Artificial intelligence (AI) is swiftly establishing itself as the engine of a new industrial revolution, reshaping economies, industries and societies worldwide. Global investment in AI is accelerating toward AU$3 trillion by 2026. Australia has invested just over AU$300 million over the last five years, while other governments have invested more than 10 times the amount.

The report outlines a blueprint for AI investment in Australia, including:

• creating a network of regional AI factories to connect talent, research, industry and government
• building a national AI talent pipeline and developing population-scale AI training
• developing specialised AI models and national datasets covering Australia-specific use cases in national-priority fields such as geoscience and health.

With the initiatives proposed in this report, AI could lift Australia’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 6% to 8% over the next decade, adding up to AU$160 billion to AU$235 billion to the economy in 2034, with the potential of a substantial additional upside if AI unlocks breakthrough innovations in areas such as healthcare, biotechnology or robotics. It finds the key to spurring growth of GDP is more government investments in sovereign AI.

The report identifies six priority AI enablers the Australian government should focus on that will drive the biggest economic impact:

1. national AI talent pipeline
2. population-scale AI training
3. purpose-built AI compute facilities
4. specialised AI models and national datasets
5. AI standards and regulations
6. regional AI factories.

The report builds on Made in Australia: our AI opportunity, outlining the case for Australia to develop sovereign AI capability.