Husic gets to work on AI capability plan

The Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic has tasked his department and industry to develop a National AI Capability Plan, aiming to grow investment in AI capabilities to help promote economic and productivity growth.

Husic said there were around 650 AI companies headquartered in Australia and in the five years to 2023 foreign investors contributed $7 billion to Australian AI technologies.

In 2023 alone $2 billion in venture capital was invested in Australian AI applications.

Husic said: “Growing investment in the AI will supercharge industry and create more well-paid jobs.

“We need to scale up our capabilities in critical technologies, in ways that work for businesses and their workers.

“This plan will look to harness our AI know-how to secure our supply chains and strengthen our critical infrastructure.

The Department of Industry, Science and Resources will:

• Review how existing state and federal government support mechanisms work together to hinder or enable, Australia’s AI ecosystem
• Look for ways to boost private sector innovation and investment in AI capability
• Strengthen AI capabilities by identifying areas of research and innovation strength, and exploring new areas of comparative advantage (sic) in agriculture, mining and renewable energy
• Boost AI skills by accelerating AI literacy, identifying new skills, training and re-training as well as reskilling
• And secure economic resilience: in areas where sovereign capability or infrastructure is required for Australia to get the most out of AI technologies.

The government has committed $1 billion for critical technologies under the National Reconstruction Fund and has announced $500 million in AI, computer vision and machine learning projects in 2022-23.

The government has also set up a network of AI Adopt centres to upskill SMEs, according to a statement.

“Earlier this year we released proposed mandatory guardrails to shape the use of AI in high-risk settings and released the first version of the Voluntary AI Safety Standard.

“The plan complements work that we are doing to ensure the safe and responsible adoption of AI in Australia.

“It is due to be delivered towards the end of 2025, following both a targeted and public consultation period.”

Picture: Ed Husic