OpenAI’s regional policy chief, Sandy Kunvatanagarn, had a simple message to deliver on Tuesday. “Australia has a lot of really natural advantages for the digital economy,” she said at a closed-door event at the University of Technology in Sydney. “We encourage all the leaders in Australia, across industry and private sector, to take decisive action.”
A large delegation from the USD300 billion ($456 billion) generative artificial intelligence company arrived in Australia this week as part of what looks like a quite forthright lobbying campaign.
OpenAI released a sweeping Economic Blueprint report, compiled alongside Mandala, citing research claiming artificial intelligence could “unlock” $115 billion annually in the Australian economy by 2030. Its recommendations include tax breaks for AI adopters (that is, OpenAI’s customers), a national upskilling program, allowing companies to access government data “for public-interest AI use", and for data centres to be taken as seriously as critical infrastructure.
Australia’s “policy settings have tended towards a cautious ‘wait and see’ approach to AI,” the Economic Blueprint warns. “Too often, commentary on AI focuses on distant speculation, casting nations as passive recipients of inevitable change. In reality, the economic winners of the AI era will be those who make deliberate choices today.”
