The policy decisions related to data centres, artificial intelligence and copyright that will be announced in the coming weeks will be among the most consequential that this government will make during its current term.
The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has stepped in to run the show, such are the hotly contested arguments across different portfolios.
The idea that he can thread the policy needle to cement the inward investment of tens of billions of dollars for data centres while keeping local communities happy – and not doing-over artists, creatives and other copyright-holders does seem a bit fanciful.
In this episode of NewsWrap, InnovationAus.com editor Justin Hendry unpicks some of the complexity. And given that the policy development has been conducted behind closed doors, provides a quick explainer on what we know so far.
It is very possible that whatever gets announced on data centres, AI and copyright satisfies no-one, leaving all stakeholders unhappy. There is blowback in the wind.
The announcements are expected as soon as next week. The Big Reveal for a set of policies that have been developed behind closed doors.
Copyright issues are at the heart of this. The hyperscalers say they need to be able to train their models on Australian data and current copyright law does not allow this. If they can’t train data, billions in data centre investments will need to go elsewhere.
The current Australian copyright regime is creaky. If the Australian government can find a way to improve returns to creatives and authors and journalists, then
The government has consistently said that it will not allow a copyright exemption on text and data mining for AI companies. Not everyone is convinced.
There has been speculation that government will tip $500 million into a fund to support creators, with tech companies also contributing.
If this is a way for the Australian government to cross-subsidise AI companies, that would seem crazy.
Worth a read this week:
Not a brake on opportunity’: Charlton on AI Safety Institute’s frontier focus
Copyright holders ‘in the dark’ on PM’s AI reforms: Violi
AI hasn’t upended labour market yet: Govt report
Queensland holds out on data centre energy principles
As it happened: Telstra outage – SMH/The Age
The ‘quiet’ infrastructure behind Australia’s next industries
Chalmers faces deep tech backlash over RDTI overhaul
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