“We should not treat AI as a threat to good jobs, we must use it as an instrument to create them,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, pledging to legislate national AI standards – including copyright protections – by early 2027.
A swaggering Anthony Albanese declared Australia the best place in the world to invest in AI, knocking back suggestions the Government would weaken copyright law to attract foreign investment in data centres.
In a speech delivered at the University of Sydney on Wednesday, Albanese announced an Office of AI would be created within the Prime Minister’s Office to help coordinate national AI standards that would be legislated early next year.
“We cannot settle for a short-term boom in capital spending, we must create a new generation of secure jobs for our economy,” Albanese said. “We have the advantage of geography… We can set the terms, we can determine AI’s social license. But we have to do it now.”
The framework will mandate that data centre companies provide the power guzzled by the facilities they build, and that they employ strategies to minimise impacts on water scarcity. Albanese also said media types – writers, authors, musicians and journalists – must retain control over their work amid jostling from industry to loosen copyright laws to allow AI models to be trained on Australian data and content.
The national AI standards would draw from non-binding expectations of industry issued in March. The Office of AI will work most closely with Tim Ayres and Andrew Charlton, the Minister and Assistant Minister for Industry, and seeks to unify policy across national, state and council levels.
Both Ayres and Charlton were in attendance at the University of Sydney, as well as Attorney-General Michelle Rowland and eSafety Commissioner Julie InmanGrant. Industry was represented by Airtunk founder Robin Khuda and Firmus chief executive Tim Rosenfield.
Albanese’s speech came amid reports that Australia’s copyright regime is an inhibiting factor in a US$15 billion data centre investment being mulled by AI giant Anthropic. The company is reportedly looking to Australia for 1.4 GW of data centre capacity, which would effectively double existing supply.
Australia’s national framework would work to encourage overseas companies to build AI capabilities in Australia, Albanese said – including “frontier” AI labs. But Albanese also categorically ruled out any loosening of copyright rules.
“But let me make this crystal clear. Not everything produced in Australia is up for grabs… Australian writers, musicians, artists, and journalists must retain ownership and control of their work. Our laws will spell that out, plain as day.”
The likes of Tech Council of Australia chairman Scott Farquhar have called on the Australian Government to make the country a data centre headquarters for Southeast Asia. The idea is that compute power generated here could be sold around the region, becoming a booming export business for the country. But the proposal has been met with questions about how much value would be retained by Australia, what a deluge of data centres would do to energy prices and water scarcity.
“Our great country can be much more than a data warehouse for AI products made overseas,” Albanese said.
Albanese said Australia’s national standards would square each of those circles. Australia is big enough that data centres need not compete for new housing for land, he said, and tech companies would be required to supply their own power and, if need be, water.
“We should not treat AI as a threat to good jobs, we must use it as an instrument to create them,” he said. “If we move with purpose now, if we back ourselves, if we set our national standards high, then I have every confidence that Australia can seize this moment and make it our own.
“We can make AI stand for Australia’s interests.”
Want to see more Forbes articles on your feed? Tap here to make Forbes Australia a preferred source on Google.
Look back on the week that was with hand-picked articles from Australia and around the world. Sign up to the Forbes Australia newsletter here or become a member here.
