Australia's AI Ethics Principles & Voluntary AI Safety Standard
Voluntary responsible-AI resources, including the eight ethics principles and the 2024 Voluntary AI Safety Standard. The newer Guidance for AI Adoption simplifies the guardrails into six practices. These resources are not legislation; other laws can apply to AI uses.
Department of Industry, Science and Resources (voluntary guidance)
General information, not legal advice
Australian Digital Duty of Care obligations are subject to legislation and service applicability; this platform does not certify compliance. Digital Care provides tools and records to support your own risk management. It is not legal advice.
The text below is explanatory guidance, not a reproduction of legislation. The official complete text and commencement information control. These steps support your work; they do not guarantee that an obligation is met.
Does it apply to your business?
The AI Ethics Principles, Voluntary AI Safety Standard and Guidance for AI Adoption are voluntary resources, not general statutory AI duties. Binding privacy, consumer, discrimination, safety and sector-specific laws may still apply.
Completing these voluntary steps does not establish legal compliance, independent assurance or safe performance in every situation. Check applicable laws for each AI use.
Detailed guidance
The 2024 Voluntary AI Safety Standard set out ten guardrails for responsible AI. The newer Guidance for AI Adoption simplifies these into six practices for organisations considering or using AI. The AI Ethics Principles provide complementary high-level principles.
Use the current guidance to structure accountability, risk management, data governance, testing, transparency and human oversight. Government announcements and consultations about future regulation do not themselves create enacted requirements.
Voluntary adoption practices
Accountability and risk management
Identify a responsible owner, intended purpose, affected people and potential harms. Allocate oversight and assess risk throughout the AI lifecycle; check binding obligations independently.
Voluntary adoption practices
Data, testing and monitoring
Assess data use and suppliers, test outputs and monitor performance, limitations and incidents. Retain enough evidence to support your decisions without placing unnecessary personal information into AI tools.
Voluntary adoption practices
Transparency and human oversight
Provide appropriate disclosure and routes to human review or challenge. These are recommended safeguards here, not universal statutory requirements derived from a voluntary standard.
Digital Care action checklist
0 of 4 preparation steps checked · This page only; not saved to your assessment or evidence records.
Record models, suppliers, data inputs and consequential decisions. Consider whether a customer could reasonably mistake an AI response for a human or an authoritative decision.
Keep a record: AI use inventory and risk assessment.
Allocate an accountable owner, define acceptable uses and human review, and plan for failures and complaints. Separately check binding privacy, consumer and sector-specific requirements.
Keep a record: AI control actions and responsible owners.
Keep disclosure wording, supplier assessments and tests for harmful outputs, bias, privacy leakage and unsupported claims. Re-test after material model or prompt changes.
Keep a record: Dated test results, disclosure examples and supplier review.
Document incidents, affected-person feedback and retirement decisions. Request an advisory review where useful; checking these steps is not an independent AI assurance assessment.
Keep a record: Dated AI review with limitations and next actions.
Where your plan does not include the risk register or file evidence, retain those records securely outside Digital Care and reference them in your self-review. Legal notifications and technical controls must be completed through the appropriate external channels.
Official full text & sources
Read the complete instrument on the official publisher’s website, including amendments, definitions, exemptions and commencement notes. Official sources may change after this guidance was reviewed.