Australian PM wants to ban data centers near schools

Filed 2d ago · Via Courthouse News · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

Fluffing a Duck

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Chris Olszewski · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese plans to propose national rules banning large data centers near schools, homes and farmland when he meets state leaders, alongside a national AI law covering training, copyright and safety.

New South Wales alone is assessing 26 new data center projects worth AU$100 billion, after a 65% annual construction growth rate over three years produced 90 existing facilities; a proposed center in the World Heritage-listed Blue Mountains near a school was withdrawn in June after backlash.

Albanese is expected to argue the data center boom must retain 'community support' while also courting investment in AI training, as Anthropic lobbies to loosen Australian copyright law over objections from media and creative industries.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Announcing rules to keep data centers away from schools right after a school-adjacent project collapsed under public pressure is less proactive governance than damage control with a press release attached. The pitch to keep 'community support' while simultaneously courting the AI industry that keeps testing that support is a neat trick if it works.

Source: Read the original at Courthouse News → Scored: Fluffing a Duck · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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