Australia has valuable cards to play in the AI future, new report finds

Australia has valuable cards to play in AI future, but critical gaps remain, new report finds. (ABC News: Daniel Mercer) A new report says Australia can capitalise on AI, with valuable cards to play strategically. The Tech Policy Design Institute has released its "AI Agency Tool", which allows policymakers to see where Australia's AI strengths and weaknesses lie. The report comes as concerns grow about AI safety and data centres around the world. Link copiedShareShare articleAustralia has more AI potential than Australians think, with valuable cards to play strategically, a new report has claimed. The new research has found Australia has an opportunity to become a major regional data centre hub, to leverage its critical minerals resources in global AI supply chains, and to exert influence over global AI norms. The world's biggest tech titans see Australia as a promising investment opportunity for their AI ambitions, but some fear the federal government's regulatory retreat could lead to harm. But it said Australia still needed to address critical gaps in its regulatory controls that define how and where data can be collected, stored, and accessed in ways that uphold privacy and human rights. And it said governments needed to pay more attention to how to power data centres with renewable and clean energy. The report, Expanding AI Sovereignty to AI Agency, released by the Tech Policy Design Institute (TPDi), has delivered the first independent, evidence-based assessment of Australia's AI capabilities at the national level. It uses the TPDi's new "AI Agency Tool", presented in the paper, which was developed in consultation with more than 250 experts, to measure Australia's degree of "agency" across 103 different AI capabilities and make recommendations in each area. More than 200 people voice their opposition to plans to build one of the country’s largest gas-fired power plants in the NSW Southern Highlands to provide energy for data centres. It also mapped its findings onto the Australian government's 2025 National AI Plan to see if the government's major AI priorities and commitments aligned with the evidence-based assessment of what Australia needed. And it said Australia's AI capabilities were far stronger than the prevailing narrative suggested. "The data shows Australia is in a stronger position than we give ourselves credit for; we have firm foundations and significant potential to harness," Zoe Jay Hawkins, TPDi co-founder and lead author, said. "Australia has valuable cards in its hand. The opportunity now is to play them strategically — just like the prime minister has leveraged Australia's gas reserves to secure diesel supply." But the report comes amid growing concerns about AI safety and data centres across the world. Last week, the ABC's Four Corners reported that Anthropic and Microsoft were seeking new territory to build massive data centres as a backlash built against data centres in some US communities, and they were looking to Australia. The Tech Policy Design Institute (TPDi) is a relatively new think tank. It was spun out of the Australian National University in January 2025. Professor Johanna Weaver, executive director of the institute, was formerly Australia's chief cyber negotiator at the United Nations. Zoe Jay Hawkins, deputy executive director, is an expert researcher for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Elon Musk's social media company X Corp has admitted to not complying with an order from Australia's eSafety commissioner to provide information about the measures it has in place to stop child exploitation on the X platform. The institute's special advisers include Julie Inman Grant (Australia's eSafety commissioner), Frances Haugen (Facebook whistleblower), and Professor Rod Sims (former chair of the ACCC). Ms Inman Grant has drawn ire from US social media platform owner Elon Musk (the world's first trillionaire), and his online supporters, after she issued notices to X (formerly Twitter) to try to remove footage of a church stabbing from its platform. The TPDi draws funding from the Tech Policy Design Fund, which operates on the basis of a blind trust. Contributors to the fund include Commonwealth Bank, the Minderoo Foundation, the Department of Industry, Science and Resources, Qoria, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, and Atlassian, among other companies. The institute says it does not represent the views of its sponsors. Federal politicians from the Labor Party, the Liberal Party, the Australian Greens, and independent teal MPs have all welcomed the TPDi's establishment. In November, the TPDi released a discussion paper with a draft version of its "AI Agency Tool" and asked for feedback on ways to improve it. The final form of its AI Agency Tool has been released today. It says it created the tool to better inform policymaking and to shift public debate away from "AI sovereignty" (a term that causes too much confusion)

Australia has valuable cards to play in the AI future, new report finds

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