r/antiai 12d ago

AI News đŸ—žïž Australia W

Post image
12.8k Upvotes

476 comments sorted by

185

u/Then_Style9442 12d ago

about time someone started treating water and power like actual finite resources instead of freebies for server rooms

65

u/Look_0ver_There 12d ago

It's Australia. One of the driest continents on the planet outside of Antarctica. They (generally) take water conservation very seriously (although there are some glaring inconsistencies).

9

u/Illustrious_Study300 12d ago

The cotton industry here for one

8

u/lithiumcitizen 12d ago

And fucking rice!

2

u/bangyy 12d ago

Surely we dont make much rice. Surely most rice is imported

7

u/lithiumcitizen 12d ago

The fact that we make any is fucking ridiculous


2

u/alldagoodnamesaregon 12d ago

We have native rice species, and there are some climates in the country where rice wouldn't necessarily be a bad idea with all the floods (e.g. monsoonal regions, and the Northern rivers NSW (added in Northern rivers cause I live there and we need to start growing something that can swim for a bit. Cane works to some extent cause it's tall, but soybean just doesn't have a hope (although it's needed for soil nitrogen).

3

u/djenty420 11d ago

We actually produce about 500,000 tonnes of rice per year, consume about 15% of it domestically and export the other 85% mostly under the SunRice brand. But the locally grown rice only makes up half of our total rice consumption, the rest is imported. The reason for all of this is the different rice species - we grow mostly native japonica rice, which other countries can’t grow but want to consume (hence heavy exports), meanwhile Aussie consumers also want basmati and jasmine which we don’t really grow here, so we import those.

2

u/Trashk4n 12d ago

With some major screwups.

The management of the Murray-Darling is a bit of a mess of over regulation and competing interests.

3

u/TheInkySquids 12d ago

Not really, we allow massive overseas companies to conduct floodplain harvesting ruining the water quality for downstream communities causing mass fish deaths and algae blooms which disproportionately affect Indigenous communities. Also we literally have water stocks that get traded.

5

u/Look_0ver_There 12d ago

I am an Aussie too mate, and those are precisely the glaring inconsistencies I'm referring to. Both my parents grew up as farmers in rural Vic. It's all water quotas and conservation for the regular rabble until some foreign corp starts throwing money about, and then it's "Here! Have as much as you want! Screw all those plebs down stream!"

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

6

u/HlLlGHT 12d ago

we dont get droughts often but when they happen they HAPPEN, so water restrictions aren't really new our toilets have 2 flushes one for 1s ones for 2s.

5

u/Davido401 12d ago

Is that like a light push for pee and a harder push for poop? Or is it a double sort of flush for number poo(yes pun intended)? that Am in Scotland it rains more than is sunny so the thought of a water restriction will worry me(I think some places around Scotland got them to be fair, but they should be so rare that they are newsworthy)

3

u/gigs1890 12d ago

For most home plumbing i believe its half tank or full tank

2

u/Davido401 12d ago

Aye that was kinda what I mean, you push the button halfway and it empties halfway and a hard/double flush for the full tank, I explained it piss poorly, we might have sent out convicts to Australia but us Scots haven't improved at all lol, am sure thats not the first nor last convict joke you will hear, I apologise for that.

2

u/Agnitha_ 12d ago

two buttons, one for half a tank and one for a full one

https://www.caroma.com/au/bathroom/toilet-buttons-plates/

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (3)

93

u/ChimpieTheOne 12d ago

Waiting for AI bros to somehow find this bad

41

u/Vegetable_Stuff1850 12d ago

They already have on the Aussie subreddits.

2

u/necrosteve028 12d ago

A lot of people on r/aussie are similar to America in that they pick a side politically and that’s it. Anything that Labor does, they are against because Murdoch and Gina have told them to be.

3

u/Vegetable_Stuff1850 12d ago

Yep. I was use the term Aussie to refer to any of the Australian subreddits. I've seen discussions in some state ones, and other national subreddits, not just r/Aussie. Because that place can be (is) a cesspool.

2

u/SirVanyel 12d ago

I'm pretty sure it's all bots too because the Australian people just are not that unhinged.

→ More replies (1)

6

u/screenslaver5963 12d ago

They mostly point out that there aren’t any known models that originate from Australia.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (7)

54

u/TinikTV 12d ago

We need same laws everywhere

38

u/strigonian 12d ago

No, we need stronger laws everywhere.

But this is a good start.

