The Policy for the responsible use of AI in government requires all non-corporate Commonwealth entities to make a publicly available statement outlining their approach to AI adoption and use as directed by the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA).

The ARC is a non-corporate Commonwealth entity, as defined by the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA ACT), and therefore must comply with all requirements outlined in the Policy for the responsible use of AI in government.

Transparency Statement 

The ARC is committed to ensuring that the internal use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is appropriate, responsible and ethical. The ARC embraces the opportunity for all its personnel to use AI as a complementary tool for internal purposes, however the appropriate, responsible and ethical use of AI will always be the highest priority. The ARC complies with the Policy for the responsible use of AI in government, and other relevant guidance regarding government standards of AI use.

To ensure the appropriate, responsible and ethical application of AI used internally within the agency, the ARC’s approach is to:

• Implement an internal AI policy for all personnel to follow. This policy will be reviewed annually (at a minimum) to ensure the ARC continues to align with best practice and government standards and keep pace with developments in AI technology.
• Continue to provide mandatory, and develop further, training on AI to all personnel.
• Maintain a register of AI use within the ARC to monitor and record the internal use of AI within the agency.
• Manage any potential and realised risks appropriately through the ARC’s Risk Management Framework, including reporting to the ARC Audit and Risk Committee.

The ARC’s current use of AI within the agency is in its early stages, with few applications of AI currently being piloted within some business areas. Table 1 outlines the current and potential internal applications of AI, as per the DTA’s Classification system for AI use.

Table 1: Current and potential applications of AI used internally within the ARC (as of 28 February 2025).

Usage[1]	Domain1	ARC current or potential use
Analytics for insights Identifies, produces or understands insights within structured or unstructured materials via comprehensive data analysis, predictive modelling and/or reporting tools.	Corporate and Enabling	The use of advanced AI techniques are planned for development to inform policy development and where required, provide insights to the ARC’s stakeholders.   Any internally developed models or the use of external models will have appropriate evaluation methods applied, and the results will be verified by domain experts. This rigour will ensure that the results are fit for purpose and responsibly used.
Workplace productivity Automate routine tasks, manage workflows, and facilitate communication.	Corporate and Enabling	The ARC is trialling the use of Microsoft CoPilot 365 to automate and assist with administrative tasks. For example, composing an initial draft of minutes and action items, with human review.
Decision making and administrative action Support decision making or the taking of administrative action by guiding, assessing or making a recommendation to a human decision maker and/or make decisions or take administrative action without human intervention.	Policy and Legal[1]	The use of AI to inform decision making and administrative action is not currently applied within the ARC.

^[1] As per the DTA’s Classification system for AI use.

 

Accountable Official

Bobby Almasi, Chief Information Officer 

Australian Research Council

Phone: 02 6206 7226

cio@arc.gov.au

 

This AI transparency statement was first published in April 2025. This statement will be reviewed annually, or when significant change is made to the ARC’s approach to AI.