Regulating the New: Overland Telegraph to Generative AI Charles Todd Oration 2023
Main Article Content
Keywords
competition, co-design, generative artificial intelligence, regulation, telecommunications
Abstract
The Charles Todd Oration is an annual event run by TelSoc and is named for Charles Todd, the Postmaster-General of South Australia, who was responsible for completing the Overland Telegraph Line from Darwin to Adelaide in 1872. The 2023 Oration was delivered in Sydney on 12 October 2023 by the author, Rob Nicholls, and was introduced by Communications Minister Michelle Rowland MP. The Oration examined the challenge of novelty to regulators. It looked at history of regulating innovation, promotion of innovation in the context of consumer protection, how regulators can deal with innovation, and minimising consumer harm.
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References
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OpenAI. (2023). GPT-4 System Card. https://cdn.openai.com/papers/gpt-4-system-card.pdf
Puntis, P. (2008). New technology, the “control crisis”, and the government intervention: Lessons from telegraphy in the 1870s. Communications Policy and Research Forum, Sydney, Australia.
Relays in the Wireless Line. (1921, July 19). New Zealand Evening Post, 5.
Rowland, M. (2023). 2022 Charles Todd Oration. Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, 11(1), 18–28. https://doi.org/10.18080/jtde.v11n1.720
Statistica. (2023, September 20). Market share of leading desktop search engines worldwide from January 2015 to July 2023. https://www.statista.com/statistics/216573/worldwide-market-share-of-search-engines/
Trischler, J., Kristensson, P., & Scott, D. (2018). Team diversity and its management in a co-design team. Journal of Service Management, 29(1), 120–145. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-10-2016-0283
AER [Australian Energy Regulator]. (2023). Stakeholder Engagement. https://www.aer.gov.au/about-us/stakeholder-engagement
Avram, G., Ciolfi, L., Spedale, S., Roberts, D., & Petrelli, D. (2019). Co-design goes large. Interactions, 26(5), 58–63. https://doi.org/10.1145/3348793
Baldwin, R., & Cave, M. (2020). Taming the Corporation: How to Regulate for Success. Oxford University Press (OUP).
Baldwin, R., Cave, M., & Lodge, M. (2011). Understanding Regulation 2E: Theory, Strategy, and Practice. Oxford University Press.
Banerjee, A., Lamrani, I., Michael, K., Bowman, D., & Gupta, S. K. S. (2021). Socio-technical co-Design for accountable autonomous software. AI Safety @ IJCAI [International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence], Proceedings. Available at https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2916/paper_22.pdf
Behn, M., Haselman, R., & Vig, V. (2022). The Limits of Model-Based Regulation. The Journal of Finance, 77(3), 1635–1684. https://doi.org/10.1111/jofi.13124
Cave, M. (2013). Extending competition in network industries: Can input markets circumvent the need for an administered access regime? Utilities Policy, 27, 82–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jup.2013.09.006
Coglianese, C. (2017). The limits of performance-based regulation. University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform, 50, 525–563.
Courtenay, A. (2023). Mr Todd’s Marvel: How One Man Telegraphed Australia to the Modern World. Woodslane Press.
Curnow, R. (1963). The origins of Australian broadcasting. In Bedford, I., & Curnow, R., Initiative and organization. Melbourne: F. W. Cheshire.
Decker, C. (2015). Modern Economic Regulation. Cambridge University Press.
Dunne, N. (2015). Competition Law and Economic Regulation: Making and Managing Markets. Cambridge University Press.
Freiberg, A. (2017). Regulation in Australia. Federation Press.
Garran, R., Beasley, F. R., Groom, L. E., Gamble, J. F., Bean, E. L., Solomon, H. J., McIntyre, M. W. D., Zichy-Woinarski, J., Stow, F. L., & Gore, J. (1929). Review of Legislation, 1927. Journal of Comparative Legislation and International Law, 11(2), 75–126.
