00:02The government has been foreshadowing that there is this major speech happening today
00:06by the Prime Minister.
00:07The Prime Minister started talking a lot more about AI over the last few weeks, but of course
00:11this is an issue that has been on a lot of people's minds over the last few years.
00:15Since ChatGPT was launched at the end of 2022, over the following couple of years, a lot
00:22has happened.
00:23People are seeing how AI is already affecting them, seeing AI-generated content in their
00:27social media feeds, they're seeing scams, they're seeing businesses use AI and say they're
00:32getting great efficiencies out of it.
00:34Some of the products are now some of the most popular consumer products in the world.
00:38So this is all happening.
00:40Last year the government announced a national AI plan which gave the responsibility of regulating
00:45AI to all the different government departments rather than having a centralised approach.
00:50Today, Anthony Albanese is now responding I think to this growing feeling of anxiety around
00:58questions about what is happening with AI, what does the build out of the physical infrastructure,
01:04the data centres and its demands on Australia's infrastructure grid, what does that all mean?
01:09And they're saying that this is their approach to, this is their chance to say what Australia
01:13is going to dictate to the companies that are trying to make Australia one of their major
01:18hubs.
01:19Okay, so what don't we know about the framework?
01:22So there's a lot of things that we don't really know about it yet.
01:25The speech is set to announce an office of AI to come under the Prime Minister's department,
01:31the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
01:33That is a kind of, you know, it's a unit of people and the point of it is to coordinate
01:39all these different government departments as they respond to AI, trying to get the benefits
01:43of it while mitigating the risks.
01:45We don't know how big that, you know, unit is, it could be anything.
01:49And its role is really coordinating, it's not like we're giving new powers, just the
01:55point is that there are clearly these issues that are a part of AI that happen across portfolios.
02:01You know, for example, when you build a data centre, you might want to build it because
02:04you say, well that's great for the Australian, you know, industry, but you also got to consider
02:08the environmental impact or the questions about, you know, the electricity in the grid.
02:13So, you know, clearly it's one of these things where you can't just leave it up to each individual
02:17department to deal with.
02:19The framework it seems like is looking at trying to find a way to coordinate all these responses.
02:25We did see earlier this year the government introduced data centre expectations.
02:30These were kind of voluntary ideas about you should do these things and the government will
02:34look fondly on these proposed data centres and we'll help you kind of get through proposals.
02:39I expect that we'll see those in some way codified today.
02:43But the real question is what are the, like, what are the expectations or what are the new
02:47rules and how firm are they?
02:49You know, it's one thing to say we expect something to be given back to a local community where
02:54a data centre is built.
02:55That we expect them to deal with some kinds of harm like, you know, misinformation.
02:59The question is what exactly?
03:01And that is the thing that I'll be looking at very closely.
03:03And Cam, what happens next?
03:06Well, I mean, the speech happens today.
03:07We still don't know a lot of the details and so we're looking for those kinds of information.
03:11From here, I mean, there are still a lot of big decisions that need to be made.
03:15And while, you know, it is clearly something that the government says that they can't just
03:19let everyone, you know, in the government figure out by themselves in their own little silos.
03:23They've got to coordinate.
03:24There are still a lot of big, tough decisions that need to be made.
03:28You know, one of the biggest ones is copyright.
03:31As many people know, many major AI products are based off a corpus of an enormous amount
03:36of information that was taken without permission, usually infringing copyright.
03:40You know, these companies now are increasingly saying that they would pay for these kind of
03:45use of this product, this copyright material.
03:48But they're saying that logistically it's too hard.
03:50Rights holders, the people representing the people whose work has often been taken, say that's
03:54not really true.
03:55That is a big, tough decision that the government is not making today that made very clear they
04:00won't be doing something about that.
04:02Other questions around, you know, the details about, you know, energy, how we're going to
04:07prioritise whether to build data centres versus other structures, including houses, what they
04:12need to bring.
04:12All of these things are really, really big questions that will come down to the details of a lot of
04:18what is announced today.
04:19So, yes, there are these, you know, this idea that the government is saying we've got these
04:22overall rules.
04:23It just depends on how they are enforced.
04:25And so that will be the thing that comes out of this.
04:28How are they going to actually set the rules and enforce them?
04:31That's what we'll be paying attention to.
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