It’s been releveled that the Tasmanian government partially relied on artificial intelligence to grant ‘major project’ status to a contentious luxury hotel proposed for Hobart. The Greens say it’s an alarming used of the new technology, while the local council is considering a new legal challenge against the project.
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00:00Shambrood's $65 million dollar proposal for a luxury hotel at Kangaroo Bay on Hobart's
00:08eastern shore was granted major project status by the Planning Minister last week.
00:13In the submission it outlines 100 full time equivalent jobs in construction and 443 full
00:20time equivalent jobs across the southern region.
00:24But those job numbers are now under scrutiny after documents tabled in Tasmania's parliament
00:29showed the Department of Treasury had initially noted that the veracity of these estimates
00:34cannot be tested.
00:36In response the State Planning Office revealed it had run the numbers past Microsoft's AI
00:41assistant Copilot and found Shambrood's estimates were reasonable.
00:46This is an alarming use of a new technology.
00:50School teachers wouldn't accept this kind of use of artificial intelligence for homework
00:54and it certainly shouldn't be something that the government is using.
00:58Copilot bases its responses on information found on the internet and even Microsoft warns
01:04that while its answers might sound convincing, they're sometimes incomplete and inaccurate.
01:10But the Tasmanian government is defending its use.
01:14It's my understanding and my advice is it's not unusual in terms of the assessment process.
01:20Major project status means the hotel proposal will now be assessed by a panel set up by
01:25the Planning Commission rather than the Clarence City Council.
01:29This sort of finding calls into question the validity of the whole report.
01:33Just because you can't disprove something doesn't make it correct.
01:36The council is already taking court action to try and buy back the land from the developer
01:42and it's now seeking legal advice about whether it can challenge the government's major project
01:47declaration.