{"id":871584,"date":"2026-08-28T15:16:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T15:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/871584\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T15:16:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T15:16:17","slug":"the-world-needs-to-take-the-ai-bull-by-the-horns-and-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/871584\/","title":{"rendered":"The world needs to take the AI bull by the horns \u2013 and fast"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Earth, we have a problem. Artificial intelligence is the world\u2019s biggest, maddest bull in the world\u2019s most overstocked and poorly organised china shop. Global coordination to harness this rampaging beast has never been more urgent, and yet it\u2019s never looked harder. We need to make it happen \u2013 starting today.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s National Cabinet agreement between the prime minister and premiers to develop consistent standards for building artificial intelligence data centres was a small but significant step in the right direction. Bear with me here.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Albanese\u2019s decision not to dig in on renewable energy mandates for data centres is a positive signal that his government recognises the urgency with which Australia needs to push ahead to seize the best opportunity it has to become a globally relevant AI player. It\u2019s one more obstacle cleared.<\/p>\n

This matters because countries such as Australia need a say in global AI development. Yes, attracting AI data-centre investment is good for the future of our economy and our strategic options, given the power AI capability will confer on nations. But to reap those benefits, we first need the world to harness the bull and steer it out the right door of the china shop. There are many doors leading to many fates for humanity, and not all of them are good \u2013 indeed, some could lead to catastrophe. Embedding ourselves in a form of managed interdependence with the United States on AI development while also creating sovereign AI options will be critical means for Australia to reserve a seat at the table of global AI governance.<\/p>\n

Either way, the US and China need to sit down and talk about safeguards immediately as the two frontier nations. But the consequences of untamed AI will affect all 8.3 billion people on earth, and so all nations need a say.<\/p>\n

As Bill Gates wrote in his frankly stunning essay<\/a> on AI, published on Wednesday, \u2018we are not preparing adequately for [the AI] transition\u2019. He wrote that it \u2018should be the world\u2019s top priority\u2019 and yet \u2018there is no plan to ease the entry into the AI era\u2019. AI companies are proposing solutions \u2013 just as they\u2019ve led the discussion for years without being taken sufficiently seriously \u2013 but it\u2019s not all up to them. We need democratically led processes and international cooperation with new institutions.<\/p>\n

The government is right to establish national standards for data-centre construction, not least because strong conditions on the investment can ensure that the infrastructure translates into a slice of the AI value chain. It\u2019s equally right to accept that states have some flexibility on the energy mix to power data centres. This represents a commendable compromise on renewable energy imperatives, which is ironic given global climate efforts represent a near-defeat for international coordination. Most of my adult life I\u2019ve watched the world try to cooperate on climate action and yet we\u2019ve never seemed further away. We can\u2019t repeat that failure on AI.<\/p>\n

Climate change is serious and urgent, but AI is advancing by the day. We don\u2019t really know what 2027 looks like, much less 2030. As Gates writes, \u2018The world needs a plan.\u2019 Now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earth, we have a problem. Artificial intelligence is the world\u2019s biggest, maddest bull in the world\u2019s most overstocked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":871585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,10834,105],"class_list":["post-871584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-governance","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=871584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}