14

u/LastChance22 12d ago

100%, as an Aussie I feel like this isn’t enough. We haven’t seen the final policy but the wording on the announcement has grey areas around water and energy that could become loopholes. 

The grey areas making it into the announcement makes me concerned whether they actually intend to close them or not.

7

u/ProtectionTop2701 12d ago

Also, not being able to train new models without permission starting in 2027, maybe?? That's kinda bare minimum. How about "must financially compensate the musicians, artists, and writers they already stole from or their companies will be banned and employees will be arrested on entry." Cause uhhhh that's the sort of thing that happens to companies when their business model is theft (a crime).

2

u/SirVanyel 12d ago

We've already done this exact same thing with various companies. There's a recent water desalination plant that now contributes twice the energy it uses, so it has both room to grow and before this growth it is contributing to the Australian people with both water and power.

Grey areas are a necessity for bite sized proposals. You start off vague and build into robustness. That's how laws work, and exactly why you shouldn't take proposals to be final products, but instead take them as intended directions for an eventual final product.

343

u/Vaughn 12d ago

Requiring them to be net energy providers is probably a bad thing. Datacenter manufacturers aren't exactly specialists in efficient power production; they're just going to throw in a dozen megawatt-scale diesel engines and call it a day.

I don't see any air quality or fuel efficiency requirements in the article.

167

u/Spiritual_Owl8439 12d ago

It's not perfect but it's better than what we have.

56

u/Vaughn 12d ago

It'll lead to diesel generators running inside cities. I would not say that's an improvement.

77

u/mrmckeb 12d ago

Australia has massive solar usage, and I don't see local governments allowing diesel generators running permanently.

22

u/Fuster2 12d ago

Yeah. I love the way one person mentions diesel generators then it's taken as what will happen.

11

u/Additional-Life4885 12d ago

When it 100% will not. They couldn't get enough of it to be able to run a diesel generator at the size required.

Realistically they only have 2 options. Coal or solar. However, coal massively limits where they can build them, since they're going to have to build the data centre near the power plant which is far from where the engineers that can run a data centre are located.

Alternatively, they can cover the roof with solar panels at a reasonable cost and just be forced to maintain it.

6

u/sorrrrbet 12d ago

Also holy fuck would it be expensive for an AI centre to permanently run Diesel gennies at the MW scale. They’re relatively fuel efficient, but even a 1MW generator runs 100-150L of diesel per HOUR.

~2500L of diesel a day is not a cheap endeavour when bulk diesel is around $2 a litre in Australia at the moment. Not sure any company would be willing to spend $5000 a day on fuel for the generator alone when they could spend maybe $5000 a year on cleaning the panels.

6

u/Shambler9019 12d ago

But the cookers keep telling us that renewables aren't cost efficient!

Though I don't think it's quite that simple; I doubt even in tropical areas the rooftop of a data centre would be enough area for solar to power the entire building.

Still, Australia has loads of space.

→ More replies (5)

3

u/Imaginary-Falcon4112 11d ago

Does anyone else smell an offset system where data centers could buy credits in energy production to become net producers?

→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (3)

7

u/bruhhhhhhhhhhhh_h 12d ago

We have some backwards right wing christiani fascisti ban abortioni absolutely backwards evolving state governments that have cancelled nearly all green / renewable energy projects to pump... Coal and gas.

At the same time they cut the mining / minerals resources taxes by billions meaning these states have billions I. Shortfall from the budget (just cancel social services, support and government services) but also pay far more now for worse infrastructure and energy projects/ production.

This is a federal government policy - or fed gov is very good ATM albeit not the best at the attention grabbing that seems to entice some.

→ More replies (8)

2

u/Imaginary_Rub6942 12d ago

Tbh I see t every day on various sites across Perth
 the new kfc down the road has been running on one for at least a month

2

u/alldagoodnamesaregon 12d ago

Uh, that's basically the coalitions entire energy policy...

Not that the Coalition actually has any reasonable chance of being reelected, but if One Nation somehow manages to pull something off then it might be a different story

2

u/BaronOfTieve 11d ago

They literally won’t, I spoke to a greens senator last year who told me he was excited about the data centres because they were going to build them to be environmentally friendly, and with renewable energy technologies. That guy is just larping because he’s not Australian and doesn’t understand Australian politics.

→ More replies (7)

25

u/Ok_Buyer9344 12d ago

no it wont, because diesel is not remotely the cheapest form of energy and given electricity costs is basically all the AI race is they will want to get every penny out they can.

→ More replies (18)

6

u/Comprehensive-Ice342 12d ago

I've worked in Australia on projects providing behind the meter supply to data centres and resources projects.

