The giant hole in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speech about AI – so large it could be seen from a data centre in space – was its lack of anything meaningful about building local AI products in this country.
The government wants Australia to “shape AI”, not just take AI. Well, if you’re not building, then you’re not shaping.
Anything the Prime Minister said that could be construed as industry development policy related only to data centres, and the governance structures for attracting foreign investment, so that foreign companies can build their products here.
There was no mention of local startups, no discussion about Australian research funding, nor commercialisation programs.
Mr Albanese acknowledged that Australia had always been enthusiastic adopters of new generations of technology but said “our great country can be much more than a data warehouse for AI products made overseas”.
“We can do much more than manage investment in ideas from elsewhere,” he said.
But the rest of the speech was focused on data centres, in effect discussing how the government would attract and manage the foreign investment in these data centres.
The centrepiece announcement was the creation of an Office of Artificial Intelligence within the PM’s own department, an instrument of coordination and governance rather than industry development.
Public investment in AI research would be the baseline for building Australian capability from which sovereign AI would flow.
It is worth noting that the Kingston AI Group (a loosely affiliated group of Australia AI professors who have cooperated on pressing for great AI research spending) called for an Office of AI to be created and report through PM&C in 2023.
But even in 2023, the Kingston AI Group submission to a federal discussion paper on AI has emphasised investment in research as the foundational layer for building substantial Australia-wide AI capability.
The group proposed a national, multi- agency research institute focusing on the research, development and testing of responsible AI.
The institute would develop AI tools for the national benefit, but also fund PhD, master degree and short course training scholarships to help bridge the nation’s AI skills shortage.
In 2026, the Prime Minister has established his Office of AI, but public investment in AI research has not yet surfaced. And now has any serious discussion about commercialisation programs, or diffusion of new to the world AI systems across different parts of the economy.
Speaking to the chief executive of one policy thinktank prior to the Prime Minister’s speech on Wednesday, the great hope was that he would be “ambitious and courageous”.
Well, it is fair to say in relation to setting the baseline “expectations” for data centres operators and their hyperscaler customers – and by promising to make these expectations mandatory under new legislation – the Prime Minister has been ambitious.
Whether or not he is courageous in relation to data centres and hyperscalers will depend on what the implementation looks like.
But what about the rest of it? Are we ambitious for ourselves? Is there a Part 2 of the Prime Minister’s speech bring scheduled?
Stories we have followed this week:
Full of promise, light on detail: Experts on PM’s AI pivot
‘Anything less, is theft’: Albanese draws the line on AI and copyright
PM ignores sovereign AI at nation’s peril: Violi
New laws to set standards for data centre boom: PM
Gas driven data centres reshape energy tech market: CSIRO
$500k in vendor gift offers in one year exposed by DTA
AI Safety Institute teams with ASD to test unreleased models
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