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Of the five venture capitalists to join the panel for the fifth season of Shark Tank, Dr Catriona Wallace is, by her own admission, the least “sharky”. When first approached to star in the entrepreneur reality series, the global artificial intelligence expert, human rights activist and founder of the Responsible Metaverse Alliance turned down the gig.

“I said, ‘I don’t behave like a shark, so no, I don’t think it’s for me,’” says the former NSW police officer whose chatbot company Flamingo Ai became the second ever female-led business listed to the Australian Stock Exchange in 2016.

Dr Catriona Wallace is bringing her artificial intelligence experience to the new season of Shark Tank.

“In further discussions, I said, ‘I represent diversity and inclusion. I’m interested in the environment. I’m interested in funding minority-led businesses and I do AI’. Over a course of a few months I felt confident that Channel Ten and Curio Pictures would support those interests, and I’m very impressed that I was able to be my authentic self and to bring those value onto the show.”

Wallace joins Shark Tank US’ software businessman Robert Herjavec and Australians Sabri Suby (of King Kong Digital Marketing Agency); Davie Fogarty (whose company sells the Oodie, a blanket hoodie) and Jane Lu, founder of online clothing store Showpo.

“We all got on very well,” says Wallace. “There was a high level of respect for each other’s journeys … Experience does speak volumes, but I learnt a lot from the e-commerce sharks Sabri, Davie and Jane. These younger sharks who are deep in social media marketing have a huge amount to offer, equal to Robert and my 40 years of being in business. But put them in the business-to-business corporate world like Robert and me, it may be a bit different.”

A snapshot of the products on offer this season includes face cream, orthotic insoles and a robotic boxing partner. Wallace insists AI can be incorporated into almost everything pitched.

Four of the new Shark Tank judges (from left) Dr Catriona Wallace, Davie Fogarty, Jane Lu and Robert Herjavec.

“The other Sharks would tease me because someone would come on with an underwear business, and they’d say, ‘There’s no way you can put AI into this’, and I’d say, ‘I think you’ll find that I can’. In the next seasons, we’ll see more how AI enables businesses on the show.”

So complex and largely unknown is the subject of AI that Wallace is aware not everyone on the program comprehends its potential risks.

“Australia is well behind the rest of the world in our AI investment and our AI adoption and our government’s approach to AI,” she says. “We have about a tenth of the investment per capita that countries like Singapore or the US have. I do a lot of speaking globally on AI, and I’m staggered that most people are still at ‘AI 101’.”

Wallace agrees with the statement issued last month by hundreds of global tech leaders that “mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”

“I joined with the AI philosophers in knowing that this technology – because there are no laws and regulations for it – could be very dangerous,” she says. “The world changed for everybody in November last year with the release of genetic AI, and nothing will ever be the same, whether we’re talking about marketing or medical health or education or entertainment.

“We should expect, over the next three to five years, that we won’t even know the world as it is now with the AI-led innovations that are coming.”

Regardless of this dire warning, Wallace urges budding entrepreneurs to take advantage of the advice given on Shark Tank.

“Watch every episode and listen to the feedback that we give – not only to the ones we invest in, but the ones we don’t,” she says. “There is great diversity on the show, people from all walks of life and all ages and all parts of the country, so I really want entrepreneurs who are sitting at home to know that they too could be on Shark Tank. They just have to believe in themselves.”

Shark Tank returns on Tuesday, August 29, at 7.30pm on Ten.

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