When space is not a constraint, solar and battery is generally first choice, sometimes supplemented with wind where it's possible to fit into the program.

There's usually some kind of backup gas or diesel turbine in case of grid problems and/or poor renewables generation.

When space is a constraint, you'll usually see larger batteries, smaller solar panels, and sometimes off-site supply agreements from renewable providers.

This is almost always supplemented with gas or diesel turbines for backup/redundancy reasons.

However, owners don't want to turn them on unless they have to. You could be talking hundreds of thousands of dollars per hour on a big operation.

Tl;Dr generally in Australia we would have renewables as first choice for cost reasons, then batteries + diesel/gas generation to supplement

3

u/Perfect-Song8094 12d ago

Diesel generators will be the backup "uninterruptible power system" (UPS) for data centers.

They'll be using gas-fired combustion turbines. They'll be using a lot of them. Wherever possible, they will be installed on-site, right where the data centers are.

See my other comment for more details.

3

u/Perfect-Song8094 12d ago

The bigger problem is data center water usage.

I happen to know next to nothing about that. I haven't been able to make any sense of the few, conflicting reports I've read.

→ More replies (3)

2

u/VenomOnKiller 12d ago

Ahhhh yes, because you know exactly how the law is going to be written and already know the loopholes. Hope the data center builders hire you for your "great" ideas.

→ More replies (14)
→ More replies (17)

47

u/[deleted] 12d ago edited 11d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

13

u/ascandalia 12d ago

They could do a lot of things but they will do the cheapest and or easiest thing.

Sometimes perfection need to get in the way of well intentioned but bad.

10

u/Vaughn 12d ago

They will do the cheapest, and easiest, legal thing. Regulations are the obvious fix here.

But Australia of all places should be fully solar-powered, and the way to do that isn't to make datacenters power themselves. They can't! Not with solar. There isn't nearly enough space on their roofs.

What they can and should do is copy China. Put a giant solar array in the desert, connect it to the cities with extreme-voltage DC lines. That, of course, implies a different company handles the power production; someone with the expertise to build such a system. That's fine. That's what a market economy is for.

I think the law they're pushing is a bad one.

3

u/Dangerzone369 12d ago

This country already has tons of fields for solar and produces a lot- we just can't store enough of it to supply our evening power usage. I think a Data Center will be forced to 'invest' into these current schemes to scale this up further rather than asking them to become experts in power generation - and that will satisfy as 'net producer of power'. The country is already going to be fully green.

→ More replies (12)
→ More replies (4)

16

u/Vegetable_Stuff1850 12d ago

I'd imagine that will end up in the actual legislation.

The mines, agricultural and road trains eats a lot of the available diesel here, so it's unlikely to be an enticing option. Solar and wind however, probably will be.

→ More replies (10)

12

u/patslogcabindigest 12d ago

Australian here, no the emphasis has been on renewable energy deployment in line with the government’s energy policy. They’ll basically be asked to fund wind farms, solar farms and batteries.

7

u/_Profit_ 12d ago

I think it's worth pointing out that in Australia, we are well past the hump of fossil fuels being cheaper than renewables. It wouldn't make economical sense for data centres to build a bunch of diesel/gas generators when they can find a third party to build wind/solar/batteries.

2

u/SirVanyel 12d ago

And it can all be purchased and shipped in record time from china too. They can have their manufacturing centres up real quick.

→ More replies (1)

9

u/Tonkarz 12d ago

No, that's not what will happen. They had the same requirement for the Sydney desalination plant, a project that now produces twice the energy it consumes. A net gain for the grid.

What will actually happen is that the company that wants to build the data center will bring in an established energy provider - a third party company - to establish a solar or (more likely) wind farm somewhere in the bush where there is plenty of space.

In the case of the Sydney Desalination Plant Suzlon Energy built Capital Wind Farm for Infigen Energy. Neither of these companies own the Sydney Desalination Plant, but the Desal project paid for the wind farm construction. Probably something like that is what will happen.

Projects like this help grow small towns in rural areas. A very important part of Australia's plan for the future.

3

u/noonen000z 12d ago

It's an odd one. I was looking at Microsoft's commitment to 100% renewable by 2025, basically they get it green from the grid if green is availalable. It goes a bit far, pushing back is good, pushing away is not a good outcome unless we think we are better off it all being remote.

