They underpin cloud computing, banking, telecommunications, government services, healthcare, research, business systems and, increasingly, artificial intelligence. They will also be important to Australia’s sovereign digital capability. Australia cannot sensibly depend entirely on computing infrastructure located overseas. So, the question is no longer whether Australia should build data centres.

Artificial Intelligence is often described as either the greatest invention of our time or the beginning of the end of civilisation. At one side we have many people using AI for good, useful and practical purposes. While at the other side we have the pundits who believe that its the end of the world as we know it.