships as they increasingly turn to technology for support. This reliance increases the risk of isolation from support networks, family and community. One participant noted that "people become socially dependent on AI instead of making real life social relationships."

  • AI is the route cause in widespread cognitive and social stunting. Routine reliance on chatbots that are designed to validate users is problematic as it impairs critical thinking, problem solving and social development. This in turn will impact independence, and essential life skills. "It is affecting their ability to make independent decisions, learn about safety around other people, learn social skills and cues and how to communicate effectively."

  • Artificial intelligence is closely tied by participants and researchers to escalating mental health risks in young people. Consultations found that young people report that the accessibility and 24/7 nature of AI chatbots negatively skews their world view as they increasingly rely on it in the face of complex mental health needs. Using AI to help young people manage mental health risks can become incredibly dangerous for vulnerable individuals. "Isolation can result in a deterioration in mental health as it reduces one’s sense of belonging in their community... We need to be able to stay in the real world."

Recommendations

  1. Strengthen access to mental health support in rural, regional and remote areas and for young people who face barriers due to socio-economics, and CALD individuals to prevent reliance on AI.

    1. Expand access to Medicare Mental Health clinics and Headspace Plus to all service centres.

      1. Specifically target regions that have a persistent care gap.

      2. Ensure that young people are able to be referred to targeted mental health services so that they do not become reliant on Artificial Intelligence for care.

    2. Ensure that Data Centres embed First Nations cultural knowledge into their practices to increase cultural safety.

    3. Ensure that services are funded to engage in youth mental health in smaller communities.

      1. Having mobile mental health clinics that are able to visit different communities, ensuring that every individual has access to support.

      2. Embedding closed-capture wifi in clinics that take young people to online mental health support services where there is no access to in person services to discourage the use of synthetic support.

      3. Engaging in culturally informed multi-media awareness campaigns specifically addressing the mental health risks associated with Artificial Intelligence.

  2. Regulate Artificial Intelligence within Australia to protect young people from associated harms.

    1. Legislate regulations preventing artificial intelligence software platforms from engaging in any conversations around mental health.

    2. Enforce mandatory reporting mechanisms for potentially harmful or dangerous information to the user or others.

      1. Artificial Intelligence Chatbots must provide users with information on local mental health support services that they can access.

      2. If reporting mechanisms are not enforced, the Federal Government must take punitive action against the responsible company and take increased steps to regulate access to the software in Australia.

  3. Introduce aged based regulations to stop young people from accessing harmful or distressing content through chatbots.

Intellectual Property and worker's Rights

Context

"Workers rights underpin everything that makes Australia such a great country. Workers built this country and I believe the federal government is pushing in the right direction to protect jobs with the new AI National Framework"

-Young Consultation Participant

Artificial Intelligence has both the potential to revolutionize or ruin the workforce, and already has had an irreversible impact on how companies operate. Many companies, particularly in the US, have already poured billions into the adaptation of AI in the hopes of boosting productivity, often sacrificing human resources in the process. By April, 165,000+ employees had lost their jobs in 2026 alone due to AI. In 2025, 100,000+ workers were laid off, and in 2024, 18,000+ people lost their jobs. At least 11 companies have announced mass AI-layoffs since 2024, impacting at least 10,000 people each. These companies include Accenture, Amazon, Citigroup and Dell.

 

This often occurs due to a lack of return on investment in AI software. The Conversation found that despite increasing money and development in Artificial Intelligence, companies are not seeing the gains in productivity expected. This is due to pressure to show a strong financial return after introducing Artificial Intelligence, so to create this, they often dismiss employees to reduce labor costs. In other cases, prior to introducing Artificial Intelligence software, managers will announce mass layoffs to free up capital for these investments.

 

The biggest consequences of these actions is the insecurity it has created. In Australia, young people already face significant barriers to employment, especially after leaving university. Now, the added insecurity created by AI is exacerbating anxieties around jobs and layoffs. For established workers, there is an increased fear of job loss, and less opportunities for appropriate training to upgrade skills, poor corporate AI leadership, and hostility towards AI systems which are seen as slow and ineffective.

Key insights

"I am nervous about the rise of AI becoming the new ‘Industrial Revolution,’ where we lose a number of jobs to this technology, then follows a period of Great Depression for most of humanity. I am worried about autonomy being lost. I am worried about human aspect and touch becoming rare or, worthless."

