Four Corners Examines AI investment and regulation

ABC's Four Corners will broadcast "The AI Race," an episode reported by Steve Cannane, on Monday June 8 at 8:30pm on ABC TV and ABC iview. Filmed in the United States and Australia, the program investigates the contest between the world's most powerful technology companies to build increasingly capable AI systems, and asks "who controls our future?" as those companies seek to invest billions of dollars in Australia.

According to the broadcast synopsis, Four Corners speaks with Bay Area technology workers whose jobs are being reshaped by AI, experts who warn that advanced systems are becoming harder to control, and campaigners challenging the concentration of power among large technology firms. The synopsis describes a coming generation of models that can take instructions, make plans, and act with growing autonomy, and frames those capabilities as raising safety and control questions.

A central thread is the physical footprint of the AI build-out. The program reports that communities across America are pushing back against the rapid construction of data centres, citing noise, pollution, and heavy water and energy use, and it questions whether governments and regulators can keep pace with the speed of investment and capability gains.

Industry-pattern observation: large-scale AI infrastructure routinely pairs headline investment with local resource and permitting disputes, and where those disputes land can shape where compute is built and which rules apply. For practitioners and operators, the program is a useful signal of the regulatory and community pressures gathering around AI infrastructure, particularly in Australia, even though it is journalistic coverage rather than a technical or policy milestone.