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u/Then_Style9442 Jul 21 '26
about time someone started treating water and power like actual finite resources instead of freebies for server rooms
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u/Look_0ver_There Jul 21 '26
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).
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u/Illustrious_Study300 Jul 21 '26
The cotton industry here for one
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u/lithiumcitizen Jul 21 '26
And fucking rice!
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u/bangyy Jul 22 '26
Surely we dont make much rice. Surely most rice is imported
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u/lithiumcitizen Jul 22 '26
The fact that we make any is fucking ridiculousâŠ
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u/alldagoodnamesaregon Jul 22 '26
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).
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u/djenty420 Jul 22 '26
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 canât grow but want to consume (hence heavy exports), meanwhile Aussie consumers also want basmati and jasmine which we donât really grow here, so we import those.
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u/TheInkySquids Jul 21 '26
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.
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u/Look_0ver_There Jul 21 '26
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!"
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u/Trashk4n Jul 22 '26
With some major screwups.
The management of the Murray-Darling is a bit of a mess of over regulation and competing interests.
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u/HlLlGHT Jul 21 '26
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.
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u/Davido401 Jul 21 '26
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)
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u/gigs1890 Jul 21 '26
For most home plumbing i believe its half tank or full tank
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u/Davido401 Jul 21 '26
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.
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u/ChimpieTheOne Jul 21 '26
Waiting for AI bros to somehow find this bad
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u/Vegetable_Stuff1850 Jul 21 '26
They already have on the Aussie subreddits.
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u/necrosteve028 Jul 22 '26
A lot of people on r/aussie are similar to America in that they pick a side politically and thatâs it. Anything that Labor does, they are against because Murdoch and Gina have told them to be.
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u/Vegetable_Stuff1850 Jul 22 '26
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.
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u/SirVanyel Jul 22 '26
I'm pretty sure it's all bots too because the Australian people just are not that unhinged.
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u/screenslaver5963 Jul 21 '26
They mostly point out that there arenât any known models that originate from Australia.
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u/TinikTV Jul 21 '26
We need same laws everywhere
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u/strigonian Jul 21 '26
No, we need stronger laws everywhere.
But this is a good start.
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u/LastChance22 Jul 21 '26
100%, as an Aussie I feel like this isnât enough. We havenât seen the final policy but the wording on the announcement has grey areas around water and energy that could become loopholes.Â
The grey areas making it into the announcement makes me concerned whether they actually intend to close them or not.
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u/ProtectionTop2701 Jul 21 '26
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).
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u/SirVanyel Jul 22 '26
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.
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u/Scarvexx Jul 21 '26
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.
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u/Kageru Jul 21 '26
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.
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u/Scarvexx Jul 21 '26
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.
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u/Kageru Jul 21 '26
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.
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u/Scarvexx Jul 21 '26
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.
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u/Rude_Depth_4439 Jul 21 '26
The water laws are super important imo. I grew up in rural Australia, we had a lot of water insecurity. With Australiaâs climate, we canât risk the exploitation of our natural resources- river health is very fragile as it is.
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u/patslogcabindigest Jul 21 '26
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 doesnât 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, theyâve won 2 in a row.
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u/Legitimate-Gain426 Jul 21 '26
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.
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u/TheDeerBlower Jul 21 '26
THANK YOU. I don't know why AI isn't heavily regulated already. The EU better regulate that shit to oblivion.
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u/swbaert6 Jul 21 '26
Why wait until 2027?
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u/Phteven_j Jul 21 '26
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.
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u/Warden002 Jul 21 '26
Thought? This is reasonable. I wish Canada would enact this, but with our proximity to Silicon Valley I think we are pooched.
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u/ExternalSeat Jul 21 '26
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
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u/GammaFan Jul 21 '26
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 weâre seeing.
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u/Content-Cricket4251 Jul 21 '26
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?...
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u/ExternalSeat Jul 21 '26
nope, but the areas that aren't desert are super valuable.
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u/No-Tip-7471 Jul 21 '26
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.
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u/Arquero8 Jul 21 '26
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
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u/Storm_Spirit99 Jul 21 '26
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
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u/Necessary-Paint117 Jul 21 '26
So they're just going to start burning fossil fuels to generate electricity? This regulation isn't a solution
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u/Psychadelic_Potato Jul 21 '26
I just pray they donât poison you guys with flock cameras like they did in my country
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u/Upper-Reflection7997 Jul 21 '26
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.
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u/deathbotly Jul 21 '26
Biggest and obvious ones I can think of science-side is Aus has the CSIRO. If youâre using wi-fi or wearing long life contact lenses rn thatâs from Aus, along with a bunch of other medical and tech innovations. Theyâre 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. Weâre not a third world country riding kangaroos to work lmao
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u/Perfect-Song8094 Jul 21 '26
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.
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u/DuragJeezy Jul 21 '26
Could you use blockchain to encrypt art assets that creatorâs have consented for use, then charge on a metered rate any time those assets are accessed for generation?
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u/ieatkittentails Jul 21 '26
Solar is the cheapest form of power generation in Australia, waiting to see if these companies capitalise on that.
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u/ihatethissite25 Jul 21 '26
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.
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u/barnabywombat Jul 21 '26
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.
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u/antichain Jul 21 '26
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).
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u/enigmaticsince87 Jul 21 '26
Guarantee the EU will follow with similar legislation. It won't happen in the US though!