Gebert, C. (2023, September 21). Rebalancing regulation in an era of distrust. https://www.tio.com.au/news/rebalancing-regulation-era-distrust
Given, J. (2007). Talking over Water: History, Wireless and the Telephone. Media International Australia, 125(1), 46–56. https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878 X0812500107
Google. (2023). PaLM 2 Technical Report. https://ai.google/static/documents/palm2techreport.pdf
Haines, F., & Gurney, D. (2003). The Shadows of the Law: Contemporary Approaches to Regulation and the Problem of Regulatory Conflict. Law & Policy, 25(4), 353–380. Business Source Premier. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0265-8240.2003.00154.x
History of the Adelaide to London Telegraph. (1872, August 24). Adelaide Evening Journal. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/196742551
IAP2 [International Association for Public Participation]. (2023). IAP2 Public Participation Spectrum. https://iap2.org.au/resources/spectrum/
Kemp, K. (2017). The Big Chill: A Comparative Analysis of Effects-Based Tests for Misuse of Market Power. University of New South Wales Law Journal, 40, 493–536.
Lev Aretz, Y., & Strandburg, K. J. (2020). Regulation and Innovation: Approaching Market Failure from Both Sides. Yale Journal on Regulation Bulletin, 38(1), 1–27.
Livingston, K. T. (1997). Charles Todd: Powerful communication technocrat in colonial and federating Australia. Australian Journal of Communication, 24(3), 1–10.
Meta. (2023). Llama 2: Open Foundation and Fine-Tuned Chat Models. https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.09288
Moyal, A. (1983). Telecommunications in Australia: An Historical Perspective, 1854-1930. Prometheus, 1(1), 23–41.
Nicholls, R. (2014). Structural Separation, Interconnection and Access. Australian Journal of Competition and Consumer Law, 2014(22), 54–56.
Nicholls, R. (2017). The Australian Telecommunications Regulatory Environment: An overview. Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, 4(4), 196–213. https://doi.org/10.18080/jtde.v4n4.76
Nicholls, R. (2020). When Code is Law: Bargains Between News Publishers and Platforms—Competition Policy International. Competition Policy International. https://www.competitionpolicyinternational.com/when-code-is-law-bargains-between-news-publishers-and-platforms/
Nicholls, R. (2021). Valuing News: The Australian News Media Bargaining Code. InterMEDIA, 49(2), 20–25.
Office of the eSafety Commissioner. (2023, August 15). New industry recommendations to curb harms of generative AI. https://www.esafety.gov.au/newsroom/media-releases/new-industry-recommendations-to-curb-harms-of-generative-ai
O’Loughlin, N. (2023, August 15). Speech by Nerida O’Loughlin PSM, ACMA Chair, International Institute of Communications: Telecommunications and Media Forum 2023. https://www.acma.gov.au/publications/2023-08/speech/speech-nerida-oloughlin-psm-acma-chair-international-institute-communications-telecommunications-and-media-forum-2023
OpenAI. (2023). GPT-4 System Card. https://cdn.openai.com/papers/gpt-4-system-card.pdf
Puntis, P. (2008). New technology, the “control crisis”, and the government intervention: Lessons from telegraphy in the 1870s. Communications Policy and Research Forum, Sydney, Australia.
Relays in the Wireless Line. (1921, July 19). New Zealand Evening Post, 5.
Rowland, M. (2023). 2022 Charles Todd Oration. Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, 11(1), 18–28. https://doi.org/10.18080/jtde.v11n1.720
Statistica. (2023, September 20). Market share of leading desktop search engines worldwide from January 2015 to July 2023. https://www.statista.com/statistics/216573/worldwide-market-share-of-search-engines/
Trischler, J., Kristensson, P., & Scott, D. (2018). Team diversity and its management in a co-design team. Journal of Service Management, 29(1), 120–145. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-10-2016-0283
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Published
Dec 15, 2023
Article Details
How to Cite
Nicholls, R. (2023). Regulating the New: Overland Telegraph to Generative AI: Charles Todd Oration 2023. Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, 11(4), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.18080/jtde.v11n4.856
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Author Biography
Rob Nicholls, UNSW Business School
Dr Rob Nicholls is a lecturer in the School of Taxation and Business Law at the UNSW Business School.
