Professor Ian Langford

Well, I think the technology sector more broadly is experiencing its own version of what I call the Wild West.

So regulation in this country obviously only has limits at the very edge of our sovereignty and doesn't mean anything internationally or in the international system.

And so how do we harmonise our own legislation and regulation to take the best advantage of these technologies internationally?

but also protect us from their threats is really the challenge of our time.

And the other thing, sadly, I think, in the global system today is we've seen the loss of influence of global safeguards and systems that the UN has designed and other international bodies designed

which really now are options for nations, which were previously laws and conventions under international agreements and international law.

Nations seem to either opt in or opt out of what were previously obligations and expectations in terms of their behaviour.

So the system has become quite lawless.

We've got hyperscalers whose interests are commercial and based on a capitalist system that doesn't necessarily recognise or reconcile with our own national interests.

And yet we are dependent on them to make sure that we have the kind of economy and technology systems that can ensure productivity and keep Australia where it needs to be, both in terms of its economic growth, its capacity to safeguard its own interests and the contribution it makes to the global order.

I mean, we're in a Thucydides-defined world where the strong will do as they please and the weak will suffer as they must.

And for a middle power that's relied so heavily on our alliance frameworks to guarantee our safety in the world, that assumption is now under pressure and we should probably test whether that assumption still remains moving forward.

So I'm certainly not consigning allies and treaties like ANZUS to the dustbin of history because they're hugely important.

And I think the government is right to reinforce things like our security architectures and the notion of collective security, which is US-led under ANZUS.

Yep.

But at the same time, the world is changing.

These relationships are becoming much more transactional.

And I think from Australia's point of view, what does it mean to not be able to hyperscale a large language model and instead have to rely on a US company or a European company to do that on our behalf?

How do we maintain sovereignty and absolute control over these systems that will influence decision-making in all aspects of the lived experience of Australian citizens going forward?

And these challenges need to be dealt with one way or the other in the next two to three years, or we will suffer as we must, to use again that saying from the days of futilities.