AI? TECH? “PRODUCTIVITY?” HUMANNESS? ACCEPT? NOT AGREE… via PLAY BOOK @ POLITICO

 

TIM AYRES — EMBEDDING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS REINDUSTRIALIZATION 

The minister for industry, innovation and science spoke to Ryan Heath on the sidelines of ASPI’s AI Masterclass

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

You want Australia to be the indispensable country on AI. What makes us indispensable? 

When you look all the way through the technology stack: Where's the Australian advantage, and where's the Australian interest? It's definitely in the critical metals part of the technology stack. We have really strong emerging technology advantages in areas like advanced chip packaging.

If you're sitting there at Anthropic or OpenAI, what is the thing that makes you invest half your money in Australia? 

It’s [about] where the chips that we use secure their critical minerals and critical metals from. The frontier models matter, but it's not the only place that Australia is leaning into.

What would it take to build a kind of workers' movement for AI adoption?

Australians are very practical. They can hold both thoughts at the same time: What’s the opportunity here? And what's my apprehension of risk? So much of this will be about what Australian institutions do, what firms do, what industrial organizations do and what trade unions do — and how government institutions respond to it.

It's a real Australian advantage that we have an industrial relations system and social capital that supports Australians working together and we've got a government that's actually about driving social cohesion.

How do you scale good workplace-level ideas to deliver more productivity for everyone and benefits that are shared for everyone?

There’s that aphorism about the digital revolution, that you could see it everywhere except in the productivity numbers. I suspect that's true too here. With general-purpose technologies, like electricity [or AI], the trajectory for those that don't secure the benefits is that they go backwards sharply: in economic and strategic and resilience terms and democratic terms.

Embedding artificial intelligence in the products and services that we sell here and around the region is so fundamental — it is reindustrialization.

Think about Australian agriculture, right? The opportunities to use data sets in Australian agriculture to develop technology that we can sell around the world. That is jobs in country towns. And that's just one sector.

We are clearly strong on fundamental research, but weaker on commercializing that research. What institutional change do you worry about, so that we don’t suffer that blind spot or that weakness in the AI era?

I wouldn't talk us down too much. We have the largest ever pro-manufacturing and pro- commercialization of research package in Australian history, a $15 billion national reconstruction fund. We are working hard with our universities and the CSIRO to align our research system to meet these objectives.

What’s the one thing you need people to hear if they're One Nation-curious? 

Their migration position defeats any reasonable analysis. Like, you can't find anybody in regional Australia who runs a firm or runs an organization who would not say that this will wreak enormous economic damage through regional Australia. This position comes with enormous risk.”

ASPI @PDL 

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) Artificial Intelligence Masterclass took place on Monday, 14 September 2026 in Canberra, Australia. Part of ASPI's prominent The Sydney Dialogue (TSD) series, the high-level event brought together political leaders, senior officials, and top tech executives to dissect how frontier AI models are reshaping global geopolitics, economic planning, and defense integration. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Key Themes & Focus Areas

The sessions addressed the critical intersection of rapid technological capability and lagging government policy, focusing on: [1]

• The Global AI Race: Assessing the pace of frontier AI development and adoption.
• Geopolitics & Strategic Power: The shifting roles of great and middle powers (specifically focusing on China and the Indo-Pacific region).
• Sovereign Supply Chains: Australia’s exact role in securing and sustaining the resources needed to power the AI economy.
• Defence Applications: Exploring how defense capabilities and data holdings can be optimized for the modern battlespace using AI.
• AI Security and Safety: Managing enterprise risks, autonomous agent alignment, and protecting critical infrastructure. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Notable Speakers & Sessions

The comprehensive ASPI Program Schedule featured distinct fireside chats and panel discussions: [1]

• Abigail Bradshaw CSC (Head of the Australian Signals Directorate): Warned that intelligence agencies need early warning networks with AI companies, highlighting global incidents like OpenAI agents autonomously targeting Hugging Face and Anthropic's Mythos Preview facing export controls due to extreme cyber capabilities. [1, 2]
• Ann M. O'Leary (OpenAI): Led a fireside session examining safety and innovation tradeoffs. [1]
• Jeff Bleich (Anthropic): Closed out the fireside conversations discussing frontier models and alignment.[1]
• Political & Strategic Leaders: Featured insights from Hon Dr Andrew Charlton MP, Senator the Hon Tim Ayres, and former Army officer Paul Robards. [1, 2, 3]

For continued reading on the outcomes or policy stances stemming from this summit, you can read the executive insights via the ASPI Strategist Analysis.