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European AI law offers roadmap for Australian companies, says Microsoft legal boss

At a recent Ashurst event, Microsoft’s ANZ legal head Clayton Noble urged in-house lawyers to follow EU AI guidelines as the Albanese government finalises its own framework.​

Laurel Henning
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Clayton Noble, head of ANZ legal at Microsoft, said at a recent Ashurst event that EU's AI Act can provide guidelines for Australian companies. Shutterstock.

Before the government published its AI discussion paper last month, top-tier law firm Ashurst convened a group of 13 in-house lawyers from its client base, including Microsoft, to discuss their approaches to AI use.

Clayton Noble, head of ANZ legal at Microsoft, encouraged company lawyers to apply the same risk-based approach to governing AI as outlined in the EU’s AI Act, which came into force on 1 August.

Under the EU’s framework, common AI applications for non-critical tasks, such as grammar checks, are considered low risk. However, newer tools — like customer service chatbots — should be viewed as higher risk due to their potential to act autonomously on behalf of a business.

“We do see groups asking, ‘How do we even identify the risks we need to manage, and then how do we develop governance for those?’,” Noble said. “But it’s not something that has to be made up from scratch.”