The National AI Plan released today provides a level of certainty for the economy and direction for the research and innovation sector that is critically needed, but Australia must now make substantial investment in infrastructure and the future workforce, according to Science & Technology Australia (STA).
The Stanford AI Index shows from 2013-24, the US has led investment into AI with more than $470 billion, China is next with $119 billion, the UK at $28 billion and Australia at $4 billion.
“We welcome the Government’s existing investments in AI outlined in the Plan – but these are a drop in the ocean compared to other countries’ investments in sovereign AI capabilities,” STA CEO Ryan Winn said.
“The Plan provides the direction, now Australia must invest in sovereign AI capability to ensure systems are purpose-built, safe, and secure. This includes investment in the domestic AI workforce, sovereign data centres – powered through renewable energy – strong information security protocols and developing models that account for Australia’s unique characteristics and don’t introduce bias from offshore contexts.”
The ‘compute mapping’ outlined in the Plan will be critical to enable Australian research’s high-performance computing (HPC) needs. This is essential for both AI development and adoption.
“High performance computing underpins many different aspects of Australia’s world-leading research, from drug discoveries to modelling complex social issues and exploring the cosmos.”
Another significant challenge is to nurture the specialist workforce needed to build and maintain our AI capability. A key component of a strong future AI workforce is mathematics.
“Infrastructure investment will be wasted if the future workforce is not available to drive innovation and this is a major concern for Australia.”
Participation in Year 12 higher mathematics fell to 8.4 per cent in 2023 and remained below 10 per cent for the fourth consecutive year. There is also a teacher shortage, which has clear impacts on student learning. Compounding this shortage, it’s estimated 75 per cent of Year 7-10 students have teachers at some point during their high school years who haven’t been trained in mathematics.
“The nation’s scientists and technologists support the Government’s desire to seize the economic opportunities available through AI and look forward to working with it to ensure its ambition is matched with strong investment and fit-for-purpose, technology-agnostic regulation,” Mr Winn said.
