Mike speaks with Professor Rocky Scopelliti, Futurologist and bestselling author of Perceptive Machines and Synthetic Souls, about why Australia must avoid becoming the world’s “digital dumping ground.”

Australia is experiencing a massive boom in AI data centres, with billions being invested in infrastructure that consumes enormous amounts of land, electricity and water. Scopelliti argues that while this presents a huge economic opportunity,

Australia risks repeating its history of supplying the raw materials while others capture the real value. If foreign companies own the technology, intellectual property and profits while Australia provides the power, land and infrastructure, we could simply be powering someone else’s future. He believes Australia must ensure every new AI facility delivers lasting national benefits - including sovereign computing capacity,

Australian research, local jobs, tax revenue and home-grown innovation. The question, he says, isn’t whether Australia should build data centres, but whether they will make Australia more prosperous, sovereign and intelligent—or simply become infrastructure for someone else’s AI future.