The digital revolution has brought huge benefits, and can bring more, but there have also been serious harms, with more to come. Australia needs to act immediately, as many other countries are doing, to maximise innovation and to minimise the harms to businesses and consumers.a year ago that recommended regulatory codes of conduct to deal with competition issues with the most powerful platforms, as well as measures to protect consumers from, say, scams and fake reviews.
Much of the rest of the developed world is moving. In September, six big tech firms were designated as “gatekeepers” subject to the EU’s Digital Markets Act, and will need to comply with new rules aimed at improving competition and fairness in the digital economy. However, the biggest development of the past year has been the rapid rise of consumer-facing generative AI. Shortly following the release of the ACCC’s report calling for regulatory reform a year ago, OpenAI launched ChatGPT. Since then, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Meta have all launched their own generative AI products.