The Creation and Analysis of Government AI Transparency Statements in Australia

TL;DR

This paper introduces the first dataset of Australian government AI transparency statements and analyzes their content, revealing variation and gaps in disclosure practices to inform better standards.

Contribution

It provides the first systematic analysis of government AI transparency statements and offers insights to improve transparency standards.

Findings

Significant variation in disclosure practices across agencies.

Identified gaps between policy requirements and actual disclosures.

Analysis informs the design of more effective transparency standards.

Abstract

Governments increasingly deploy AI in public services, making transparency essential for accountability and public trust. Australia's Standard for AI Transparency Statements (AITS) requires government bodies to disclose how AI is used in practice, yet little empirical evidence exists on how these requirements are realised in documents. This paper presents the first government AITS dataset, dubbed AITS-101, and provides the first systematic analysis of their content. Using stylometric, quantitative, and qualitative document analyses, we examine disclosure coverage, structure, and recurring patterns. Our findings reveal substantial variation in AI-related practice disclosure, highlight gaps between policy intent and implementation, and inform the design of more effective public-sector AI transparency standards.