Quan Pham

🇦🇺 Thrilled to share this piece in the The Australian Financial Review by Tess Bennett about Sovereign Australia AI and the journey we're embarking on to build Australis - Australia's own foundational language model. I couldn’t be prouder to be building this alongside my mate and Co-Founder Simon Kriss This isn't just about building another AI model. It's about ensuring Australia maintains its digital sovereignty and voice in an increasingly AI-driven world. We shouldn't be dependent on decisions made in Washington, Silicon Valley, Beijing or Europe about how AI understands and represents our Australian culture, values, and way of life. Yet to achieve this isn’t easy and it takes scale to compete, so we’ve made a massive investment in compute and have acquired 256 NVIDIA Blackwell B200 GPUs hosted in NEXTDC's secure Australian data centre in Melbourne, and managed by our colleagues at SHARON AI What makes me particularly proud of what we’ve done so far: ✅ Ethical from the ground up - We're committing $10M to compensate copyright owners, working WITH creators rather than against them ✅ Built for Australia, by Australians - From the ground up, built, trained and inferenced onshore, here in Australia, and compliant with our privacy and copyright laws ✅ Customers & Partnerships In Place - We partnering with some amazing Aussie organisations to help them solve some of Australia’s AI challenges. The partnerships we can speak about include ACS (Australian Computer Society), UNSW Canberra & GT Systems Australia, with more to follow! The path to digital sovereignty doesn't require billions, it requires vision, ethical principles, and the determination to ensure Australia's voice isn't lost in the global AI conversation. We're proving that sovereign AI can be built responsibly, affordably, and with respect for the creators whose work makes it possible. Australia's digital future should be in Australian hands. Let's build it together. 🚀 Special thanks to Craig Scroggie, Andrew Leece, Kieran Habojan, Dan Mons, Sudarshan Ramachandran, Rhod Brown, Brett Bonser, Melissa Hamilton, Josh Griggs, Rhett Sampson and so many more. #ai #sovereignai #llm #gpt #innovation #australia #australian https://lnkd.in/gnF8N3mR

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Effective AI governance and risk management are paramount as Australian organizations accelerate the utilisation and implementation of AI. Lacking a robust governance structure poses significant reputational risks due to potential unintended discrimination or bias, manipulation of consumer sentiment, and failures in data security and privacy. #AIGovernance #RiskManagement #DataSecurity #PrivacyProtection

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Platform Engineering Melbourne Meetup is on again next Thursday at 6pm. Empowering Your Agents with the Model Context Protocol Jack Walkinshaw dives into the transformative potential of Model Context Protocol (MCP) and explore its role in the evolving landscape of Agentic AI. This session will provide an insightful walkthrough of MCP, highlighting common pitfalls, opportunities, and practical use cases for integrating it into daily workflows. The presentation will also be accompanied by a demo of an MCP server built in-house, with a peek under the covers. https://lnkd.in/ggT_-FJK

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Very excited that Monash University is setting up a world class AI supercomputing infrastructure to significantly accelerate AI research and innovation in Australia! https://lnkd.in/gh2baEEV "MAVERIC will give Australian researchers the computational firepower to work on vast data sets in health, medicine and climate change, with the aim of speeding up drug discoveries and understanding of hugely complex global problems. Examples include warming in the Antarctic, the impact of heat on populations, and how climate change drives the spread of infectious diseases." #monash #ai #aisupercomputer

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🧠 MAVERIC: Monash's $60M AI Supercomputing Initiative 👉 Monash University will transform Australia’s sovereign Artificial Intelligence (AI) research capability by investing $60 million to build and operate an advanced AI supercomputer – the Monash AdVanced Environment for Research and Intelligent Computing (MAVERIC). MAVERIC will be Australia’s first dedicated AI supercomputing platform in the higher education sector. 👉 It will initially be used to tackle global health challenges, including projects focused on early cancer detection, chronic disease management, clinical trials, and improving how scientists identify new medicines efficiently and cost-effectively. The investment also fills a critical gap in Australia’s high-performance computing infrastructure for research and industry. 👉 Importantly, Monash is committed to ensuring all research conducted on MAVERIC complies with Australian laws on data sovereignty and protection. The platform will operate as a sovereign system, with all data processing and storage remaining within Australian borders – giving the University full control over sensitive research data and ensuring the privacy of all involved. Read on: 🔗 Monash announcement: https://lnkd.in/gQdEpx7r 🔗 AFR article: https://lnkd.in/gdNHer_K #monashuniversity #cyber #ciso #AI #MAVERIC

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🎯2025 InternetNZ survey: “68% of New Zealanders are worried about the potential malicious use of AI and the lack of regulation surrounding it” Innovation and Regulation are not opposites. Well-designed regulation provides guardrails that give everyone more confidence to innovate safely. 🎯2025 University of Melbourne survey: “Only 44% of New Zealanders believe the benefits of AI outweigh the risks.” I've talked to a lot of people in recent months about how their organisations are adopting AI - many feel like they have to figure out where the safeguards are themselves in the absence of a national approach. Nobody wants to get it wrong. 🎯2025 KPMG survey: "Only 34% of New Zealanders are excited about AI, while 60% are worried" Because even if you don't have government regulation, you still have customers and users who care about how AI is used. And they may not be that forgiving when it's pushed too far. ➡️ This is why I've signed the open letter at https://regulateai.nz/ [in a personal capacity]. I'm quite pro-technology, I just want it to be used safely. Unfortunately, we are already seeing many harms arise from the poor use of artificial intelligence - poor because people are using AI in harmful ways, and poor because the technology itself still has a long way to go. Some people feel like they are alone in a sea of hype, that everyone is pushing for more AI while they feel uncomfortable about where things are going. The survey data shows they are not alone - about half the country is wary of where the technology is taking us. It serves all of us to be thinking about how regulation can help us manage the risks arising from AI, so that we can all safely see the benefits of this technology into the future. We don't have to pursue AI at all costs. Happy to be alongside Christopher McGavin, Andrew Lensen, Cassandra Mudgway, Joshua Yuvaraj, Ali Knott, Michael Daubs, Olivia J. Erdelyi, Allyn Robins, Anthony Robins, Ethan Plaut, Caleb Moses, Peter Thompson, Ian W., Kevin Shedlock, Hui Ma, Heitor Murilo Gomes, Emily O'Riordan, Lee Timutimu, Frith Tweedie, Olivier Jutel, aimee whitcroft, Marcus Frean, Grant Dick, Veronica Liesaputra, Brendan McCane, Stephen Cranefield

