In a speech in Parliament on Feb. 6, Labor MP Julian Hill said ChatGPT had the potential to revolutionise the world but warned that if AI were to surpass human intelligence, it could cause significant damage.

"It doesn't take long, if you start thinking, to realise the disruptive and catastrophic risks from untamed AGI are real, plausible, and easy to imagine," he said.

Hill said that risk analysts working on threats such as asteroids, climate change, supervolcanoes, nuclear devastation, solar flares or high-mortality pandemics are increasingly putting artificial general intelligence (AGI) at the top of their list of worries.

"AGI has the potential to revolutionise our world in ways we can't yet imagine, but if AGI surpasses human intelligence, it could cause significant harm to humanity if its goals and motivations are not aligned with our own, " he said.

"The risk that increasingly worries people who are far cleverer than me is what they call the 'unlikelihood' that humans will be able to control AGI or that a malevolent actor may harness AGI for mass destruction."

Hill also noted that militaries around the world were pursuing AGI development as it could transform warfare and render current "defensive capabilities obsolete."

"An AGI-enabled adversary could conquer Australia or unleash societal-level destruction without being restrained by globally agreed norms," he said.

AI programs have been banned in schools across New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia.