QLD to create AI hub to fill skills gap

The Queensland government has pledged to create a training hub to help fill the skills gap created by the surging artificial intelligence sector.

The Advance Queensland AI Hub will be used to train and skill workers from both industry and the public sector to better tackle technologies like robotics, machine learning and speech recognition.

The new hub will also double as a co-working space for startups and larger businesses to network, and be leveraged to attract investment into local AI companies.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the AI hub - accommodated within Fortitude Valley-based innovation hub dubbed The Precinct - would help workers embrace a technology already changing how the state does business.

“Queensland has a shortage of talent in the artificial intelligence space,” Palaszczuk said over the weekend.

“Currently we have up to eight times more AI jobs on offer in the state than people with the right skills available to fill them.”

“That’s why we’re investing now to make sure we keep those jobs in Queensland.”

The government will provide seed funding out of its $650 million Advance Queensland initiative to fund the hub, but is relying on investment from the private sector.

It has already received great interest from major international corporates, as well as Australian companies and universities.

"The seed funding provided by the government will act as a catalyst for co-investment by the private sector,” Innovation Minister Kate Jones said.