What political parties should consider for their AI election policies

The useful part

Zealand to allow time for regulations regarding environmental protection and energy consumption to be developed. Lobbying reform gains cross-party support, but National and Act stay silent Election 2026 Campaign Cut-through: However, finding people with the necessary expertise to fill such a role could prove to be a challenge.

How it works

• The harmful environmental and community effects of hyperscale AI data centres are well documented.
• However, it's probably reasonable to treat that claim with a healthy dose of scepticism.
• Several AI researchers and developers have made similar doomsday claims over the past few years including Nobel laureate and former Google employee Geoffrey Hinton, the "godfather of AI".
• However, the growing number of documented cases of AI agents breaking out of testing environments does raise some cause for concern.
• developing regulations to ensure hyper-scale AI data centres establish renewable energy supplies and use more environmentally responsible water-cooling systems would be a welcome step, something the Green...

What to take from it

AI experts Dr Andrew Lensen, Christopher McGavin, and Dr Cassandra Mudgway authored an open letter to party leaders late last year that called for a "bipartisan effort to produce risk management-based AI regulation and to establish a national AI oversight body". In terms of government use of AI, ideally each ministry or agency would designate someone as the "AI officer" who would be responsible for overseeing the responsible implementation of AI, act as a contact person if there were any problems, and coordinate with AI officers at other agencies to share information and best practices. Though these AI agents may not kill us all, they could cause havoc if they managed to break into banking systems, the electrical grid, or government and military systems and make changes before being found.

Example or evidence

• Are international regulators and AI companies doing enough to regulate AI globally?
• More specifically, there is no single global approach to the development or regulation of AI.
• Most major AI companies are still going full steam ahead even while proclaiming their AI models may lead to harm.
• Some jurisdictions, such as the EU, have put some statutory restrictions on AI development and use, though, even there, some of those regulations have been softened or rolled back in recent months.

Details worth keeping

What political parties should consider for their AI election policies. So far, most parties have yet to announce major policies regarding AI. read more Election 2026 Campaign Cut-through:

Related coverage

• Schneier: This essay was written with Nathan E.
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• Washingtonpost: The advancing technology offers campaigns the tools to make compelling, lifelike ads. That's leading even seasoned political observers to take note.
• Newsroom: Analysis: Labour's ambitious AI policy takes aim at tech giants, but leaves critical questions about enforcement and statutory power unanswered

Related details

• Schneier: Use AI for Good This essay was written with Nathan E.