New guidelines require renewable energy use
Tech giants looking to build AI data centers in Australia must create their own renewable infrastructure to avoid depleting domestic resources if they want to win government support under new investment rules.
Industry and Innovation Minister Tim Ayres will announce a set of expectations for developers on Monday. Build expanding AI infrastructure in Australia The government is seeking to reap the economic and productivity benefits of rapidly evolving technology.
Advocates have warned that the large amounts of energy and water required to run data centers pose a risk to Australian resources and energy security, and that an increase in demand could drive up energy prices. The energy market operator estimates that data centers could quadruple their consumption of energy produced by the national grid to 12 percent by 2050.
Data center developments are expected to use water efficiently to stabilize server temperatures and support Australia’s transition to renewable energy without raising consumer prices, according to the new guidelines, which are being introduced as a way to boost investor confidence by creating a nationally consistent framework.
“This will be achieved by data centers adding new clean energy supplies, paying their full share of network connection costs, and supporting demand flexibility to strengthen the grid. Inauthentic proposals will not be welcomed,” a department briefing document on the new guidelines says.
Offers “closest” to the guidelines will be given priority, but investors will not be required by law to comply. Resilience and national security will continue to be considered as part of the prioritization.
Projects must also protect Australia’s national interests by protecting data and promoting a social license to operate, investing in Australian skills and jobs, and supporting local research and innovation.
The government’s National Artificial Intelligence Plan relies on investment in data centres, huge computer server facilities used for cloud storage, and steers clear of heavy regulation as it seeks to boost the country’s flagging productivity rate with technology. Labor is trying to maintain Australia’s title as second only to the United States as a global destination for AI investments that help grow the country’s economy.
Ayres said the capability advances offered by data center investment could be used to help solve Australia’s national challenges.
“Securing this infrastructure onshore strengthens our security, supports our enterprises and researchers, and ensures that Australian data benefits Australians, not overseas jurisdictions,” Ayres said in a statement. he said.
Australian Council of Trade Unions deputy secretary Joseph Mitchell welcomed the aim to protect Australian resources and jobs and called on the government to ensure enforcement mechanisms are in place to increase compliance.
Ayres’ predecessor, Ed Husic, said the rush to dominate the data center industry without a comprehensive plan to regulate the sector more broadly left Australia at risk of being exposed to the dangers of rapidly evolving technology.
“Data centers are one thing, but they’re not the be-all and end-all of AI. It’s like suggesting that if we have more hard drives, we’re going to be on the right track with technology. I mean, it’s a very plain and simple perspective,” Husic told The Issue podcast earlier this month.
“It needs to be much more detailed and thought out [building data centres].”
Husic, who was industry minister in the Albanian government’s first term before being booted from the front row in a factional reshuffle in May, said the government had taken a “major approach” to artificial intelligence that prioritized only the loudest voices.
Ayres canceled Husic’s AI advisory body, which would have brought together leading experts to advise on AI guardrails, in favor of a security institute that would assess the need for new laws on a case-by-case basis.
A spokesman for Ayres said: “Existing laws covering workplace safety and consumer protection already apply to AI today. The safety institute’s role is to work across government to ensure these laws continue to be fit for purpose.”
The announcement comes as thousands of job losses and expanding artificial intelligence capacity have sent shockwaves through the global tech sector, raising concerns about the potential to damage jobs in Australia.
Global software giant Atlassian, headquartered in Sydney, said in a statement this month. It will lay off 1600 peopleIt comes just weeks after WiseTech Global, one of Australia’s most valuable technology companies, laid off almost a third of its workforce – around 2000 people.
Opposition digital economy spokesman Aaron Violi said: “In the first three months of this year Thousands of Australians lost their jobs and the Albanian Labor Party government remained silent.”
Leading Australian AI researcher Professor Toby Walsh has argued that a lack of AI guardrails is putting younger generations at risk, saying Australia has not learned the lessons of social media and the dangers of unregulated technology.
“We are about to amplify the harms we see on social media with a much more powerful and compelling technology,” the chief scientist at the University of NSW Artificial Intelligence Institute told the National Press Club last month.
“There are huge financial incentives for the tech industry to move quickly and disrupt things, disrupt things like the mental health of our young people.”
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Brittany Busch is the federal politics correspondent for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.
