Great write-up, thanks for bringing this to my attention! I will look into this more soon, but had a quick question that you might be able to help with: what can (Australian and Singaporean) members of the public do right now about this? Are there any particular regulatory or protest actions that you would recommend to a concerned Australian, i.e. me? It’s a very new issue, so I get there may not be any yet.
By the way, I am a PhD student at the Centre for Biomedical Ethics under the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, which is commissioned to be in charge of the validation of the idea in Singapore. I am not sure what I, or even our centre can do (personally, I didn’t know this was happening until I saw this post). But if anyone can think of anything I should do, let me know. (if you think there might be infohazard, feel free to PM or email me)
Clarification: They commissioned the YLL School of Medicine, particularly the Life Science Institute, to validate the idea of using CL1 to build datacentres. Of course they won’t commission a centre for bioethics to do that.
Do you know if the Centre for Biomedical Ethics was consulted? It would also be very interesting to know how the university and IRB approval worked here. Not just the initial validation, but whether these approvals were granted with the knowledge that this would transition from a research prototype to commercial deployment at scale. Any of these answers would be very good to know (feel free to DM me if you want). In general you seemed uniquely positioned here, really glad you read the post!
Thank you for engaging! I think it is worth sending inquiries to relevant regulators, particularly the NHMRC, who is currently reviewing its regulatory framework (with its 2016 regulations sunsetting in October 2026). It feels very important for them to understand that widespread commercialization should not proceed, and for this to be written into actual policy. Also, contacting your federal MP and other politicians to get this on their radar seems very important, since to my knowledge no Australian citizens are working on this. You definitely have an edge there. Also, any local Australian journalists or science communicators would be worth reaching out to.
Great write-up, thanks for bringing this to my attention! I will look into this more soon, but had a quick question that you might be able to help with: what can (Australian and Singaporean) members of the public do right now about this? Are there any particular regulatory or protest actions that you would recommend to a concerned Australian, i.e. me? It’s a very new issue, so I get there may not be any yet.
Excuse me for posting this two times:
By the way, I am a PhD student at the Centre for Biomedical Ethics under the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, which is commissioned to be in charge of the validation of the idea in Singapore. I am not sure what I, or even our centre can do (personally, I didn’t know this was happening until I saw this post). But if anyone can think of anything I should do, let me know. (if you think there might be infohazard, feel free to PM or email me)
Clarification: They commissioned the YLL School of Medicine, particularly the Life Science Institute, to validate the idea of using CL1 to build datacentres. Of course they won’t commission a centre for bioethics to do that.
Do you know if the Centre for Biomedical Ethics was consulted? It would also be very interesting to know how the university and IRB approval worked here. Not just the initial validation, but whether these approvals were granted with the knowledge that this would transition from a research prototype to commercial deployment at scale. Any of these answers would be very good to know (feel free to DM me if you want). In general you seemed uniquely positioned here, really glad you read the post!
I am trying to ask. I will PM you when I get an answer.
I will try to investigate too.
Please feel free to email me to keep in touch. Or add me on linkedin.
Thank you for engaging! I think it is worth sending inquiries to relevant regulators, particularly the NHMRC, who is currently reviewing its regulatory framework (with its 2016 regulations sunsetting in October 2026). It feels very important for them to understand that widespread commercialization should not proceed, and for this to be written into actual policy. Also, contacting your federal MP and other politicians to get this on their radar seems very important, since to my knowledge no Australian citizens are working on this. You definitely have an edge there. Also, any local Australian journalists or science communicators would be worth reaching out to.