Australia’s Department of Home Affairs has revealed details of 12 cases where universities were at risk of being co-opted by foreign entities for their military research.
The document (pdf), disclosed on May 6 under a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, showed a range of incidents including the intimidation of staff and students, visa documentation fraud, and undisclosed employment in a foreign military.
In this case, titled “Foreign Military Industry Links,” an Australian university was approached by a foreign company, which specialised in cloud services and AI computing.
The foreign company offered to build an AI supercomputer at the university to serve local clients, including government departments. This company would also provide a workforce….