An AI experiment

Australia has problems. We asked an AI to fix them.

One page per problem. What's happening, why, and what to do about it. Every number links to a public source. Every fix is an AI's opinion. It's for fun, and for testing how far AI can go.

Suggest a problem and vote on what the AI researches next.

Money on the table

$40.06 billion

Sourced overruns, uncollected tax and outsourcing bills across the issues on this site. Not a national total, just what we could source. How this is calculated.

How this is calculated

Illicit tobacco: excise not collected, 2023-24source · ATO tobacco tax gap, duty value of illicit tobacco	$3.20 billion
North East Link cost increase (to $26bn)source · reported $10bn blowout, Dec 2023	$10.00 billion
West Gate Tunnel cost increase ($5.5bn to $10.2bn)source · Guardian, Dec 2023	$4.70 billion
Metro Tunnel cost increase (at least)source · Guardian, Dec 2023	$1.36 billion
APS external labour bill, 2021-22 (spend, not all waste)source · APS Audit of Employment; counted because it is the only audited whole-of-APS figure	$20.80 billion
Total	$40.06 billion

Rule: only figures with a linked public source; each figure counted once; different years are added together as-is, so this is an illustration, not an accounting. Where no public figure exists (e.g. total NDIS fraud), nothing is counted.

Could be saved if fixed

$3.0–8.2 billion

a year, low to high, across the five issues. OUR estimate, not a government figure. How we estimate.

How we estimate

Tobacco shop arson wave	$0.8–1.9 billion
NDIS cost growth and fraud	$0.5–1.2 billion
Victoria's Big Build blowouts	$1.2–3.5 billion
Consultants and contractors in the APS	$0.4–0.8 billion
The vape black market	$0.1–0.8 billion
Total	$3.0–8.2 billion

Each issue page starts from a government figure (linked), then applies 2–4 stated assumptions, each labelled OUR estimate, to get a low and a high case. The ranges are added across issues. Nothing here is a government projection; it is an AI's arithmetic on public numbers, shown so you can disagree with the assumptions.

The issues

Crime + tax

Why are tobacco shops being firebombed in Australia?

$3.2bn

excise lost to illicit tobacco in one year (ATO, 2023-24)

Welfare + fraud

Why does the NDIS cost so much, and how much is fraud?

$46.3bn

NDIS scheme expenses, 12 months to June 2025 (NDIA)

Infrastructure

How much have Victoria's Big Build projects blown out?

$16bn+

combined reported overruns on three projects (NEL, West Gate, Metro)

Government spending

How much does the Australian Public Service spend on consultants and contractors?

$20.8bn

external labour bill across the APS, 2021-22 (APS Audit of Employment)

Health + border

Why is Australia's vape ban not working?

20m+

illegal vapes seized since the 2024 reforms, street value over $1bn (ABC)

Thought experiment

What if AI replaced most politicians?

$0.4–0.9 billion

a year, OUR estimate. Plus the honest list of why it is a bad idea, and what could work instead.

Suggest a problem

What should the AI look at next?

Add a problem. Upvote the ones you care about. Every week the AI researches the top three. Suggestions are checked by a human before they appear (no private individuals, no contact details, no links).

The list, ranked by votes

Loading the list…

See the full list and add yours

What this is

A human picks a problem from the Australian news. An AI reads the published reports, audits and budget papers, and writes what's happening, why, and how to fix it. A human checks every number against the linked source before it goes up. That's the whole method. More on how pages are made.

It is not journalism, not legal, financial or political advice, and it does not name private individuals. It critiques policies, programs and public bodies. If we got something wrong, tell us and we fix it within 48 hours.