The Treasurer and Minister for Defence & Space Industries will join a 40-person delegation of political, defence and business leaders from Australia and the US at the West Coast Leadership Dialogue in the United States from this weekend.
Representatives from the Commonwealth and State Parliaments, the Department of Defence, Australian and US universities and major US companies will participate in the forum hosted by the Australian American Leadership Dialogue (AALD).
AALD is a diplomatic initiative, which has been hosting a delegation of political and business leaders from Australia and the US for more than 30 years.
The relationship between Australia and the US is vitally important to both countries and has only been further strengthened by the AUKUS agreement, which is set to generate billions of dollars for the South Australian economy.
As part of the summit, the delegation will be visiting a Naval Base in Seattle, Tech giants Amazon, Google and Microsoft and research leaders at Stanford University and NASA.
While at NASA'S Ames Research Centre in the heart of Silicon Valley, the Treasurer will lead a discussion on Artificial Intelligence, highlighting how South Australia is already utilising the technology in major industries including space and defence.
South Australia's University of Adelaide is already considered a leader in the field, ranked 7th in the world for its expertise in AI, machine learning and computer vision.
The State Government has partnered with the University of Adelaide to establish the Australian Institute for Machine Learning (AIML), located at key innovation district, Lot Fourteen.
In May last year, the Malinauskas Labor Government announced $6 million in additional funding for AIML, matched by the University of Adelaide, to support research, scholarships, and recruitment of top AI talent.
As put by Stephen Mullighan
The 'West Coast Leadership Dialogue' presents an opportunity our State to learn from some of the world's best innovators in business and defence technologies.
It's essential South Australia is represented as part of the delegation, to highlight the groundbreaking work our State is already doing in fields such as Artificial Intelligence and Defence.
The Australian American Leadership Dialogue recognises how crucial the relationship between Australia and the US is and South Australia is at the forefront of that relationship through its role in AUKUS.
