Simon Kriss is building Australia's own AI. His argument is simple. Every model Australian businesses and governments use today is rented from overseas, and somebody else holds the off switch. Simon spent more than 35 years in the corporate world, held the chief AI officer role, and has keynoted at the UN in Geneva. He mentors boards and executives on AI adoption, and he is now CEO of Sovereign Australia AI, raising the backing to build a large language model from the ground up right here. He explains why fine tuning an open weight model doesn't get Australia there. You still don't know what data went in, what biases came with it, or whether it starts spewing hate speech in six months. He calls that "domestic, not sovereign". A true foundation model means knowing every data source, paying Australian copyright holders (a public minimum commitment of 10 million dollars, and he thinks the honest number is closer to 30), and around 256 of NVIDIA's latest Blackwell chips, which he says would make it bigger than any supercomputer in Australia today. Then he gets into the part most people have never heard of. The US Cloud Act. He says the American government can compel any American company to hand over the contents of any server it owns or leases, anywhere in the world, and the provider is not allowed to tell the client anyone is looking. On his telling, Australian data sitting in an Australian data centre doesn't help if the server is American owned. His words, it might as well be sitting in Texas. He also walks through what building it here would involve. Copyright holders get paid properly, every data source gets meta tagged so anyone can ask for their content to be pulled out at the next retrain, and there is the question of how to include the indigenous voice without appropriating a storytelling culture. ALSO IN HERE - The six layers of sovereignty (most people stop at data centres) - The accidental Bogan AI they built from Reddit data - December's privacy law change that turns black box AI into a legal problem - Why his auntie saying "not too bad" confuses an American model - The war scenario where America turns Australia off CHAPTERS 0:00 One of Australia's leading voices on AI 0:52 What Sovereign Australia AI is building 1:22 Somebody else holds the off switch 2:51 Talk fests, and why the money hasn't come 5:40 China builds practical AI. America builds God in a box. 7:47 The six layers of sovereignty 10:01 Why "not too bad" confuses an American model 12:54 Anti woke orders and Australian values 16:18 Why fine tuning is only "domestic, not sovereign" 23:51 Five years out, and the trust problem 30:26 The US Cloud Act, explained 33:09 "It might as well be sitting in Texas" 35:31 Staying at the model layer, and "we built Wi-Fi" 38:39 The talent case, and the DeepSeek connection 42:17 The Friday evening a model got switched off 43:21 Investors can't see the burning bridge 44:21 How to spot fake "Australian owned" 47:52 The UK playbook he wants to copy 51:15 Fencing wire, snow skiing, and having a go 53:17 Digital colonisation and the war scenario ABOUT SIMON Simon Kriss is the CEO of Sovereign Australia AI, which is making the case for Australia to build and own its own AI models rather than rent them from overseas. He is a keynote speaker who has taken the stage at the UN in Geneva, an author, a former chief AI officer, and a mentor to boards and executives on AI adoption, after more than 35 years in the corporate world. Simon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonkriss
