The Minerals Council of Australia wants the federal government to spend $13 million on artificial intelligence to speed up environmental approvals for mining projects. Conservation scientists are warning this could create automated failures like the robodebt scandal, putting threatened species at greater risk.According to The Guardian, the mining industry lobby has asked the government to trial AI to help companies prepare applications and assist federal regulators in making approval decisions.But the Biodiversity Council, a group of independent experts across 11 universities, told Guardian Australia that automating environment assessments "could lead to robodebt-style failure, where computers make flawed decisions without transparency" that could push species closer to extinction.Mate, this is classic Australia. The mining lobby trying to weaken environmental protections through technology. And given our extinction record and the robodebt disaster, this deserves serious scrutiny.Robodebt refers to the automated debt-recovery scheme that, between 2015 and 2019, wrongly accused hundreds of thousands of welfare recipients of overpayments. The system made flawed algorithmic decisions without human oversight, causing immense harm before being ruled unlawful. A royal commission found it was a "crude and cruel" failure of public administration.The scientists' concern is that AI-driven environmental approvals could replicate those failures. Australia has the worst mammal extinction rate in the world, having lost more mammal species than any other continent over the past 200 years. The country is home to more than 1,900 threatened species and ecological communities.Environmental approvals under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act currently require detailed ecological surveys, expert assessment of impacts on threatened species, and consideration of cumulative effects. Scientists argue this nuanced work cannot be safely automated.The Biodiversity Council warned that AI systems could fail to recognize rare species, misjudge habitat connectivity, or overlook subtle ecosystem impacts that human experts would catch. And unlike humans, algorithms can make systematic errors at scale.The Minerals Council argues AI could reduce approval times from years to months, unlocking billions in mining investment. Industry representatives claim the technology would assist, not replace, human decision-making.But environmental groups point out that 's environmental approvals are already under-resourced and frequently fail to prevent habitat destruction. Adding flawed AI to an already struggling system could accelerate biodiversity loss.The proposal comes as the federal government considers major reforms to national environmental law. Environment Minister has flagged creating a new federal environmental protection agency with stronger enforcement powers.Scientists are calling for any use of AI in environmental assessment to be rigorously tested, transparently documented, and subject to independent oversight. They emphasize that technology should support, not substitute for, expert ecological judgment.The debate reflects a broader tension in between resource extraction and conservation. Mining generates enormous export revenue, but the country's unique biodiversity is under unprecedented pressure from habitat loss, climate change, and invasive species.