Big tech needs to pay up for AI data centres, Aussies reckon

Australians believe tech companies should be forced to fund additional energy supply to meet their needs for data centres, according to an exclusive nine.com.au survey.

As the footprint of the global artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure boom expands across Australia, concern is growing about the massive use of energy and water by data centre campuses.

An exclusive nine.com.au survey of 1146 readers asked how the nation should ensure the surge in power demand does not drive up household electricity bills.

Almost two thirds (64 per cent) believed tech companies should be forced to fund additional energy supply to meet their needs.

More than a quarter (26 per cent) believed tech companies should pay a dedicated energy tax to subsidise household bills, while nine per cent believed governments should cap energy usage for data centres, even if it delays AI development.

Only one per cent of people believed households should accept higher bills as the necessary cost of national tech infrastructure.

There are more than 160 data centres already operational across Australia.

Read more

Albanese to push for global AI guardrails on but won’t commit on copyright

Most are in NSW and Victoria, however Anthropic, the company behind the AI assistant Claude, has just signed an agreement to lease a $30 billion data centre in regional Queensland, to be built by Singapore’s Zerra DC.

There is also potentially another 225 known data centre projects in the pipeline, according to the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).

In its latest 10-year outlook, released in August this year, AEMO predicts energy use by data centres will increase from its current 3 per cent of operational demand to approximately 13 per cent.

The Climate Council has warned that if the growth of data centres is not matched by new energy generation and storage, the wholesale price of electricity could rise by more than 20 per cent across the grid by 2035.

In July, the federal government announced it would legislate national AI standards for large data centres, including how they manage energy, as well as how AI training impacts national security, industry and creators and copyright holders.

The government has now put the legislation out for consultation, seeking feedback from businesses, industry, academics and members of the public.

The nine.com.au poll, which runs once a fortnight, canvases the views of the Nine audience on Idea Xchange, which is an online community of our readers and viewers. Learn more and sign up here.