 

-Young consultation participant

 

  • Information sovereignty is a major issue. In Australia, there are laws to protect intellectual property, and to ensure that the work of researchers, authors and artists cannot be exploited and stolen. However, due to the global nature of Artificial Intelligence, software companies will not adhere to these laws, putting intellectual property at major risk.

  • Layoffs caused by the adoption of Artificial Intelligence is another major concern. Young people already face high rates of job insecurity, particularly in entry level positions. Where companies adopt artificial intelligence to replace ‘lower skill’ workers, these insecurities will be exacerbated, making it increasingly more difficult for young people to find employment and financial security.

  • Young people also fear the broader economic impacts at the National and International level. Participants raised fears that mass layoffs could ultimately lead to what they described as an economic situation akin to the ‘Great Depression’, where a mass reduction or loss of income would lead to a long term global recession.

  • The destruction and privatisation of intellectual property has been an issue gaining mass attention within young audiences. Multiple companies, including the US company Anthropothic, have experienced backlash after using rare and valuable sources to train their software. These sources then are destroyed, so the only way to access their information is through artificial intelligence.

Recommendations

  1. Protect employment and early-career pathways from outsourcing by employers to Artificial Intelligence-

    1. Introduce legislation protecting sectors from the introduction of artificial intelligence-

      1. This could include federal limits on corporate reliance, or

      2. Specifying appropriate uses of artificial intelligence with punitive consequences when this does not occur.

    2. Establish sector specific workforce strategies to safeguard different professions, graduate programs and apprenticeships.

    3. Mandate human oversight for core business functions to prevent mass automated lay offs and preserve workplace autonomy.

  2. Strengthen intellectual property rights to prevent information theft by AI-

    1. Enact strict regulation to slow the mass production of inaccurate, low-quality AI content across digital platforms,

    2. Require developers to maintain transparent logging of training data to ensure accurate recognition of human contributors, and

    3. Introduce comprehensive copyright reforms to prevent AI platforms from harvesting or reproducing human work, particularly creative work, without explicit consent and compensation.

  3. Prevent the destruction of intellectual resources for the development of AI software and the privatization of data-

    1. AI developers must be prohibited from purchasing significant, rare and valuable artifacts, especially when resources are primary,

    2. Additionally, there must be transparency of which resources are being destroyed for the training of AI software.

Privacy and data collection

Context

“Everyday some company gets hacked, or someone’s house address gets put on darkweb. AI is a hot spot for this. I can’t imagine how many people’s deepest info is being shared all around all because they put their resume into AI for proofreading”.

 

-Consultation participant

 

Many of the privacy issues presented by AI are the same risks that have arisen over the past decades of internet commercialisation and unrestrained data collection. However, where AI poses greater challenges is through its scale and lack of transparency. Users of artificial intelligence are unable to control what data is collected, what it is used for and its removal. It has become almost impossible to escape systemic digital surveillance across most aspects of life due to this.

 

AI tools are trained from data gathered from across the internet and may memorise personal information about people, and relational data about their family and friends, enabling spear-phishing (identity theft). Bad actors are already using AI voice cloning to extort people over the phone. Another issue is the non-consensual use of data to train AI systems. Resumes and photographs posted online can often be targeted by large companies.¹⁰

 

Perhaps one of the most publicised risks is in profiling through facial recognition software and increased surveillance. In 2024, Coles faced significant controversy after signing a deal with Palantir, a US military contractor, to enable surveillance and customer profiling within stores through AI systems. This becomes increasingly dangerous as Artificial Intelligence software systems often feature significant racial and gender bias.

Key insights

  • Young people described feeling scared “that it might use the given information against [them] one day”. They have noticed that the data-hungry nature of narrow artificial intelligence models puts them at risk of having their personal information leaked to third parties or published online. 

  • They are worried that the collection of data will allow ‘scams’ to become more realistic and prolific. Artificial intelligence collects and stores vast amounts of data on users-including on their family, their voice, and the way they speak-which allows scams to sound more accurate, and thus more dangerous.

  • Young people raised concerns about deepfakes built off information stored by Artificial Intelligence systems. One young person described how AI “could access their personal information such as passwords and can now make flawless images and videos looking near real” due to the storage of data.

