AI was not the main event — and barely a sideshow — at Labor's roundtable
Despite immense hype around AI's ability to solve many economic problems, the technology appeared an afterthought at Jim Chalmers' long awaited summit.
Tourists passing through Parliament House security on Wednesday afternoon may have encountered an unusual sight: Robyn Denholm, the Australian chair of Tesla, signing in at the front desk to get a day-pass.
That may have suggested that something substantial was afoot regarding artificial intelligence, given the technology has been widely mooted as a solution to Australia's productivity woes, and given politicians, policymakers and businesspeople like Denholm were gathering in the building this week to discuss that very issue.
But for a visiting tech journalist eager to hear more about Australia's AI future, sighting Denholm was about as wild as the Economic Roundtable got.
The three-day event was positioned as a meeting of great Australian minds to thrash out a solution to Australia’s perennial productivity problem. The dialogue was behind closed doors, however, under the premise that privacy would enable honesty.
