Australians See Ai As A Risk, But Not For The Reasons You Might Think

Two-thirds of Australians would prefer the country to take a more cautious approach to embracing AI, but the pollster behind the figures says they’re far more nuanced than a typical “tech panic.”

A JWS Research survey of 1,230 people between Aug. 6-10, shared exclusively with POLITICO, sought to fill a gap in public sentiment research on the rapidly developing technology.

The findings included that Australians are more than twice as likely to view AI as a risk (44 percent) than an opportunity (17 percent), while a large proportion remain conflicted (28 percent) or unsure (10 percent).

“The Australian public is more cautious than fearful, and the research enables us to isolate some specificity about why,” said Tom Cameron, JWS strategy and insights manager.

“Sentiment tilts slightly toward ‘risk’ over ‘opportunity,’ and leans toward moving cautiously rather than fast — around half want caution, only about a fifth want speed.”

Women older than 55 were more likely than average to view AI as a risk (56 percent), while men aged 18-34 years were more likely to feel optimistic about the technology (31 percent).

Greens and One Nation voters were aligned in their caution toward AI (58 percent and 53 percent of respondents, respectively).

The Australian government has taken a series of steps on AI in quick succession in recent months.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in July revealed his government would design standards for large data centers, including a legal obligation to underwrite their own new power supply, pay for connection costs and reduce power at times to support the energy grid.

Albanese also unveiled a new Office for AI to coordinate work on this, while a joint parliamentary committee established in August will interrogate the impact of the technology on national security, productivity, competitiveness and living standards.

“Dig into what people actually worry about and the anxiety is not the machines and not, first, their jobs,” Cameron said.

“The top concern — and the top thing people want regulated by government — is misinformation and deepfakes, with privacy and data misuse close behind," he said. “Job losses rank below both.”

This analysis comes after former Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers told POLITICO that Australia’s next election, expected between late 2027 and early 2028, would be subject to an unprecedented level of AI mis- and disinformation.

Rogers said publicly available digital literacy programs needed to be scaled up to combat the threat — with legislating and moderating secondary to educating citizens about deepfakes and other AI-generated content.

Cameron also pointed to nearly a third of the respondents (29 percent) worrying that AI would make harmful decisions without human oversight.

Australians are particularly wary of automated decision-making within government after a yearslong scheme, known as Robodebt, was used to generate false debts against hundreds of thousands of people who received income support payments.

The unlawful scheme did not involve AI but relied on automated decision-making without appropriate human oversight, leading to a catastrophic impact on vulnerable Australians.

“AI isn't rejected; it's regarded warily on specific grounds by people who can also identify what it's good for,” Cameron said, pointing to recognition by respondents that AI could advance medicine, health care, science and innovation.

The public backlash against data centers seen in the U.S. is not registering yet in Australia, the polling found, with fewer than 1 percent of respondents naming data centers when asked to asked to spontaneously identify what the Australian government should be focused on.

When asked specifically about their concerns around data centers, only 3 percent of those surveyed said they had none.

“The concerns that do register are concrete and infrastructural — electricity demand and electricity prices lead, then water use, then environmental impact,” Cameron said.

“This is not an abstract ethics debate; it's a ‘what will this cost me and my grid’ debate.”

He said findings that roughly a fifth of those polled had never heard of data centers stood out.

“There is a first-mover opportunity — for government, industry, or a campaign —to define data centers before someone else does, because a fifth of the electorate hasn't yet formed a view to defend.”