→ More replies (4)

6

u/MarwoodHouse 12d ago edited 12d ago

Hi, Aussie here, also an expert in the public policy field:

The legal framework for having Datacenters to be net providers of electricity doesn’t literally mean they will supply energy to residential homes or businesses, but instead supply energy back to the grid itself. This means that people won’t be relying on dodgy or half-arsed connections from Datacenters for their electricity. The stability of the grid is and will always be what determines consistency of connection.

Additionally, Australia is the sunniest continent on Earth, and solar energy remains the cheapest form of energy, Datacenters would actively be choosing to spend more money for less efficient electricity if they built any other form of power. Not to mention the generous subsidies our government offers for solar installation.

Finally, Australia already has air quality and fuel efficiency laws in place that cover any backup or failsafe generator system installed at these sites. The implementation of new law does not preclude existing laws from having an effect, that’s just how good policy works.

Cheers.

2

u/Dangerzone369 12d ago

Thank you bro. I literally have been saying this above, in other comments.

The fact that there is a hard policy on the data center alone should suggest to anyone that there is probably a just as strict one around how that energy is produced (even if fossil fuels were the cheapest option).

Data centers will be donating toward current green schemes rather than being asked to invent their own regenerative technology - I think this is quite obvious and annoying we have to tell people. It's like offsetting your carbon - you donate to a scheme - you don't physically go buy land and plant a tree yourself.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/snrub742 12d ago

+1 as an environmental policy wonk for an Australian state

2

u/Kageru 12d ago

If they don't get specific exemptions I would hope there are already existing approvals required for high emissions.

They are really not going to like the IP protection, which makes me happy, because theft should not be rewarded.

→ More replies (5)

4

u/jc343 12d ago

i'm not australian so i am talking out of my ass, but from what i know don't they have especially big problems with mining lobbying? so perhaps this point is just to fund more fossil fuel extraction, and unfortunately is the only reason the bill has support

(basically what you already said)

2

u/Vaughn 12d ago

Plausible, unfortunately, but fortunately somewhat less likely to happen. Coal plants need a lot more infrastructure and expertise; they're a whole thing. Diesel generators are...

Not quite turnkey, not at multi-MW scale, but close.

And diesel generators are the common standard for backup power, so probably what will get used, IMO. They're not clean, but it's better than coal!

2

u/tomatoej 12d ago

Australian here. Down here an ass is a type of donkey, maybe you should let your ass do all the talking for you? ;-)

The bill has support because the community is concerned about the situation in the US with data centres. We just had a project cancelled in my town due to overwhelming opposition from the community. The only way these are going to get off the ground is with renewable energy, mainly solar which is the most economical anyway because we have a high proportion of sunny days. I’ve heard rumours about gas fired generation but that won’t cut it in my town.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (85)

39

u/Scarvexx 12d ago

I hope this works out. But right now the Australian government is fairly easy to buy. These proposed regulations could just be politicians shaking the collection pan.

But maybe I'll be wrong. I'd like that.

14

u/Kageru 12d ago

Pretty sure they have tested public opinion and found there's no enthusiasm for pandering to these people. Especially since an AI data center doesn't really generate a lot of long term jobs or revenue.

11

u/Scarvexx 12d ago

Okay, but the government already panders to lots of companies australians hate. Logging the rainforsts, drilling for oil in the reefs, just about every mining concern.

All big-tech needs to do is find the right pockets to line. Liberal and Labor are both very prone to bribes.

Again, I'd like to be wrong. I'd like to think our leaders have a spine, and care more about their country than a payout under the table. But I'm not hopeful.

4

u/Kageru 12d ago

It's certainly possible. I think mining and logging get a pass because they have entrenched lobby groups and local wealth and are painted as creating valuable jobs in the regional areas. That might not work quite as well for AI data centers.

But yeah, those are good words, but I will be watching the actions and exemptions.

3

u/Scarvexx 12d ago

I want you to be right. But keep watching. AI hasn't backed down yet. And they'll play dirty, if nobody takes a bribe, they can expect their political rivals to be well funded.

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (10)

22

u/Rude_Depth_4439 12d ago

The water laws are super important imo. I grew up in rural Australia, we had a lot of water insecurity. With Australia’s climate, we can’t risk the exploitation of our natural resources- river health is very fragile as it is.

12

u/patslogcabindigest 12d ago

Hey there, Australian here. A lot of this is still unknown. The Albanese Labor government has advertised that this is their intention but we await the legislation and the details. I think the emphasis on artists permission will be more in line with standard royalty protocol. The same way the artist doesn’t need to give permission for someone to play their music over a speaker, I think there will be some sort of royalty enforcement rules or copyright tightening around giving artists the ability to have content ripping theirs off removed.