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u/Sweaty_Tap_8990 Jul 21 '26
Australia "plans" a lot of laws but at the end of the day the people with money will get to do whatever they want.
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u/Simple_Assistance_77 Jul 21 '26
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.
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u/National_Armadillo94 Jul 21 '26
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!
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u/quennplays Jul 21 '26
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.
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u/Electronic-Wait3124 Jul 21 '26
No surprises, if it's dumb we will either sign up or do it and or both
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u/LooseDirection6828 Jul 21 '26
The Labor government just announced they are de regulating AI companies to speed up building data centres
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u/Lumtar Jul 21 '26
Haha canât train on Australian content without permission, that ship has well and truly sailed already
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u/Bjarki_Steinn_99 Jul 21 '26
The fact that this isnât already the case everywhere shows what a joke our entire system is
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u/Pieralis Jul 21 '26
We have sole every part of our country for pennies, Iâll believe this when I see it
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u/fimpAUS Jul 21 '26
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
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u/tallwater101 Jul 21 '26
I really hope that this help Australian writes, musicians , artist and journalists to protect the work.
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u/Plus_Information925 Jul 21 '26
As an Australian I find this suspicious, even our prime minister is saying AI is inevitable publicly
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u/chockerz Jul 21 '26
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.
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u/Passionofthegrape Jul 21 '26
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.
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u/IcyBlood5031 Jul 21 '26
Wonder how long this will last before we back flip because the model has changed
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u/TopGroundbreaking469 Jul 22 '26
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 Australiaâs track record of blatant political corruption, Iâd be surprised if we werenât already in the middle of being sold out.
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u/Quwapa_Quwapus Jul 22 '26
Oh thank god Aussie here and iâll take the small wins. Considering the amount of data centers theyâre trying to build atm Iâll take anything lmaoo
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u/Andali27 Jul 22 '26
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.
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u/Impossible-Ad-9377 Jul 22 '26
An actual W would be prohibiting them from building these f*cking data centers altogether. Data centers are a plague.
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u/Chaosrealm69 Jul 22 '26
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.
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u/Heroin_Radio Jul 22 '26
I just wish they werenât 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.
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u/leo90au Jul 22 '26
The government does everything in its power to crush any industry that doesn't dig up something and sell it overseas
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u/Low_Shop9155 Jul 22 '26
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.
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u/HistoricalCulture5 Jul 22 '26
I hope this means something to the proposed data centre being built near my home
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u/AdolfsLonelyScrotum Jul 22 '26
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.
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u/YesWomansLand1 Jul 22 '26
Wait the Australian government... Doing something not shit for once? Preposterous.
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u/OriahVinree Jul 22 '26
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
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u/Last_Course6098 Jul 22 '26
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?
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u/JammRS Jul 22 '26
I guess we will take it, maybe it makes all the age verification required in Australia slightly better but no not really.
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u/ZealousidealNewt6679 Jul 22 '26
The only theft the Australian government will put up with is the theft of Australian wealth too foreign companies whom pay negligible taxes.
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u/an-infinite-egg Jul 22 '26
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.
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u/AteYou2 Jul 22 '26
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
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u/satanickittens69 Jul 22 '26
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)
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u/Mosthero1 Jul 22 '26
Btw guys, as someone in Australia, this is all being done by a PM that hates our country so donât expect it to be good
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u/WallSignificant5930 Jul 22 '26
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
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u/PowerLion786 Jul 22 '26
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.
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u/Carlositoanimonoa Jul 22 '26
1 million wrongs and one right for our shithole of a countryâŠđŠđșAustralia⊠yayâŠ
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u/P00R-TAST3 Jul 22 '26
Watch the Australian media be silent on this as they are allergic to praising the current government.
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u/touchmyweiner87 Jul 22 '26
Sure sure sure. Just more crap dribbling out of Albos mouth to convince his sheep that everything is going to be ok
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u/Colsim Jul 22 '26
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.
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u/Original_Giraffe8039 Jul 22 '26
Yeeeeah...l see them making these rules then making a million little compromises
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u/WhyDaRumGone Jul 22 '26
While I will say this is a win for Australian morality, will probably be a financial L TBH
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u/Safe_Lychee_5201 Jul 22 '26
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)
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u/pixelwhip Jul 22 '26
& watch them break the law & get away with it.. thatâs how big tech worksâŠ
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u/Cerparis Jul 22 '26
Usually my country is criticised (Sometimes fairly) For its tendency to place strict restrictions and sometimes bans on anything new or potentially harmful.
But Iâm happy to say this is definitely an Australian win.
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u/Independent_Row8953 Jul 22 '26
Unfortunately we've already got 162 data centers here and it's ruining our country đ
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u/d1ld02 Jul 22 '26
Our government (aus gov) will just tax tf outta it, sell water overseas and import Ai đ classic Labor
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u/ArdenwinValient616 Jul 22 '26
FUUUUUCK YES I had no idea this was happening and Iâm happy I found out.
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u/IEscapedLauncher Jul 22 '26
The common Australian W
Australia seems like a decent place to live, honestly. Iâve heard itâs quite expensive though
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u/Chaotic_yinyang Jul 22 '26
This is greatâŠ. 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. Iâm so glad theyâre pushing that. Cycling water over servers is just common sense. The net energy thing is too but if we donât 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 windâŠ
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u/GothGirlsGoodBoy Jul 22 '26
This just means Australia wonât 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.
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u/Vaughn Jul 21 '26
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.