talking on UNSW\u2019s Engineering the Future podcast<\/a>, said AI can help automate repetitive work, improve efficiency and support decision-making at scale.<\/p>\nThe technology could also help address labour shortages in key industries, enabling organisations to do more with limited resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe opportunity with artificial intelligence is that both at an individual level and at a company and governmental level, they can be applied across a whole range of functions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you can start to scale a lot of those solutions and in particular areas where we find it difficult to find people to do work, then that’s obviously an advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Dr Keay warned that the shift is inevitable, and Australia cannot afford to fall behind.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really isn’t an option for us to just bury our heads in the sand and hope that this technological change won’t impact on us. We have to figure out how we can harness the benefits,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Risk of an \u2018extractive\u2019 AI economy<\/p>\n
While AI offers significant economic opportunity, Dr Keay said there is a risk that Australia could miss out on much of the value it generates.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because much of the global AI capability is currently concentrated in a small number of overseas companies.<\/p>\n
\u201cArtificial intelligence, probably more than any other transformation in the past, has the very high potential for being an extractive industry,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people who are leading the development of these tools and making all of the profits from them are not Australian companies.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a result, Australian organisations often rely on imported technologies, and without intervention that could have long-term economic consequences.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are purchasing most of our artificial intelligence, particularly from the US, and yet those companies we know tend to pay very little tax here in Australia,\u201d Dr Keay said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat will have devastating consequences unless we find ways to either develop alternatives, and really invest in Australian AI as a competitive advantage to make sure that we are generating Australian tax-paying companies to support our workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n
Control of data and sovereignty<\/p>\n
Dr Keay also says that control of data will be critical to ensuring Australia can benefit from AI.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we have more control of our data, then that lends itself for us to be able to build our own AI-specific models that are beneficial to us and not necessarily to anyone else,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to stop unquestionably accepting that this kind of one-way flow of information, which is very extractive, is actually acceptable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t be powerless or give up our agency to other countries unless we’re prepared to potentially lose our sovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AI as a productivity driver Dr Keay, talking on UNSW\u2019s Engineering the Future podcast, said AI can help…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,25,26431,372,26432,26433,5371,26435,26434],"class_list":["post-43367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ai","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-division-of-equity-diversity-inclusion","tag-engineering","tag-resilient-society","tag-school-of-computer-science-and-engineering","tag-science-tech","tag-sdg","tag-sdg8"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}