So you are not concerned at the prospect that AI, you don't think it's realistic that AI will knock off people's super?

I think it's a real risk.

So I would never have imagined that AI's superpower would have turned out to be cyber hacking, but that's where we've landed.

And there's been a massive increase in cyber attacks and any website that's running on old platforms The software is vulnerable and I'm sure that all the super funds, if they weren't aware of the risks yesterday, have woken up this morning and are scrabbling to make sure that their sites are secure because I think it's a pretty strong message that the directorate has sent us.

So, Professor, all I can imagine is if I'm the CEO, let's say, of a super fund, how do I not spend? What's the right amount of money to spend on cybersecurity?

You really need to talk to a cybersecurity expert for that.

It's enough to make your sites fully secure and no more.

And I think as long as they're running current systems, they're going to be fine.

People are suggesting it's more devious, but you say that we will always be able to control it?

I wouldn't quite go that far, but it can only do what we give it the opportunity to do.

So all of the cases where our systems have headed off and hacked other devices is where they've been given the opportunity access to the internet to make that possible.

So just developing the technology, if the technology is on a computer that's isolated from everything, then it's going to be perfectly safe.

And so it's only really the degree to which we let these systems that nobody fully understands do stuff that they become a risk.

So I think it's actually reasonably straightforward to control the risk of that.

If we just make it very clear legally that the people creating these systems are going to be responsible for what they do, then it will be on their own heads if they give them access to the capabilities to actually do stuff which is harmful.

So what word of comfort would you issue to people who are getting rather concerned that AI is taking over the world?

I mean, is it something that we can catch up to and control?

Well, we certainly can't make it go away.

So if that's your idea of a runaway train, then it's certainly run away from us.

So it's too late to put it in the box, but that doesn't mean that we're just helpless victims.

So Australia is doing much to position itself in the new world that's emerging.

So Australia has a number of critical advantages, well, So a very secure country.

That's why there's such a large investment in data centers in Australia.

So the fear is that technology is advancing way ahead of our control.

What's your overall feeling on AI? Are you worried about it?

Well, I'm by nature an optimist.

Uh, in previous tech revolutions, uh, new jobs have always been created.

So the Industrial Revolution replaced a lot of weavers.

Um, but s- uh, if you look at the professions of today, um, many of them didn't exist 100 years ago.

So- People are very inventive and very good at creating new jobs.

And until fairly recently, I've been pretty optimistic that was going to happen yet again.

So these jobs will be taken away sooner than you can retrain people.

[laughs]

And, um, as a local, you do not drive down Tasman Drive on the weekend.

In fact, most days, actually.

[laughs] But, uh, where were we? All right.

So that, that's us here.

We've got our own logo for the Werri Beach Centenary.

And, um, about 12 months ago, we were looking in a map drawer at, at the museum, and we noticed an original auction sign for the Werri Beach Estate, dated thirties of January 1926.

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