Who Will Control AI? What Australia Must Do Now

It isn't often that the people building a technology ask for it to be slowed down. In September 2026 that's what happened, and the politics immediately pulled the other way.

Travis Carter and I spent this week's Greater Wealth on the gap between those two positions, and on what it means for Australians, who mostly use AI rather than build it.

In this episode (19 chapters)

1. 00:00Anthropic's CEO asks the industry for a time out
2. 02:39The four-way argument nobody has settled
3. 03:08Travis: the last technology that changed warfare
4. 05:02What happens when somebody declines to sign
5. 06:51Spears against bows — and why some countries disappear
6. 08:05The warning from May, and the word "sleepwalking"
7. 10:10Copyright is the wrong argument to be having
8. 12:17The hidden race is a race for electricity
9. 12:53Texas pauses. Geelong asks for a levy
10. 16:10The energy Australia actually has
11. 18:07"Am I going to be out of a job?"
12. 19:34When AI stops being a computer
13. 20:56Two responses available to one person
14. 24:30Two different needs: employee and owner
15. 26:50The industries most exposed
16. 27:51Humans buy from humans
17. 29:16Art, sport, and what we actually watch
18. 31:44Purpose, hope, and the real social question
19. 33:43From a bad idea, a good idea will come

What actually happened

The argument nobody has settled

There are four positions in this debate, and they don't fit together neatly. Regulation could reduce the catastrophic risks. Too much regulation could entrench the biggest companies. No regulation could create risks governments can't reverse later. And neither America nor China wants to be the first to slow down.

For Australia, I'd argue the question is different again: "what should be regulated and what happens if Australia regulates the users while remaining dependent on foreign AI companies, because that's kind of where Australia is."

Travis: the last technology that changed warfare

Travis took the other side, and he took it from the military rather than the market. The last great change in warfare was the nuclear warhead, and what has kept it in check is inspection and control: "you can't self-regulate nuclear because the threat to the world as a whole is just too great."

His worry is what happens when somebody declines to sign. Rules bind the people who follow rules. A rogue state or organisation developing AI in secret isn't slowed down by anyone else's pause. And the countries that fall behind may pay for it: "I think this is going to be one of the situations where we start seeing countries disappear because they're not going to be able to keep up."

The hidden race is for electricity

Australia's political conversation has focused on copyright: whether AI models can be trained here on Australian content. That matters, but it isn't where our real exposure lies. As I said on the show, "I think the hidden AI race is for electricity."

AI runs on data centres, and data centres run on enormous amounts of power and water. That's why Texas paused new connections to its grid. And it reaches ordinary places: "AI is raising issues around electricity prices, water and infrastructure, property, regional development, investment markets, national sovereignty." My concern is that "Australia risks becoming about infrastructure rather than AI power": supplying the land, the energy and the minerals, while someone else owns the intelligence.

History has a way of repeating itself. The first industrial revolution moved people from the country into cities and factories, and the rules and unions came afterwards. The people who tried to smash the machines didn't stop them.

"Am I going to be out of a job?"

That's the question most Australians are really asking. As I put it on the show, "the biggest question that most Australians are thinking, probably in the back of their mind, is, you know, am I going to be out of a job?"

Travis was blunt about the industries he thinks are most exposed: "bookkeeping, accountants, lawyers who focus around litigation, I think those sort of industries are going to get absolutely decimated." Medicine, he thought, will work side by side with AI, and the human-based services will hold up best.

He also had a suggestion for government: "Rather than regulating the development of AI, I think they should focus on educating the general population to be ready for the AI when it comes out."

Two responses, and two different needs

For one person, I think there are two honest responses. "Either you get something that you own as far as a business is concerned and start moving towards that entrepreneurial type of space because then you're not reliant on a job." Or you take the time to understand the new infrastructure, and the new financial system, being built alongside AI.

And there are two different needs inside that, which most advice treats as the same thing. If you're employed, the need is to keep your skills current. If you own a business, the need is to build systems that keep the business current. In my words: "So one is keeping skills up. The other is building systems in place."

Humans buy from humans

There's one trap I'd warn every business owner about. "The temptation as a business owner is to completely AI your business. I don't think that's smart. I think you've got to keep the human element in there at some level because humans buy from humans, and humans want to deal with humans, not just a bot." We've all been stuck with a call-centre robot that won't let us reach a person.

Underneath it all is purpose. People put a lot of their self-worth into what they create. "If we stop creating, then we start losing hope." The answer is to keep creating, and to find your way through, which humans are very good at.

My final word on the show was simple: "Prepare now. Don't just wait until it happens." And Travis's: "From a bad idea, a good idea will come."

Three questions to ask this week

1. Am I an employee or an owner in how I think about AI, and which need is mine: keeping skills up, or building systems?
2. Which part of my work is routine information work an AI could do?
3. Where in my business must a customer always reach a human?

If you're unsure how to answer the first two, the free masterclass is built for exactly that.

Education only. Nothing here is personal financial, tax or legal advice.