The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has announced the Australian National Audit Office’s (ANAO) report on the Governance of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
It agrees to all seven recommendations in the report to bolster ethical decision-making and data integrity.
The ANAO’s report underscores the necessity for the ATO to refine its AI governance framework, aligning its automation and AI strategy with broader program and project management requirements.
The ATO has committed to enhancing organisational structures and clarifying responsibilities at both the model and system levels to support AI adoption.
ATO stated: “We take our responsibility around data ethics and data stewardship extremely seriously. The ATO only uses AI technologies in limited ways that recognise the importance of security, privacy, transparency and the ethical use of data with appropriate human oversight.
“We acknowledge what is considered leading practice for AI use and governance is still evolving and we will continue to not only strive to achieve leading practice, but also assist the broader APS. We are expanding our policies and guidance to reference AI more explicitly, noting our existing data and analytics (including data governance and ethics) and IT policies already broadly apply to our use of AI.”
The recommendations include a review of the enterprise risk associated with the misuse of data and analytics, integrating controls to mitigate the impact of AI on this risk.
The report also calls for improved support mechanisms for AI design, development, deployment, and adherence to ethical principles.
Further recommendations involve the progression of AI-specific policies and guidance to ensure effective design and deployment of AI models.
The establishment of performance measurement and evaluation for the ATO’s AI strategy is also highlighted, along with managing information to maintain transparency and accountability in AI adoption.
The ATO’s agreement to the recommendations signifies the aim to advance its AI frameworks and contribute to the ANAO’s future AI use and governance audits.
This collaborative effort aims to provide insights to other Australian Public Service agencies on AI governance.