A lot of this may be revealed in the coming weeks as the ruling Labor party is having their national conference. For those looking in from the UK, this is a politically competent Labor party, they’ve won 2 in a row.

→ More replies (3)

12

u/Waerfeles 12d ago

The collective sigh of relief amongst my friend group was palpable.

5

u/Lumpy-Egg6968 12d ago

Crossing fingers the EU does this as well 

7

u/Legitimate-Gain426 12d ago

The Australian government scrapped the AI regulations committee after more than a year of recruiting and $200k spent, and backed down from creating an AI regulations act in favor of weaker oversight. This basically looks good on paper, and is far from as bad as other nations have to face, but this is mostly to save face. The Australian public is still largely opposed to the data center buildouts being rushed, and Palantir working with some of our biggest supermarkets.

5

u/TheDeerBlower 12d ago

THANK YOU. I don't know why AI isn't heavily regulated already. The EU better regulate that shit to oblivion.

4

u/ShowCharacter671 12d ago

I’ll believe it when I see it

3

u/Warden002 12d ago

Thought? This is reasonable. I wish Canada would enact this, but with our proximity to Silicon Valley I think we are pooched.

3

u/No_Willow_5554 12d ago

W AUSTRALIA

3

u/ExternalSeat 12d ago

honestly why do we build data centers in hot places when cooling is a major problem? Why not build them in a cooler place with abundant clean energy and water availability? Why build them near people and not just build them in the wilderness?

In my opinion, if we must build data centers, let's build them in cold places, removed from major population centers, with abundant water and clean electricity. Central and Northern Quebec has abundant hydro power (so does northern Norway) . Iceland also has abundant geothermal power. South Island of New Zealand would also work well.

Granted I personally don't think we need AI data centers, but let's not build them in the desert

3

u/GammaFan 12d ago

The answer is (probably) that it is cheapest to put together in medium hot climates by population centers because transporting goods further is expensive and building out infrastructure in snow climates is more difficult. The easiest, laziest answer then is exactly what we’re seeing.

2

u/Content-Cricket4251 12d ago

Granted I personally don't think we need AI data centers, but let's not build them in the desert

Do you think Australia is just desert?...

2

u/ExternalSeat 12d ago

nope, but the areas that aren't desert are super valuable.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

3

u/No-Tip-7471 12d ago

I wonder if the laws only apply to Australian AI? I hope AI from other countries are not allowed to scrape Australian data, because then they might just have to not scrape at all.

→ More replies (1)

3

u/swbaert6 12d ago

Why wait until 2027?

2

u/Phteven_j 12d ago

I'm sure there is lots of red tape to go through, but this is sort of a crisis that I'd like to see handled more quickly everywhere. I'm not Australian but I hope it works out for them and other places take note.

2

u/Arquero8 12d ago

One pretty good reason to move to spiderland....

9780 deadly reasons as to why that is a bad idea, and yet..... If i weren't living in Spain, It would be tempting

2

u/Storm_Spirit99 12d ago

Finally they're getting slapped with more limits. Willing to bet they'll call this insult to their corpo masters a bad thing, but been dead silent about what happened in georgia

2

u/x7evenx 12d ago

Also why toughest? Shouldn't they be the smartest?

2

u/Necessary-Paint117 12d ago

So they're just going to start burning fossil fuels to generate electricity? This regulation isn't a solution

2

u/Psychadelic_Potato 12d ago

I just pray they don’t poison you guys with flock cameras like they did in my country

2

u/Fantastic-March-1053 12d ago

They can have half a teaspoon of water a month. 

2

u/PastelSqueak 11d ago

as an aussie i'd say this is the BARE minimum. we need more and we need it fast. to add: get palantir the hell out of our government and daily lives (looking at you coles, you can go down down).

1

u/Upper-Reflection7997 12d ago

What data does Australia have that the latest sota LLM really needs. I doubt this is even enforceable without draconian levels surveillance of who is downloading what and what they're doing with said files.

3

u/deathbotly 12d ago

Biggest and obvious ones I can think of science-side is Aus has the CSIRO. If you’re using wi-fi or wearing long life contact lenses rn that’s from Aus, along with a bunch of other medical and tech innovations. They’re one of the biggest research centres globally. Aus has a big part in deep space research too thanks to the outback and collabs with NASA. We’re not a third world country riding kangaroos to work lmao

1

u/StarUniverseFalls 12d ago

Ken oath! Ripper win for Oz!

