Peaklight

The rollout of artificial intelligence has been called the next great industrial revolution. But instead of years, it's bringing sweeping changes to the economy in just months.

With the government criticised for being a soft touch on regulation, the Prime Minister today announced the establishment of the Office of Artificial Intelligence, setting out national standards on AI and putting multinationals on notice over social license, copyright and data centres.

It comes on the same day Microsoft founder Bill Gates backed a call from 16 Nobel laureates and AI researchers for more urgent action to prepare for the economic impacts of rapidly advancing artificial intelligence.

Chief executive of lobby group, Data Centres Australia, Belinda Dennett joined The Business shortly after the announcement. She acknowledged data centres could do more to meet community concerns about power usage and costs saying, "I think our members would like to do more in meeting 100% energy offsets."

Co-director of the Human Technology Institute from UTS, Ed Santow says the government's announcement signals how it views the importance of the data centre sector to Australia's economic future. He says "we have to find a place in the kind of AI value chain where Australia can actually be a global player and .... the Prime Minister has said today that starts at least with data centres." He cautioned that the proposed new rules governing the establishment of data centres will need to be backed by stiff penalties if AI players do the wrong thing because "in some cases we've seen tech companies just see penalties as the cost of doing business".

Professor Santow also says he was surprised how strong Anthony Albanese was on defending the rights of copyright holders and the creative sector, given copyright remains one of the major sticking points from the tech sector in making additional investment in Australia.
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