Should Australia pause building new data centres? We asked 5 experts

Datacentres are a ticking time bomb. We must make sure AI’s benefits outweigh the costs | Nicki Hutley

Global datacentre build-out (10k → 35k, US$7tn) powers AI; Australia's 286 centres triple energy/water use by 2030 but create few jobs. Profits accrue to foreign tech giants while energy and cybersecurity costs spike locally—revealing why pursuing domestic AI infrastructure independence makes poor financial sense.