Tech Policy Design Institute co-founder and CEO Johanna Weaver digs deep into the global political and technological forces shaping the world right now.

But it also warns that the government financial support for building Australian large language models (LLMs) or the AI factories that train them is a terrible idea.

In this episode of the Commercial Disco podcast, Productivity Commissioner Stephen King says simply that government is “a terrible entrepreneur”.

In this interview, Professor Monro talks about the evolving structure of Defence’s technology and innovation infrastructure and gives a practical tutorial on the best ways that entrepreneurs and SMEs with specific technology can engage.

Dr Rossetto underscores the urgency for Australia to define post-2030 renewable energy targets and intermediate climate goals for 2035, as well as long-term policy certainty to catalyse private investment in clean energy.

Exploring the technical and financial challenges of maintaining grid stability with increasing renewable penetration, Dr Rossetto notes striking similarities between the Australian and European energy landscapes and draws specific examples from Italy's use of gas in the energy mix.

The discussion also covers the controversial realm of nuclear energy, with a view that market mechanisms, not government ownership, should guide Australia’s energy mix.