The regulation of artificial intelligence, perhaps the most promising technology since the invention of the World Wide Web, began in Australia today.
On Wednesday Anthony Albanese created the Office of AI within his department, a rare privilege for a new field of public administration.
Despite its name, the agency has been created to coordinate the building of data centres. The Prime Minister could have called it the Office for the Regulation of Data Centre Construction, but that does not have the same ring.
The office recognises that these warehouses of computer servers, used to operate AI chat bots, are becoming the coal mines of twenty-first century — essential to modern life, but targets of intense hostility.
Although they haven’t got much attention so far, anti-data centre protests have flared up in suburban Sydney, and even made it on to Four Corners. Those people holding banners outside empty blocks and construction sites were once fighting new shopping centres or apartment buildings.
They see data centres as harmful to the environment, consuming huge amounts of electricity and water, aesthetically unattractive and noisy. Worst of all, they profit Big Tech, the modern age’s robber barons.
Two months ago Greenpeace Australia referred to them as “energy vampires”. “Australia is completely unprepared for the magnitude of impacts of the AI-driven data centre frenzy,” the activist group’s climate head, Joe Rafalowicz, said.
Seeing an uprising brewing, the Government last year assigned one of its most junior but promising ministers to fix the problem before it becomes a political headache, economist Andrew Charlton.
The Assistant Minister for Science, Technology and the Digital Economy has set three core rules for data centres: they have to produce as much energy as they use, they have to pay for any necessary water infrastructure, and they should not displace housing.
Sounds straightforward, right? Not really!
The Federal Government does not control the retail electricity market, water supply or land planning rules. State governments, statutory agencies, councils and companies need to work together to deliver the plan.
That is why the Office of AI has been placed inside the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet rather than the Department of Industry, Science and Resources. Mr Albanese has the power to bring everyone together.
Energy Minster Chris Bowen will convene his State counterparts this month to nut out a way to make data centres generate enough power to cover their operations. Water ministers will meet next month, ahead of a meeting of the National Cabinet in August to sign off on the “Australian Standards for AI”.
Mr Albanese has been inspired into action by the popularity of his under-16s social media ban, which he said on Wednesday should have been implemented a decade ago. By nature a regulator, he has decided to place Australia at the forefront of data centre regulation.
“That is the opportunity — and the choice — we have now with artificial intelligence,” he said in a speech at Sydney University on Wednesday.
“Our power, our agency, our choice lies in embracing change and shaping it. Not just adopting or accommodating AI. Designing it, making it, building the capability right here.”
If agreement can be reached with the States without discord, the rules will be an important achievement for Dr Charlton, who has only been an MP four years and is already being speculated as a potential treasurer.
Last month he compared data centres to the introduction of railways, an important part of the industrial revolution.
The business community is not happy data centres have been singled out for special rules forcing them to become mini-electricity generation companies and water boards.
Business Council of Australia chief executive Bran Black on Wednesday opposed what he called the Government’s “mandatory approach”.
One Australian data centre business, AirTrunk, recently decided to invest $42 billion in data centre-friendly India rather that in Australia, according to Mr Black, who represents large companies.
“We don’t want to see ourselves get out of step with international counterparts and that as a consequence, we would lose investment,” he said.
Business investment maybe the least interesting part of the AI revolution. Philosophers, doctors and economists are already arguing over the opportunities and threats of intelligent machines.
Mr Albanese’s Office of AI will not consider the deeper questions. There are other parts of government already doing that, including the AI Safety Institute, the National AI Centre and the AI Accelerator Initiative.
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