Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the development of unique national standards for artificial intelligence. A comprehensive bill is planned to be submitted to parliament early next year after consultations with businesses and international partners. A specialized Office of AI will be established within the prime minister’s office to coordinate government policy.
Australia plans to be the first country to consolidate stringent requirements for AI infrastructure into a single framework. The new standards will strictly regulate data centres' energy supply and water use to minimise pressure on the environment and the nation’s utility networks amid rapid industry growth.
The reform places particular emphasis on uncompromising protection of intellectual property. The prime minister strongly criticized the practice of training neural networks on others’ work without authors’ consent, calling such abuse of Australian books, music, and news “theft.” According to him, Australia intends to be a pioneer by enshrining mandatory rules to protect content creators in law.
