Does Senator David Pocock support AI safety policies?

Senator David Pocock (Independent) represents ACT in the Senate.

Senator Pocock is a signatory to the Statement on Superintelligence that calls for a prohibition on the development of superintelligence, not lifted before there is broad scientific consensus that it will be done safely and controllably, and strong public buy-in. He is also a signatory to the Australians for AI Safety Open Letter calling for the next government to establish an AI Safety Institute and an AI Act with mandatory guardrails on high-risk AI. He has explicitly called for the introduction of legislation for mandatory guardrails for the safe and responsible use of AI. He has also called for the Government to fund a national AI safety centre - expressing his disappointment that it wasn't a key recommendation from the Senate inquiry into AI adoption, despite being raised by expert witnesses. He has also expressed broader views about AI's “extraordinary potential for uses that could enhance the wellbeing of humanity" and the fact that it "poses significant risks to life as we know it and to human civilisation as we know it.”