Submission – Joint Select Committee on artificial intelligence

To seize the opportunities presented by artificial intelligence (AI), and manage the risks, Australia must make strategic investments to build sovereign AI capability.

This includes the computing infrastructure, scientific knowledge, foundational data assets and skilled workforce required to participate in AI research and development to boost economic productivity and innovation. A report by the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering estimated that between A$160 billion to A$235 billion could be added to Australia’s economy if strategic initiatives to capture the AI opportunity are implemented.

There has been a significant lack of public investment in AI research in Australia, compared to other jurisdictions. The United Kingdom announced a £1.1 billion plan to build domestic AI computing capacity earlier this year. The Singapore government will invest over A$1.13 billion in public AI research through 2030. Australia faces an escalating risk by relying on offshore AI capability. Sovereign AI capability is critical to ensure that Australia has the domestic ability to manage the development, regulation, and adoption of AI in our national interest. Sole dependency on AI technologies developed elsewhere compromises Australia’s resilience and limits the new economic value Australia could capture from AI innovation.

In June, Australian researchers and companies lost access to the world's most advanced AI models when the United States imposed export controls restricting their use to US nationals. This left Australia without access to frontier AI capability. That occasion was brief, but it is difficult to predict the duration of the next one.

No other country will solve Australia’s challenges for us. Uniquely Australian challenges need solutions developed here. Australia can build our own specialised AI models to fight our bushfires, improve health outcomes and protect the Great Barrier Reef. Strong sovereign AI capability is essential for Australia’s defence innovation, national security and intelligence.

Summary of recommendations

The Academy makes the following recommendations to enable Australian AI sovereignty:

• Australia must invest in national AI capability to build resilience and shape development and adoption of AI technologies, as other countries have done.
• Government is already acting to support uptake of AI in business but has not extended this focus to the research sector. The Office for AI, National AI Centre and the Department of Industry, Science and Resources Technology and Digital Policy division should support national coordination of uptake of AI in research as a priority.
• The Australian Government should develop a 10-year national high-performance computing strategy and investment plan to secure computing capability for AI and data-intensive research. The Academy proposes an investment of $200 million per year over 10 years to support sector planning, upgrade facilities and coordinate investment in Tier-0 (regional) capability.
• The 2026 National Research Infrastructure Roadmap should include planning for AI and high-performance computing needs, particularly GPUs.
• Australia needs to ensure diversification of onshore large-scale computing infrastructure and partnerships with other nations to secure access to frontier models and high-performance computing amid geopolitical uncertainty.
• The Australian Government should invest in addressing Australia’s AI skills gap by implementing measures to uplift AI literacy within Australia’s research workforce.
• Government should retain visibility over what research data types are stored by commercial data centres, with agreements guaranteeing safe data stewardship and appropriate custodianship, rights and control over research data.
• Data centre and AI developers should be required to contribute to trusted public data and knowledge infrastructure, including scientific data repositories, metadata standards, provenance mechanisms and long-term stewardship of publicly accessible information resources that underpin AI development and scientific discovery.
• Investment is required to support open science practices that enable high-quality, well-governed, well-described and fit-for-purpose data for developing AI systems and AI-driven research, including curation of nationally significant datasets such as Australia’s research collections.
• The Australian Government should implement robust mechanisms to ensure scientific outputs (e.g. research publications and data) are appropriately attributed.
• Australia’s data centre expectations and AI standards must be made enforceable through transparent assessment criteria such as measurable reporting obligations, independent assurance, and clear consequences for misaligned actions.