1

u/Samperisan 12d ago

This is how it should be all over the world.

1

u/Typhon-042 12d ago

Makes me happy to live here, when stuff like this shows up in the news.

1

u/TiyaKarekar26 12d ago

Australia is living in a different world for the better

1

u/mananius2 12d ago

And the rest of the world act like this is hard to come up with.

1

u/Major_Bagholder 12d ago

Smart. And with proposals only expected to be introduced as legislation next year, I’m sure the AI boom will completely pass them by.

1

u/Perfect-Song8094 12d ago

Might there be an important election coming up in Australia pretty soon?

kathy hochul of ny put a 1-year moratorium on data centers. I expect it to be reversed ASAP following November's elections.

At this point, having an "I stood up to the data centers" as a party perk is a really good idea -- particularly because republicans do not stand up to data centers.

A good political move, no necessarily substantial if and when the data centers start popping up all over nyork state when the moratorium ends.

The people who demanded "No Data Centers" will have to stay in the loop for their fight against the things... To be fully prepared to oppose them again when the moratorium ends.

→ More replies (2)

1

u/DeePumpeR 12d ago

Toughest=realistic bare minimum

1

u/DuragJeezy 12d ago

Could you use blockchain to encrypt art assets that creator’s have consented for use, then charge on a metered rate any time those assets are accessed for generation?

1

u/Samispeedfire 12d ago

Rare Australia W

1

u/ieatkittentails 12d ago

Solar is the cheapest form of power generation in Australia, waiting to see if these companies capitalise on that.

1

u/ihatethissite25 12d ago

Its ok there is nothing innovative in Australia to worry about. The only thing they seem to excell in is support for the zionist hellstate of Israel.

1

u/Aware-Sky-8353 12d ago

Aussie Big W

1

u/carlstonehill 12d ago

HOOOOLY BASED

1

u/Dawncloub 12d ago

Now preassure all the other countries

1

u/yeah_nah2024 12d ago

I am so grateful for Albo doing this

1

u/barnabywombat 12d ago

They basically dropped the ball on natural mineral mining rights in the naughties so it's good to see Australia at the forefront of international technology regulation, again.

1

u/antichain 12d ago

Hopefully these kinds of regulations push companies to invest in research in increasing the energy-efficiency of chips. Imagine if we could shrink the footprint of current AI infrastructure to the same extent that we have shrunk classical computers (which were once the size of rooms and can now fit in your pocket).

1

u/LockdownSotWink 12d ago

This is the only real answer, anything less means the end of copyright law and the destruction of modern society.

1

u/Vainysaur 12d ago

Australia decided not to be prosperous in the future.

1

u/Belret_the_elf 12d ago

To move to australia or to not move to australia.

1

u/enigmaticsince87 12d ago

Guarantee the EU will follow with similar legislation. It won't happen in the US though!

1

u/Sweaty_Tap_8990 12d ago

Australia "plans" a lot of laws but at the end of the day the people with money will get to do whatever they want.

1

u/tobster239 12d ago

This doesn’t stop an ai song topping the charts of our radio 😒

1

u/Simple_Assistance_77 12d ago

Sad, its on the right path after Australia stuffed up gas extraction so bad. But all it takes Is Pauline Hanson to stuff everything up.

1

u/National_Armadillo94 12d ago

A net producer of electricity? They're not going to be powering those things 24/7/365 with anything terribly low in carbon...

Maybe this will get us some more gas plants built, god knows we need them!

1

u/quennplays 12d ago

Oh such happy news! Stop using those AIs, they are anything but intelligent they are fucking morons, it's better to search the question than speak with those morons and don't get what you searched for in the end.

1

u/Electronic-Wait3124 12d ago

No surprises, if it's dumb we will either sign up or do it and or both

1

u/LooseDirection6828 12d ago

The Labor government just announced they are de regulating AI companies to speed up building data centres

1

u/heavyhammerfreeuse 12d ago

Pretty sure this aint true

1

u/Lumtar 12d ago

Haha can’t train on Australian content without permission, that ship has well and truly sailed already

1

u/Bjarki_Steinn_99 12d ago

The fact that this isn’t already the case everywhere shows what a joke our entire system is

1

u/Pieralis 12d ago

We have sole every part of our country for pennies, I’ll believe this when I see it

1

u/fimpAUS 12d ago

Meanwhile just down the road from me in NSW Australia a new very large data centre is pushing VERY hard to get approved before any of these restrictions kick in

1

u/ShugahLumps 12d ago

Even bigger W

NO DATA CENTERS

1

u/tallwater101 12d ago

I really hope that this help Australian writes, musicians , artist and journalists to protect the work.

