The Queensland Government wants to make the state an artificial intelligence hub.

New funding has been provided to hire AI specialists to benchmark the state’s current place in the AI market, and find ways to improve.

The AI push is reportedly part of the Advance Queensland initiative, from the state’s Department of Science, Information Technology and Innovation’s (DSITI).

The department wants to understand recent investment made in AI, “and the impact this is having and is forecast to have in years to come”.

Queensland’s experience will be benchmarked “against other Australian states and other selected countries including USA” and make “recommendations on how Queensland can adopt and improve the take up of AI".

Advance Queensland has a funding pool of $420 million to spend over a four-year period.