Australia demands AI companies must produce more energy than they consume, stop ‘theft’ of content

AI AND ML

PM frames sweeping new regulations as the equivalent of labour movement touchstones like winning a minimum wage

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has delivered a landmark speech outlining the nation’s AI policy, which will require datacenter builders to contribute more energy than they consume and mean AI companies must reach agreements with local artists and media before using their content.

“Let me make this crystal clear – not everything produced in Australia is up for grabs,” Albanese said, a reference to both content and the nation’s energy and water resources.

The PM said Australia will therefore legislate to require builders of large new datacenters to become net generators of energy, rather than consumers, by funding electricity generation projects to meet their needs and pay for associated work to bolster energy grids.

The policy also requires datacenter operators to pay for water infrastructure and make minimal environmental impacts.

The PM expects Australia’s states and territories to sign up to his plan so the nation can offer expedited approval processes for datacenter builds and consistent operating standards that apply across the country.

Nationwide laws, Albanese argued, will make Australia a more attractive destination for inbound investment by making it easier for AI companies to plan new datacenters – and perhaps offset other elements of the policy that are more onerous than laws in other countries.

“Australian writers, musicians, artists and journalists, must retain ownership and control of their work,” Albanese said. “Anything less is theft.”

He said Australia’s approach “will ensure Australian writers, artists and journalists retain ownership over their work, meaning no company should use Australian creative works to train AI without the artist’s control.”

The PM added his view that no country has given artists and rights-holders sufficient control of how AI companies use their works. Albanese didn’t say how he plans to enforce that control, but his speech framed the effort to do so as getting ahead of AI before big players get too much power.

Albanese asked his audience to imagine how much better off Australia would be if it had regulated social media a decade before the 2024 introduction of a ban on children aged under 16 accessing such services. He also compared the AI plan to past landmark reforms won by the global labor movement, such as winning a minimum wage and fixed working week.

The PM also said that without regulations of this sort, Australia will effectively outsource its security to big tech companies.

“If we are always dependent on someone else, somewhere else, we will be vulnerable,” he said. The AI policy aims to instead make Australia stronger.

Albanese argued that Australians should not see AI as a threat to jobs, but that strong policy can make the technology a means to create new ones – beyond employment created by a short-term datacenter construction boom.

The PM wrapped his speech by suggesting AI can stand for “Australia’s Interest” as well as “artificial intelligence.” ®