Andrew Hastie compares AI to cold-war nuclear arms race and warns Australia may fall behind

Liberal MP says Australia risks sovereignty and strategic independence being ‘constrained by the AI superpowers reshaping the global order’

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Liberal Andrew Hastie says Australia should dramatically scale up investment in artificial intelligence to preserve strategic independence and warns the country risks being “a supplicant state” tethered to the US in an era of possible hot conflict with China.

In a major address to Liberal members in Sydney on Monday night, the shadow minister for industry and sovereign capability likened the development of AI to the nuclear arms race of the cold-war era and proposed Australia position itself as a technology hub in the southern hemisphere.