Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will seek to ban large data centres being built near schools, homes, and farms when he meets with state leaders this week. This move comes as part of a broader effort to regulate the rapid expansion of data centres in the country. Albanese's government has pledged to rush through a national artificial intelligence law, likening its response to the data centre boom to Australia's world-first teen social media ban.
Regulating Data Centre Expansion
The national AI law will also set rules for AI training, from copyright to security and safety. This legislation aims to establish conditions to attract investment in frontier AI training while ensuring AI is developed safely, securely, and in ways that respect copyright and provide control and payment to the creative sector. The rapid growth of data centres has raised concerns about their impact on local communities and the environment.
New South Wales, Australia's largest state, is currently assessing 26 new data centre projects worth AU$100 billion ($71.7 billion). The state already has 90 data centres operating, with construction growing by 65 percent annually over the past three years. However, a proposal to build a data centre in the World Heritage-listed Blue Mountains, in close proximity to a school, was withdrawn in June following community outcry.
Community and Environmental Concerns
Albanese is expected to outline national minimum standards for water and energy use by data centres and rules to minimise community impact by locating data centres away from homes, schools, prime farmland, or potential housing sites. At a business dinner on Tuesday, he will argue that the data centre boom needs to maintain the support of communities.
"Hosting large-scale AI training data centres and unlocking frontier AI model training will help Australia capture a larger share of the economic value, technical capability and strategic influence of AI," Albanese is expected to say, according to an excerpt of his speech. "We must establish conditions to attract investment in frontier AI training, ensuring AI is developed safely, securely, and in ways that respect copyright and provide control and payment to the creative sector."
US startup Anthropic has lobbied Australian officials to change copyright laws to assist the training of AI models, prompting a backlash from media companies, musicians, and other creators. This highlights the ongoing debate about the balance between technological advancement and the protection of intellectual property rights.
