Industry and Science minister Tim Ayres will deliver the National Press Club address as part of the Science Meets Parliament festivities on March 25. The event has been sold out for weeks.
While it is not unusual for an Industry minister to sell out the Press Club, there does seem to be a heightened interest this year.
It is simply true that there is a lot going on right now, all of it consequential and all of it worth a ton of money.
On data centres and artificial intelligence alone, there are billions of dollars of investment potentially resting on decisions being made this year.
We know the Assistant Minister for Science, Technology and the Digital Economy Andrew Charlton has been rolling out the government’s thinking on artificial intelligence, which also feeds into the data centre principles.
In this episode of NewsWrap, we spend some time unwrapping Dr Charlton’s attendance at the AI Impact Summit, and some early thinking on industry development.
The fact that government is saying out loud that Australia must be a creator and must own as much of the AI stack as possible in order to capture value is significant (and the opposite of what the Productivity Commission argued a year ago).
What happens next will make the difference. Dr Charlton says there are 1,500 AI startups in this country. Australians – and Australian businesses – should back themselves, to take advantage of this moment of opportunity.
But there are yet plenty of unknowns. For one, what’s in the Robyn Denholm-led Strategic Examination of R&D (SERD)? What incentives might it contain in relation to the BERD (Business Expenditure on R&D)?
And what of government (the GERD)? What happens to the R&D Tax Incentive? What happens to the science budgets? What about direct versus indirect research investment?
The treatment of software in the research structure will tell us a lot.
This is why there is a queue to get into the Tim Ayres Press Club address. Whether you are the national science agency, a sandstone research university, an AI startup or an established business ready to embark on a new development program – there is a lot to understand.
Senator Ayres has promised to release the SERD review with plenty of time ahead of the May budget for discussion.
What is not clear is whether this budget – already being tightened – will be heralded as a breakthrough or a missed opportunity.
In the news this week:
Tech lobby sounds alarm on Canberra’s contractor blacklist plan – InnovationAus
Charlton: To spread AI benefits, Australian ownership matters – InnovationAus
Toby Walsh: Act now on AI or repeat social media mistakes – InnovationAus
Canberra weighs refresh of Australia’s ageing supercomputer fleet – InnovationAus
Data centres should bring their own green power: Bowen – AFR
ASD publishes open-source malware analysis tool – InnovationAus
IBM stock dives after Anthropic points out AI can rewrite COBOL fast – The Register
WiseTech to cut 2,000 jobs amid AI-led revamp – Reuters
US orders diplomats to fight data sovereignty initiatives – Reuters
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