The government has released a consultation paper with proposals for its anticipated national standards for AI and data centres.
Responses to the consultation paper are open until October 9.
AI companies could be legally needed to report rogue incidents such as the hacking of another company, under a proposal from the Albanese government as part of its plans for new safety, environmental and industrial rules for the technology.
Data centres already in development but not yet built may also be retrospectively needed to comply with a set of new rules being considered by the government, which includes prioritising the use of recycled water and forcing AI companies to reserve computing capacity for Australian businesses and researchers.
We welcome investment, but on Australia's terms, assistant science minister Andrew Charlton said in a statement.
In July, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced his government would create a set of national laws and rules about the development of AI and its infrastructure, such as data centres, in Australia.
A discussion paper published today for feedback, said companies authorised to undertake large-scale AI training in Australia would face minimum safety and security requirements, including "disclosing defined reportable AI incidents to relevant Australian authorities".
Over the past few months, several AI companies and some people have disclosed incidents of AI models taking potentially malicious actions without being asked, starting with OpenAI's disclosure that two of its models had gone "rogue" and broken into the systems of AI company Hugging Face.
The ABC last week identified 27 approved-but-unbuilt data centres, following the prime minister's earlier comments the rules would not apply retrospectively to projects already approved or under construction.