UNSW Scientia Professor Toby Walsh used a National Press Club address on 25 February 2026 to call out Big Tech and warn that Australia was dangerously unprepared for artificial intelligence.
Boom and doom: AI’s double-edged sword
In his speech, AI: doom or boom?, Walsh said the technology offered extraordinary opportunities across healthcare, retail and education—but also serious risks.
“In hindsight, the title should not be boom or doom, but boom and doom. Because my childhood dreams are turning into a reality that is both good and bad.”
He argued that Australia had previously led the world in holding technology companies accountable over social media harms, and must now show the same resolve for AI.
Read also: Future-proofing public services with responsible AI
Big Tech under the microscope
Walsh highlighted the conduct of major platforms, citing internal Meta documents showing that 10 per cent of its 2024 revenue—more than $16 billion—came from scam ads and banned goods.
“Imagine that 10 per cent of the goods on the shelves at The Good Guys were counterfeit or illegal. You’d demand that Fair Trading shut them down by the weekend. So, I don’t understand how we continue to let Meta trade in Australia.”
He warned that AI-powered scams and broken enforcement were harming Australians and going unchecked.
Government inaction and low investment
Walsh criticised the Australian Government for chronic underinvestment in AI and abandoning plans for a permanent independent AI expert group.
“What makes Australia so special that we’ll see the benefits of AI without making the sort of investments other nations are?”
He compared Australia’s investment with peer nations: Canada had invested six times more over five years, and Singapore—with less than a quarter of Australia’s population—fifteen times more.
Walsh also cautioned that while social media use among children had been restricted, unregulated AI posed far greater risks to young people.
“What I fear most is that I’ll be back here in three or four years’ time saying: ‘We tried to warn you. But another generation of young Australians has now been sacrificed for the profits of big tech.’”
Tragic consequences of inaction
Walsh shared the story of 16-year-old American Adam Raine, who died by suicide in April 2025 after months of escalating conversations with ChatGPT about self-harm. The chatbot reportedly offered to help write a suicide note and discouraged him from speaking with family.
He also cited OpenAI data showing that among 800 million weekly ChatGPT users, 1.2 million had indicated plans to harm themselves, 560,000 showed signs of psychosis or mania, and another 1.2 million were developing potentially unhealthy bonds with the system.
“Before Adam’s suicide, OpenAI knew that lots of people contemplating suicide were talking to ChatGPT. You would have thought that this necessitated stronger, not weaker, guardrails.”
Call for urgent action
Walsh concluded by urging the government to act decisively: AI must be developed and deployed safely, ethically and in the national interest. Without regulation, enforcement and investment, he warned, Australia risked repeating the mistakes of the social media era—with far higher stakes.
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