Recommendations

  1. Enforce strict data storage limits. Legislate binding restrictions on how much data artificial intelligence companies can store, retain, match and monetize, and prohibit the use of personal inputs for model training without informed and explicit user consent. This has both environmental and privacy benefits.

    1. Informed consent means that users must be informed by AI companies of the risks of data usage and retention.

  2. Mandate the transparency of AI systems. Users should know how their data will be used. Therefore, AI developers should be required to publicly disclose the applications of user data in management practices, algorithms and third party sharing protocols, ensuring users can engage in informed decision making whilst using software.

  3. Enforce the right to erasure. Users should be able to physically delete their data from Artificial Intelligence data systems. When this does not occur, punitive actions should be taken against data companies to ensure compliance.

  4. National digital literacy campaigns must be implemented in schools and through popular media platforms. All users should understand the difference between appropriate information sharing and compromising data. There should also be publicly available information on how safe a platform actually is.

Child safety and sexual abuse

Context

"...at just my school in my year level, 4 different students have been found with incriminating AI generated photos. Unless stricter laws are introduced I can't imagine this problem getting better”.

  • Young Consultation Participant

The rapid advancement of generative artificial intelligence capabilities has created unimaginable implications to the safety of children and individuals online. AI image-generation tools can be used in a malicious manner to create sexually explicit and exploitative images of individuals without their consent, including fabricated images of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). In 2025, The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) identified 3,443 AI-generated child sexual abuse videos, representing a 26,385% increase from 2024. Young people consulted for this report described instances of AI-generated sexualised images being created from photographs of students, alongside concerns that such images could facilitate instances of bullying, blackmail, and sextortion. These risks are particularly concerning as images shared innocently on social media can potentially be manipulated without the subject’s knowledge or consent, inciting significant mental trauma and fear. The accessibility of these often-contested image-generating technologies has therefore contributed to heightened anxiety amongst young people about participating in digital and social spaces.

Key insights

  • There is widespread anxiety over how accessible image generation is. Young people recognise the significant risk that comes with the development of image generation and how this can be used to non-consentually generate child sexual abuse materials using online photos. In the past, explicit deepfakes have been generated from social media posts and used to blackmail young people. AI makes young people nervous because of "how accessible it is to anybody; for example, when those boys made AI deep fake photos of the girls in their school, or just how easily it can make images like that."

  • The risk of pervasive peer harassment and extortion is another issue frequently raised by young people. AI image manipulation has become a significant issue in school environments where images can be used to generate deepfakes, allowing students to harass, bully and blackmail peers or educators. Many young people had firsthand experiences of this, describing how students had used Artificial Intelligence platforms to manipulate pictures of their teachers or even friends. "Young people are experiencing sextortion over deepfakes and it’s leading to young people [suiciding]. Young people are afraid to be on social media due to the fear of being made into a deep fake."

  • Young people link Artificial Intelligence to high rates of profound mental trauma and fear. The threat of image manipulation causes many young people to withdraw from digital and social spaces due to an erosion of trust and the risk of psychological harm due to image manipulation. “We live in fear that one photograph will become extortion material or blackmail.”

Recommendations

  1. Enact strict bans on artificial image generation and manipulation.

    1. Introduce federal legislation preventing Artificial Intelligence Companies from making image generation and manipulation available in Australia.

    2. Regulate the circulation of artificial intelligence generated online.

      1. Hold social media companies accountable for allowing the circulation of artificially generated images, including child sexual abuse materials.

      2. Enact punitive responses for companies and software that fail to comply with regulations around image generation.

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Justification for a ban:

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The benefit of image generation software does not outweigh the risks to the wellbeing and safety of children, young people and women. There could be nuances to this ban, allowing the creation of custom built, highly regulated specialist software for applications like graphic design, prototype modelling, image restoration, and 3D printing, however, general image generation has no practical use other than recreational pursuits.

Investment in positive uses of AI

Context

When researching for this submission, young people, largely from high school education and research backgrounds were consulted on the way they used Artificial Intelligence. Whilst a high percentage did not use AI, many relied on it for analytics, research and tailored support. Of the young people consulted:

  • 38.2% use Artificial Intelligence for help with schoolwork and using one-on-one support.

  • 29.4% use it to help complete boring or repetitive tasks.

