What role will Australia play in the AI race?
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What is Australia’s plan for sovereign AI and why does it matter?
This is a Squiz Podcast. We're your shortcut to being informed.
Good morning, I'm Andrew Williams.
And I'm Anna Paiket.
It's Wednesday the 16th of September in your Squiz Today, working out Australia's approach to AI, the US confirms it has weapons in space, a legal battle over the Karl Stefanovic show, and Widows Bay wins big at the Emmys. This is your Squiz Today. As you well know, if you've been listening to the podcast over the last couple of days, artificial intelligence has been making headlines around the world all week after tech bosses called for the pace of AI development to slow down. Now, that has led to a conversation here in Australia around what the future should look like here when it comes to this sort of technology.
It has. Aussie tech and security leaders have responded with a renewed push to establish our own sovereign AI. So that's a country's or an organisation's capacity to independently develop, deploy and govern artificial intelligence using its own infrastructure, data and its own models. It doesn't have to mean developing it from scratch, which would be expensive. The thinking is to get US companies building and training their AI models here under our rules. So it wouldn't necessarily be about owning the technology, but retaining full control over it. And this push for Australia to have its own sovereign AI is a pitch from both sides of politics, Andrew.
It is. So we had coalition industry spokesman Andrew Hastie calling for it. He said that we need to avoid Australia becoming what he's called a supplicant state, which is fun to say, dependent on foreign powers. It's probably less fun to be. He thinks we should use our AUKUS defence tyres to fast track the development of American AI on Australian soil, given that they are a trusted ally. And former Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who now heads up the Asia Society, says we have no alternative except to become an AI power group. in our own right. And his argument was similar. He says, or else we become a price taker, as he called it, from others forever.
We've also had another update when it comes to the Albanese government's stance on AI. So you might remember the PM laid out his plan to set national standards for the tech back in July. It's included guidance on things like where and how big data centers could be built and on job security and also to protect the work of Aussie creatives. Now, that last term means big tech companies can't use Australian copyrighted works to train their models without permission. but it's been a bit of a sticking point with some of the tech companies who've been consulting with the federal government on this for months. Yesterday, we had some reports that OpenAI, that's the maker of ChatGPT, wouldn't build in Australia if our copyright laws weren't loosened.
How could U.S. space‑based weapons trigger a new arms race?
And that could mean that Australia would miss out on major investments. That's something the federal government wants to avoid, but it also doesn't want to annoy creators and creatives in Australia. So, There's also been some reporting on a leaked government copyright proposal, which shows that it's looking at a workaround for this that could see protections for artists watered down that would allow AI companies to use their work without paying them as long as they strike deals with enough rights holders and then copyright owners would be given an opt-out. It's pretty complicated. Attorney General Michelle Rowland's office says consultations are continuing on it, so it's certainly not locked in, but we can definitely expect to hear more on this as the conversation around AI continues.
The Trump administration dropped some slightly momentous news at a conference on Monday, U.S. time. They've confirmed for the first time that the U.S. has deployed weapons into Earth's orbit.
Now, this came from U.S. Air Force Secretary Troy Mink yesterday, and reporting says this was already a bit of an open secret that the U.S. has weapons in space. It's been suspected for decades that this was the case. But the reason this is interesting is that some analysts are suggesting that
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is Australia’s plan for sovereign AI and why does it matter?
0:00–2:44
2
How could U.S. space‑based weapons trigger a new arms race?
2:44–6:02
3
Why was the youngest Snowtown murderer granted parole after 27 years?
6:02–8:34
4
What’s the legal battle between Karl Stefanovic and his podcast partner about?
8:34–9:57
Speakers
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