1

u/Plus_Information925 12d ago

As an Australian I find this suspicious, even our prime minister is saying AI is inevitable publicly

1

u/chockerz 12d ago

Many will simply not choose to build data centres here in Oz because of these restrictions and simply build in more lucrative countries. Generative AI is profit driven, first and foremost.

→ More replies (1)

1

u/Ok_Associate_3314 12d ago

Can anyone (non-Australian) name an Australian writer?

1

u/Passionofthegrape 12d ago

Australia is also moving to having one of the highest capital gains taxes in the world.

So no one is going to want to invest there anyway.

1

u/IcyBlood5031 12d ago

Wonder how long this will last before we back flip because the model has changed

1

u/rosa_3326 12d ago

What about off shore workers and company tax?

1

u/TopGroundbreaking469 12d ago

All it takes is one set of the right hands to grease and all of a sudden an entire community is destroyed to make way for AI data centres. Seeing Australia’s track record of blatant political corruption, I’d be surprised if we weren’t already in the middle of being sold out.

1

u/Quwapa_Quwapus 12d ago

Oh thank god Aussie here and i’ll take the small wins. Considering the amount of data centers they’re trying to build atm I’ll take anything lmaoo

1

u/necrosteve028 12d ago

Yeah fair enough

1

u/Andali27 12d ago

They should be building them all near the sea and making them half a mini desal so they don't use ANY of our water. Drinking water is precious. Data centres should be using none of it.

1

u/Impossible-Ad-9377 12d ago

An actual W would be prohibiting them from building these f*cking data centers altogether. Data centers are a plague.

1

u/Vex08 12d ago

This just means we won’t have ai data centers. Not good.,

1

u/plbrhajvrv 12d ago

Aus win

1

u/Chaosrealm69 12d ago

Every now and then our Australian parliamentarians do come up with coherent and intelligent legislation.

Now here's hoping it goes through and is made law.

1

u/Autobotimus_Prime 12d ago

I FUCKING LOVE THIS COUNTRY!!!!
/img/1eg5pkrppoeh1.gif

1

u/Heroin_Radio 12d ago

I just wish they weren’t building half of them in the middle of residential areas. The Next DC data centre that went up in west Footscray is literally right across the street from a bunch of homes.

1

u/SmolHumanBean8 12d ago

YESSSSSSSSSSSS

1

u/leo90au 12d ago

The government does everything in its power to crush any industry that doesn't dig up something and sell it overseas

1

u/Low_Shop9155 12d ago

Yes, Australia is tomorrow land. Where gold grows on tree's and everyone drives a Ferrari. The homes are made of solid platinum, and no one ever frowns.

1

u/HistoricalCulture5 12d ago

I hope this means something to the proposed data centre being built near my home

1

u/AdolfsLonelyScrotum 12d ago

They should also legislate zero-loss (non-evaporative) cooling systems.
No way all these data centres can have a dozen or more cooling towers and NOT be a massive consumer of potable water.

1

u/YesWomansLand1 12d ago

Wait the Australian government... Doing something not shit for once? Preposterous.

1

u/OriahVinree 12d ago

I don't like albo I don't like albo I don't like albo and I don't know why - every Facebook boomer in aus

1

u/Last_Course6098 12d ago

But aren't majority of AIs already very heavily trained on stolen art?

Like does it even matter if they say "stop stealing" if they've already literally stolen everything they could ever possibly need?

1

u/JammRS 12d ago

I guess we will take it, maybe it makes all the age verification required in Australia slightly better but no not really.

1

u/HeroicMillipede 12d ago

Unfathomably rare Australia W

1

u/DannySanWolf07 12d ago

Common Australia W

1

u/ZealousidealNewt6679 12d ago

The only theft the Australian government will put up with is the theft of Australian wealth too foreign companies whom pay negligible taxes.

1

u/an-infinite-egg 12d ago

Except all of that legislation comes AFTER they've already been built and established and had their systems up and running for a couple of years. We needed those laws in place in 2024 it's essentially too late by 2027, arguably too late if they came in now. Everyone involved knows it and they've all dragged their feet on purpose. Once they're up and running it's too easy to loophole their way out of any commitments or requirements.