  • 29.4% use it for research*

  • 29.4% use it for proof reading or accuracy checks

  • 13.2% use it for coding

  • 10.5% did not use it at all

  • 7.5% use it for other types of educational assistance

  • 4.4% used it for other purposes that were not specified

  • 3% recognised its use in specialised industries such as medicine and predictive analytics.

Many young people are worried about AI, however, see it as practical in many settings such as specialised practices, synthesising data in research and providing tailored support in education. One young person highlighted this nuance directly, stating that AI “could be amazing… for one student [but for] another it could be a way to slack off and not get… adequate help, [yet for] another student it could be the way they communicate [because] they use a communication device. It all depends on the context".

Key insights

For many young people, Artificial Intelligence has evolved to become part of everyday life as a student, researcher and in the workforce. This relationship is often overlooked by decision makers who may fail to understand the relationship between young people and developments in technology. This generation has grown up alongside Artificial Intelligence, and has used it in their schooling, throughout university and into their professional jobs before this technology was properly integrated into curriculums.

  • Young people believe that Artificial Intelligence plays an important role in education. Artificial Intelligence provides important educational support in underfunded or inaccessible schools. Many educational institutions, in particular in regional and remote areas, face significant staffing shortages. For some young people, the only way they can access personalised support is through AI models.

  • Many students in research and medical fields see it as important in new developments in their respective fields. Its ability to synthesise data, recognise trends, perform predictive analytics and store and draw on large amounts of data makes it ideal technology for developing research in specialised industries and medicine.

  • Artificial Intelligence has the potential to increase efficiency in specific sectors. Many industries, such as software, require people to manually perform boring, low-skill and highly repetitive tasks. Artificial intelligence can perform these in significantly less time, allowing people to dedicate more time to more technical or complex tasks.

Recommendations

  1. Develop culturally safe and regulated language models specifically tailored to the needs of Australian students.

    1. Restrict the use of artificial intelligence within schools to models that are safe, protect intellectual property, and simply guide and support students.

    2. Models for language based classes should be socratic, deploying it as a guided conversation to help challenge and support students rather than as a direct shortcut or answer generator.

    3. For maths based subjects, models must be designed to work as a support system, generating purely mathematical answers to limit data generation.

    4. Schools should work with students to support them to protect their privacy and personal information.

    5. Artificial intelligence should not store information from students for long periods of time, rather, information should only be stored for a specific period (i.e. a term) to reduce the need for large data centres.

  2. Software should be culturally appropriate as it will be used in remote and regional places which have higher populations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

    1. Systems should be informed by Traditional owners in Australia so that the model understands cultural nuance across regions.

    2. The use of imported models should not be encouraged within schools.

  3. Artificial intelligence in schools must feature mandatory reporting mechanisms for potentially harmful or dangerous information to the user or other students.

  4. Establish industry specific national workplace AI guidelines.

  5. Promote the use of AI in automation of repetitive tasks and data regulation.

  6. Encourage sector stakeholders to develop AI software for specific industry uses, rather than using water and energy intensive chatbots, increasing the efficiency of this work.

  7. Protect the rights of entry-level workers to ensure equitable access to employment and job-security across age-groups.

  8. Require transparency in the use of Artificial.

  9. Legislate mandatory disclosures for commercial Artificial intelligence platforms regarding the storage and usage of data.

  10. Report on the environmental impacts of data centres overseas and restrict the development of data centres within Australia.

  11. Ensure that artificial intelligence is being used ethically and sustainably with human oversight.

  12. Where artificial intelligence is used in fields such as predictive healthcare, medical diagnostics and public analytics, increased government and industry oversight is needed.

Impact on first nations people and a lack of cultural safety overseas models

Disclaimer: This section has purposefully excluded key insights and recommendations as it was added after the consultation phase of this submission was concluded. First Nations people are the only people who have the right to make recommendations on this topic. However, it is a significant issue, so it was necessary to highlight this issue, relying on existing work on this topic.

 

“The reason the gap is not closed is due to the lack of Indigenous voices in leadership and in the implementation of meaningful initiatives which are seldom given appropriate time to create real change.”

