When Anthony Albanese rose to his feet last week to deliver a speech about AI, he wasn’t just talking to the tech companies.
As we reported at the time, the prime minister was also pitching a message to trade unions, assuring them he was alive to AI’s potential impact on jobs and guaranteeing he would not allow the tech sector to breach creatives’ copyright through a text and data mining exemption.
With AI set to be debated this week at Labor’s 50th national conference in Adelaide, which kicks off on Thursday, the timing of Albanese’s speech was also intended to head off strife at the triennial gathering.
The intervention is a reminder that Albanese, more than any Labor leader before him, has such a deep understanding of his party and its conferences that he knows exactly which strings to pull to minimise conflict.
