The President of the Australian Academy of Science, Professor Chennupati Jagadish AC, says the Australian Government's national AI plan released today highlights how AI can benefit Australians, including through innovations made possible from Australian science.
The Academy welcomes the launch of an 'AI Accelerator' funding round of the Cooperative Research Centres program, which will provide many researchers a platform to translate their ideas into real-world products.
Professor Jagadish says advanced computing power (compute) infrastructure and data centres are critical to power AI research and its translation, however the plan has fallen short in that there are only concrete actions relating to data centres.
"Australia does have a leading opportunity to be a hub for data centres - but AI capability is so much more than data centres. If Australia became a regional hub for advanced computing this would generate huge economic and societal benefits, including providing opportunities for scientists and industries to innovate and compete globally.
"The Academy acknowledges that the government is undertaking work to map and assess the compute infrastructure landscape. We urge the government to turn that work into a 10-year strategy and investment plan for advanced computing and data after the Strategic Examination of Research and Development Independent Panel delivers their final report, expected later this month.
"The plan highlights how AI can benefit Australians, from detecting lung cancer to improving education outcomes. All of this progress comes from science.
"We must continue to support the fundamental research that underpins our next breakthroughs, to make sure Australians can enjoy the full benefits of AI advances by both creating new tools and adapting existing tools for Australian contexts.
"The Academy supports the notion that 'Australia can be a leader in AI innovation and a trusted exporter of AI computing power, not just a consumer of AI technologies built elsewhere.'"
Next week the Academy will publish a series of discussion papers on how AI is changing science and research.
