I want to talk about an issue that will allow most people’s eyes to be glazed over.  This is AI.  Artificial Intelligence.

The term Artificial Intelligence is itself somewhat misleading.  There is nothing artificial about using data to automate processes more efficiently.  We have been doing it for generations.  The whole construct around the industrial revolution was based on automating manual processes and enabling a subsequent event to occur on a given outcome.  Sure, this was basically one-dimensional, but that was the start of the revolution – whereby we were able to ‘instruct’ processes to do more things on a given outcome: i.e. multi-dimensional.  This led to the information revolution.

So when we now consider AI, what we are really doing is positioning our technology to manage many disparate processes at the same time.  Over time the number of processes become incremental.

We often conflate AI with robotics but that is simply an easy way to explain the processes that are being automated.  What we really need is the overlay of a vision for the future – A(n) I for the future – that will allow us to position our economy at the vanguard of these new technologies.  Australia has the opportunity to take the initiative, deploy our smarts and get this economy onto the next generation footing.  It simply needs our clever people to take the opportunities and reset the economy. An AI economy is one which works incrementally.  It means we can do one thing and the next outcome drives more value into the economy.  It is the true service economy as it means our revenues in the economy are recurring.

To get there requires leadership – to give oxygen to our smart people to believe their dreams.  And ultimately, to get our politicians to dream the dream to make this happen.

We’ve done this before.  Wi-fi was invented by Australians.  CSL is a world leading example of managing healthcare.  There are numerous examples of Australian innovation.  We’ve missed the boat on creating industries driving renewable energy.   Let us get this moving so that our next generation industries are actually Australian industries, generating value to Australia, using AI to create a new set of businesses that create wealth for us all.

It is not hard.

Regards

Rob