Industry minister spruiks Amazon’s $20b AI investment in...

Industry minister spruiks Amazon’s $20b AI investment in Australia

Ryan Cropp

Industry Minister Tim Ayres says Amazon’s decision to up its spend in Australian data centres by an extra $7 billion is an investment in the nation’s security amid escalating global tensions.

Ayres said Australia’s proximity to Asia and its significant renewable energy resources gave it huge advantages in the technological arms race.

“Australia has very significant advantages in energy, in terms of the space that we have, in terms of the proximity to the largest growing market in the world,” Ayres told Sky News.

“There is very significant scope to seize on these kinds of investments that give Australia a beachhead in the new global digital economy. This is absolutely in our economic interest, absolutely in our security and broader geopolitical interest in a fast, moving and less secure world.”

Ayres said it would be more disruptive to ignore AI than it would be to embrace it.

“The most disruptive thing in terms of the labour market and Australia’s competitive position would be to step back from these developments, to not engage and to be light adopters or second adopters of this kind of technology,” he said.

“If Australia is going to shape the world that we’re in and shape the future digital economy, we must have a stake in it and we must be makers of the technology, as well as takers of the technology.”