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🤖 AI in 2025: Balancing Innovation, Trust & Regulation AI innovation is advancing at a remarkable pace, and while adoption is accelerating (though perhaps not as fast as expected), so too are the challenges in governance, trust, and responsible implementation. The CEDA - Committee for Economic Development of Australia AI Community of Best Practice is shaping the conversation on safe and responsible AI adoption, bringing together experts, policymakers, and industry leaders to share practical insights. At our first public forum last week, we discussed the challenges and explored how businesses can stay ahead while ensuring AI is ethical, transparent, and impactful. Key Takeaways: 🔹AI Regulation & Policy – With global AI regulations evolving (from the EU’s AI Act to the US deregulation debate), Australia is taking steps to ensure responsible AI use through the Voluntary AI Safety Standard (https://lnkd.in/gNEnHuTj). Yet, many organisations are still unaware of it—education and engagement are critical. 🔹Building Trust in AI – It’s not just about compliance. Businesses must embed transparency, fairness and explainability into AI systems. From bias audits to human-in-the-loop models, organisations have started aligning AI with ethical values while maintaining operational efficiency. 🔹Scaling AI Adoption – The biggest barrier isn’t technology—it’s cultural change. Many employees see AI as a cheat tool rather than an enabler, underscoring the need for training, clear policies, and governance frameworks. Organisations also need a strategy for updating AI systems, ensuring they can evolve alongside rapid AI advancements. 🔹 DeepSeek & Cost-Effective AI – The rise of low-cost, high-performing AI models is making AI more accessible for SMEs, non-profits, and research institutions. However, businesses must weigh privacy, security, and environmental impact before adopting the next shiny model. 🔹 AI for SMEs & NFPs – Many small businesses and NFPs lack the resources to fully engage with AI, despite a willingness to do so. The Human Technology Institute (HIT) at University of Technology Sydney is collaborating with partners to help SMEs adopt AI safely and responsibly, providing tailored toolkits and guidance. A recent Industry Report (https://lnkd.in/gHwGZA9c) found that while 35% of SMEs are using AI, 42% have no plans to adopt it, and 23% don’t know how to start! Similarly, HTI’s research shows that while AI is exceeding expectations for SMEs, many still face significant adoption barriers. 🎙️ Want to be part of this conversation? Reach out to Bec McIntosh or mel nelson to connect with the AI Community of Best Practice and take part in the future of AI in Australia. Beth Worrall, Simon Burns, Chris Dolman, Liam Dillon #AI #ResponsibleAI #AIForBusiness #AIAdoption #AIAustralia RMIT University RMIT STEM College #RMIT #RAIsE #RAIsEHUB

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Cybersecurity is no longer just for the tech experts; it's a fundamental life skill for every Australian senior in our increasingly connected world. Protecting your personal information online is like locking your front door – a simple, essential act of self-preservation.

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The latest Notifiable #Databreaches Report from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has been released. The report shows that for 2024, a total of 1,113 notifications were received by the OAIC, a 25% increase on the previous year and the highest number ever reported. The report also illustrates that: ‣ Health services providers are the top sector reporting #databreaches. ‣ Malicious or criminal attack remains the number one source of data breaches, followed by human error. ‣ Between July and December 2024, at least 10 breaches impacted 100,000 individuals or more. ‣ Contact information and identity information are the two top kinds of #personalinformation involved in data breaches. ‣ #phishing and the subsequent theft of credentials is the number one type of cyber incident, involved in 34% of incidents, followed by #ransomware by 24%. ‣ 30% of data breaches take over 30 days to identify. ‣ Interestingly, October is the busiest month of the year when it comes to notifications. The full report is below or available at https://lnkd.in/gkAbEMti. The team at Novera assists organisations in preventing and responding to data breach incidents, including through the preparation of incident response plans and data breach response plans. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.

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The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) received over 87,000 cybercrime reports during the 2023–2024 financial year - on average that’s one report every six minutes. With this issue growing locally and globally, on March 31st, retailers will face the new mandatory requirements of PCI Data Security Standards V4. With the goal of preventing digital skimming attacks, these are important updates to safeguard the integrity of online transactions and strengthen consumer confidence in digital commerce. However, these regulations also present potential intricate compliance challenges for online businesses. To help our millions of merchants, we’ve proactively simplified the compliance process. By building our world-class checkout and storefronts architecture to be future-proof, and implementing the right components across our platform, Shopify merchants of every size can focus on what's important: running and growing their business. https://lnkd.in/dcJxiNxC #cybersecurity #commerce #Shopify #PCIDSS

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As Australian firms race to deploy AI, many are finding success depends less on algorithms than on process, governance and culture. And as Brennan's Nick Sone shared with The Australian Financial Review, operational discipline – not constant innovation – will determine who gains the lasting advantage. https://lnkd.in/dv-hGqGF #AIReadiness #OperarionalInnovation #AFR

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