Governments warned against holding back AI and technology start-ups

Australia is well-positioned to benefit from the global artificial intelligence boom, but governments and regulators need to put the right policy framework in place to avoid stifling start-ups.

That’s the message from two of the country’s biggest AI entrepreneurs, including the head of an infrastructure company that runs a network of energy-efficient data centers that advance the technology.

“This is undoubtedly the most significant industrial transformation in modern history,” Craig Scroggie, boss of listed company NextDC, said at a conference in Sydney on Tuesday.

Mr Scroggie echoed OpenAI founder and CEO Sam Altman’s comments that Australia may be at the forefront of AI development.

Both pointed to the country’s stable security and political environment, clear regulatory systems and…