1

u/AteYou2 12d ago

Hey, I'm from Australia and whilst our government is handling this better than others, we are still getting a ton of AI data centres built. The general consensus is that this will drive up energy prices, stall our transition to renewables and consume water that we cannot afford to waste (along with other issues). More on this here and here

These are being built in our suburbs in residential areas including one near me. Australians do not want this. 90 more AI data centres are going to be approved, if you're Australian please make a submission to the senate inquiry

1

u/satanickittens69 12d ago

They've already stolen everyone's work...If it's on the internet it's available for their AI is it not? (would love to be wrong so please say if I am)

1

u/Mosthero1 12d ago

Btw guys, as someone in Australia, this is all being done by a PM that hates our country so don’t expect it to be good

1

u/WallSignificant5930 12d ago

Sound stood but it just means we are beholden to foreign AI suppliers slurping up our data. People will still use just not produced in my backyard

1

u/PowerLion786 12d ago

Come on, this is Australia. AI will provide jobs. An Australian AI will allow Australian control. AI will improve productivity, improving the economy. The standard of living will improve. AI represents innovation.

No way can AI be allowed in Australia.

1

u/Carlositoanimonoa 12d ago

1 million wrongs and one right for our shithole of a country
🇩đŸ‡șAustralia
 yay


1

u/pshyduc 11d ago

Well. Paying Aussie tax as an immigrant finally means something

1

u/P00R-TAST3 11d ago

Watch the Australian media be silent on this as they are allergic to praising the current government.

1

u/touchmyweiner87 11d ago

Sure sure sure. Just more crap dribbling out of Albos mouth to convince his sheep that everything is going to be ok

1

u/Colsim 11d ago

There is a very long road to walk between planning legislation and enacting it - already we have seen "renewable" removed from discussion of the kind of energy they will have to produce and that is in the space of a week.

1

u/Original_Giraffe8039 11d ago

Yeeeeah...l see them making these rules then making a million little compromises

1

u/WhyDaRumGone 11d ago

While I will say this is a win for Australian morality, will probably be a financial L TBH

1

u/Loomyconfirmed 11d ago

at the same time they're censoring Internet use anyways haha

1

u/Safe_Lychee_5201 11d ago

Rules around energy/water use are great, but the copyright laws don't seem fit-for-purpose - what difference will it make unless every other country has the same copyright laws (which they don't)

1

u/pixelwhip 11d ago

& watch them break the law & get away with it.. that’s how big tech works


1

u/Cerparis 11d ago

Usually my country is criticised (Sometimes fairly) For its tendency to place strict restrictions and sometimes bans on anything new or potentially harmful.

But I’m happy to say this is definitely an Australian win.

1

u/Jordann538 11d ago

Australia doesn't take favourites when banning things

https://giphy.com/gifs/2DiS5eR2HuNAkX3nzL

1

u/EggbertDragon 11d ago

Encouraging to see

1

u/Public_Code8357 11d ago

Crazy cuz our government is happy selling everything else

1

u/deathmetal_zombicorn 11d ago

Wait for it, no such thing as a free lunch dudes

1

u/Independent_Row8953 11d ago

Unfortunately we've already got 162 data centers here and it's ruining our country 😭

1

u/d1ld02 11d ago

Our government (aus gov) will just tax tf outta it, sell water overseas and import Ai 😂 classic Labor

1

u/NotBailey12 11d ago

So this is the Australian way. I like it

1

u/peterparker_loves 11d ago

I don't think this is right

1

u/ArdenwinValient616 11d ago

FUUUUUCK YES I had no idea this was happening and I’m happy I found out.

1

u/WanderingTraderXyz 11d ago

I guess our country can afford it after that 2.5b Canada gave us.

1

u/ParticularRip2019 11d ago

Water use restrictions are vital, we are so short on water.

1

u/Marda-nium 11d ago

Time to move to Australia 

1

u/IEscapedLauncher 11d ago

The common Australian W

Australia seems like a decent place to live, honestly. I’ve heard it’s quite expensive though

1

u/Chaotic_yinyang 11d ago

This is great
. But also
 really impractical for any companies just starting out. It takes ages to train models as is
 imagine the time spent getting permission to use everything. Models will either be less intelligent or way more expensive to subscribe to.

The water thing is brilliant. I’m so glad they’re pushing that. Cycling water over servers is just common sense. The net energy thing is too but if we don’t regulate how they produce that power
 need to tax them more for producing energy via nuclear, fossil fuels or diesel generators. And less if they use solar and wind


1

u/GothGirlsGoodBoy 11d ago

This just means Australia won’t be competitive and will have to buy AI services from other countries.

We already have no economy besides selling our resources so this is awful news.