Australia must move up the AI ‘value chain’ to capture maximum value from the technology: Andrew Charlton
The assistant minister argues Australia needs to leverage its data centre advantage and translate that into benefits and growth for the broader economy.
The Australian Assistant Minister for Science, Technology and the Digital Economy, Andrew Charlton, emphasized the importance of Australia moving up the AI value chain instead of merely hosting data centres. Speaking at the ANU Crawford School, Charlton suggested leveraging Australia's advantage in data centres and redirecting the benefits and growth towards the broader economy.
He indicated that the government expects AI companies to support Australian start-ups, enter research partnerships with universities, and bring world-class AI talent to the country. Charlton explained that this approach, as outlined in Expectation 5 of the National Data Centre Expectations, aims to transform data centres from mere utilities into strategic catalysts that unlock additional benefits for Australia.
He warned that if Australia remains a large importer of AI intelligence, much of the value generated by AI would flow overseas, potentially making AI one of Australia's largest recurring imports, surpassing the current value of wheat exports. Charlton stressed that the economic value of AI largely flows to foreign entities, particularly in chips, servers, models, software, research, and intellectual property.
By building on Australia's data centre strength and investment boom, the country could grow its AI training ecosystem and gain a competitive advantage in compute. This would position Australia to capture a significant portion of the AI value chain, ideally 80%, rather than limiting itself to the 20% currently held by data centres and electricity.
Written by urgent.news from The Conversation AU's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