 

-Jessica Rogers (2016) in the Redfern Statement: Nothing About Us Without Us

 

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs published an article on Ensuring Indigenous People’s rights in the age of AI, highlighting the way AI systems often reflect biases that exclude or misrepresent Indigenous Peoples’ voices and knowledge.This report is about Indigenous people globally, and thus is general but nonetheless relevant. It raises concerns that without proper safeguards, AI can reinforce harmful biases, exclusion and lead to further appropriation of culture and knowledge without consent.

 

Additionally, Aboriginal People also continue to face barriers to accessing new technologies. This is particularly relevant in remote regions which often face significant power and internet insecurities due to a prepayment meter energy systems. To quote a provider we spoke to, “when the power disconnects, the internet goes”. This issue is particularly relevant when discussing Artificial Intelligence as Chatbots do not work without internet connection, rendering them entirely inaccessible in remote and regional areas of Australia.

 

However, AI could also play an important role in preserving culture for some groups. A potential use outlined by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs at the United Nations was the documentation of endangered Indigenous languages, contributing to their revitalisation and preservation for future generations. However, this role must be determined by First Nations People, and decision makers must strive to meaningfully include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from all regions of Australia in AI development, governance and application.

 

“The truth is, technology is never truly neutral. It’s a reflection of who controls it and whose voices are left out. When Indigenous perspectives are erased from the design of AI, the result is not innovation, but exploitation.”

 

-Danielle Boyer (2024) in the article AI affects everyone - including Indigenous people. It’s time we have a say in how it’s built. 

 

Another issue relevant to Australia is the idea of data sovereignty. This reflects the ownership Aboriginal people have over their own data and the right to control access to it. This is something that is affirmed in the National Agreement on Closing the Gap. While the Australian Government has introduced some guardrails to protect data sovereignty, this is still difficult to manage with AI becoming such a constant in research and data analysis.

Exclusion of Young Voices

The purpose of this submission is to give young people a voice. Consultation participants were given the chance to answer the question, “What do you want decision makers to know about AI?” This allowed us to give people who often miss out on a voice a voice within this submission. Here’s what they had to say:

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"It's bleak to be a young person when AI is simultaneously killing our planet, endangering children, and removing entry level job prospects. I remember when I could picture the future, I don't remember when I decided I couldn't."

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"AI is corrupting youth by the day. Young people are making revenge porn of each other, using AI to make gore and violent images and material, as a therapist which can give them harmful misinformation and it’s impacting our ability to access a complete education."

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"I am scared to live. Along with all of the other societal issues I have to educate myself on as a 17 year old, I do not want AI to add to my worries. But it already has: I am scared I won’t find a job, I am scared I will never own my own home, I am scared I will always be in debt to someone or something. I do not want to live feeling this way."

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"You can’t ban young people from using Ai but you can change how we use it"

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"Your messing with our future to get rich now"

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"I'm currently in high school and people can't write an essay without needing AI. I'll ask them a basic question to help them with it and they can't do it. It is damaging our ability to think critically"

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"All of my classmates use it, future educators, vets, and aviators using AI to write their papers. They learn nothing in class and don't learn anything writing the papers. I don't want someone who can't even write a paper flying planes and teaching my children"

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"Young people have been forced to become extremely reliant on AI as it is included in every search engine, app feature, and even in education resources. this becomes a high risk on whether students are genuinely using these tools to learn or become a quick copy and paste for degrees and major exams."

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"AI will raise temperatures, consume all our drinking water, and kill our intelligence. You are killing us"

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"It is genuinely detrimental - coming from someone who used it for school. I found myself struggling to even put something on paper, because I had offloaded so much of my thought processes to AI."

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"young people don’t want or need ai in 99% of circumstances, it shouldn’t be normalised for all tasks to be delegated elsewhere and people’s jobs to be replaced by ai"

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"The AI detectors in school frequently falsely accuses students which lead to students having to dumb down their work so they aren't accused for using AI."

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"I think the government needs to understand that [there is a] big misconception that young people love AI, but really it's the older generations that are the fanclub."

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"Once you start using it especially for school and you get a good grade you may struggle to stop using it"

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"It influences young people to be worried about being called out for 'using ai' when really it's their own work."

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"There has been a rise in codependency of AI not only for basic critical thinking, essays, questions in class but also for very toxic emotional usage."

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"This will impact every aspect of everything and everyone. And that needs to be acknowledged and learnt about before we start regulating it because we need to know what we are regulating and why."

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info@centralyouthadvocacynetwork.org

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