What's happened to NICTA and Data61 breaks my heart, but it's a lot of words to convey something pretty simple and well understood: Data61's strategy is to create cool-sounding press releases and photo-ops for ministers, and occasionally try to sneak in some actual science around the side. Trustworthy Systems got killed because a solid record of delivering incremental impact isn't going to get in the papers the same way that announcing millions of dollars for AI development (what exactly gets done within AI isn't particularly important).To be fair I'm not sure what options D61 management actually have - they could focus on supporting solid programmes like TS but it'll only last a year or two before the government yanks their funding, because if D61 has nothing to put in the background of a ministerial announcement then its of no value to the government at all.
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