South Australia is launching a royal commission into AI, and it wants the tech giants in the room

Key points

• South Australia will launch a royal commission into artificial intelligence on 1 October 2025, with a final report due by 1 July 2026.
• Premier Peter Malinauskas estimates the inquiry will cost approximately $3 million and involve three commissioners selected through an international search.
• The commission will examine AI's impact on education, health, public services, work, and the electricity grid, but will not cover data centres.
• Malinauskas met with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Apple during a recent US trip before announcing the inquiry.
• UNSW AI Institute chief scientist Toby Walsh welcomed the move, saying it could push the federal government to act faster on AI policy.

South Australia is launching what is believed to be a first-of-its-kind government inquiry into artificial intelligence. Premier Peter Malinauskas announced the royal commission, a formal independent investigation with the power to compel evidence and make binding recommendations, saying AI left unchecked poses a "material risk to the way society operates".

The commission kicks off on 1 October and must hand its report to the government by 1 July 2026. Three commissioners will be appointed after an international search, with terms of reference published within the next four to six weeks.

What will it actually look at?

The inquiry will cover how AI affects schools, hospitals, public services, creative industries, and the job market. It will not examine data centres, the large warehouse-scale buildings filled with computers that AI companies need to run their systems, because the premier wants to keep the focus on what AI does to people, not the physical infrastructure behind it.

Malinauskas was direct about the jobs question. "If we don't do this properly, we could see very significant changes in the way that people work and a more rapid destruction of demand in some areas of the labour market," he said. For workers in sectors like administration, creative production, or customer service, that is the sentence worth reading twice.

The inquiry will hear from businesses, unions, technology companies, and academics. Malinauskas specifically wants AI companies to participate, and said he met with representatives from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Apple during a recent trip to the United States.

Why South Australia specifically?

Australia has no single national approach to AI regulation right now. Some states have banned tools like ChatGPT, a conversational AI assistant made by OpenAI, in schools outright. South Australia has not, and Malinauskas says he wants a more considered framework rather than a blanket ban.

The federal government recently announced its own AI policy framework, and Toby Walsh, chief scientist at the UNSW AI Institute, told reporters, first covered by Hacker News, that the state inquiry could complement that work and push Canberra to move faster.

"There is no precedent in humankind for a new form of intelligence that is able to match, and soon exceed, the capabilities of human beings," Malinauskas said.

$3 million sounds like a lot. The premier disagrees. He called it "chicken feed" compared to the cost of getting AI policy wrong at a societal scale, and it is hard to argue with the logic.

Common questions

Does this affect how I can use AI tools in South Australia right now?

No. The commission is an inquiry, not a ban. Existing tools remain available while the review is underway, with any restrictions only possible after recommendations are made and adopted.

Will this commission change things nationally?

Possibly. Malinauskas explicitly said he hopes other state and federal governments follow the recommendations, and Walsh suggested it could accelerate federal action on AI regulation.