February
Why China’s state control is a hidden advantage in global AI race
While Western tech giants struggle with AI safety, China’s top-down, censorial approach might be creating more trustworthy systems for business use.
January
The sweet irony of OpenAI’s DeepSeek beef
OpenAI thinks DeepSeek took its private data to train its models; the hearts of writers, artists, musicians and journalists around the world must bleed for it.
Australia must face down US tech bosses and Trump
Global tech giants will still be powerful when Trump is not. Policy settings made today by Anthony Albanese or Peter Dutton need to keep that future in mind.
Trump’s first day shows the ‘triumph of toxic tech capitalism’
For all their previously progressive leanings, the tech sector billionaires know that Donald Trump is the most lucrative ally they could have wished for.
November 2024
Trump’s social network deserted but the party rages on elsewhere
Donald Trump’s army of Australian Truthers are well into their victory lap – everywhere other than his own dedicated social network.
September 2024
‘Daylight robbery:’ Canberra needs EU muscle to land big tech blow
The government wants to work cooperatively with tech moguls such as Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, but that seems like wishful thinking, and tougher laws are coming.
Three-month-old AI firm with 10 employees and no product raises $US1b
A huge investment in a company planning to build safe “superintelligence” has muted talk of the artificial intelligence bubble bursting.
August 2024
In love with a bot? OpenAI data shows we are entering sci-fi territory
Humans falling in love with chatbots, and AI platforms hatching ‘catastrophic schemes’ are among concerns being monitored and managed by researchers at OpenAI.
Why this earnings season is the end of an era for Apple
The AI era is upon Apple, and all of its tech peers, and the stories it tells its investors and customers about its products are about to change forever.
July 2024
Regulator needed as ASX techies tinker with critical infrastructure
The ASX has a glut of big tech upgrades to deliver, on top of its CHESS debacle ‘do-over’. If it stuffs them up, then everyone in the market suffers.
June 2024
Better late than now: how Apple’s AI could have stayed in longer
It tells you something when even Apple, the company that rose to greatness on the back of lateness, has to come out with a product that isn’t quite ready.
May 2024
Apple ad fail shows why we fear AI
Apple has apologised for an ad for its new iPads that was so tone-deaf that the creative types, who normally love the company, had an existential fright.
Answers emerge slowly to government’s $1b quantum questions
Questions are mounting over how PsiQuantum was backed when we have been told so often to marvel at local tech stars.
April 2024
How much has Canva made Blackbird’s partners? Hundreds of millions
Publicly disclosed share sales and industry estimates suggest the fund’s partners are deep in yacht money, and they deserve to be.
March 2024
How the US suing Apple could change Australians’ digital world
The US Department of Justice has taken Apple to task over the very things it’s being tried for in a Melbourne courtroom. Does one case affect the other?
Shock as AI founders defect to Microsoft after raising $US1.3b
The AI sector has been stunned by the founders of an AI start-up defecting to Microsoft less than a year after raising $US1.3 billion to take on OpenAI.
Google’s plan to dodge day in court over ‘killing’ Aussie start-up
It is six years since an arbitrary ruling by Google killed a $200m Melbourne start-up. Now, its founder’s costly crusade for justice hangs on a US judge’s ruling.
February 2024
FTX investor losses show the dangers of giving control to exchanges
A single bitcoin is worth $US26,000 more today than when the exchange collapsed, but investors being “paid back” won’t see any of that upside.
January 2024
White-collar jobs tumble, but shares soar as investors back AI future
Australian staff are likely to make up some of the 8000 jobs software giant SAP says will be affected by an AI-driven global restructure, as its shares hit a record.
December 2023
Recreating dead actors with AI does not make for a wonderful life
It may seem harmless to recreate Jimmy Stewart’s voice for a wellness app, but it is the start of a slippery slope that doesn’t end well for humanity.