AI of the beholder
AI hype has shifted from sci-fi panic to old-fashioned bubble speculation. With Australia hoping to hitch a ride on the data centre boom, the future is looking uncertain and very expensive.
It might be hard to remember, but deep in the mists of prehistory — by which I mean 2024 — AI was often spoken about in nakedly science-fictional terms: alien intelligences, enormous economic disruption, doomsday scenarios and a looming shift in what it means to be human.
Now things feel more grounded, albeit concerning in their own way. We’re back in the slightly more sensible realm of luridly expensive data centre buildouts, shaky valuations and single-digit percentage gains in global GDP — if you’re lucky to get that much. The prevailing view on AI is less “the robots are coming for our jobs” and more “this is all looking a bit dotcom-ish”.
This is, of course, highly relevant to Australia. As you’ve heard ad nauseam in recent months, the government and economic establishment are looking to AI and the data centre boom as a possible ticket out of our productivity rut and a growth industry we can really grab by the horns.
This morning Daniel Van Boom reported that industry leader OpenAI has joined the Tech Council of Australia, the peak body that has found itself — at times seemingly unwillingly — at the centre of heated debates around what it will take for Australia to capture some of that value.
