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Tech Observed

May

GQG’s Jain has never been afraid of going against the market.

GQG funds whacked as Rajiv Jain stares down US tech rebound

The last time GQG Partners held such a large underweight in technology stocks was in late 2021, just before the Nasdaq crashed 30 per cent.

April

The government has given no logical explanation why YouTube is being exempted from its teen social media ban.

YouTube exemption exposes teen social media ban as a sham

The government’s preferential treatment of YouTube undermines the purpose of its under-16s social media ban, and is unfair to the other tech industry players.

Nvidia founder Jensen Huang has seen his share price take a hit in recent months.

Investors bet ‘AI fatigue’ is a temporary ailment

The biggest market darlings are suffering a humbling period as investors question whether the hype is all it is cracked up to be.

February

DeepSeek, a Chinese-owned open-source artificial intelligence platform, was developed with far less investment, time, and infrastructure than its US big-tech competitors.

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

DeepSeek is accused of hoovering up OpenAI’s data.

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.

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Donald Trump’s election win and Elon Musk’s new role have changed the rules for technology companies, but Australia must stand firm.

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.

Speaking at a presidential rally in Washington, Musk twice extended his arm out with his palm facing down, drawing comparisons to the Nazi salute.

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

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, left, and Donald Trump attend a campaign event at the Butler Farm

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

Researchers at OpenAI are recognising the risks of humans getting overly attached to human-like AI companions.

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

ASX CEO Helen Lofthouse, had to pull the pin on the CHESS upgrade early in her tenure.

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

Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software engineering at Apple, shows off Apple AI at last week’s WWDC.

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

iPad

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.

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Science and Industry Minister Ed Husic has been frustrated by suggestions the decision-making process behind the big quantum investment was not thorough.

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

Sitting pretty: Blackbird’s leaders Niki Scevak (left) and Rick Baker preside over a trove of Canva shares.

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

WhatsApp groups are private meeting places where the country’s powerful gather to swap information, or blow off steam.

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?

Mustafa Suleyman left DeepMind last year and set up his own chatbot business, Inflection AI.

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.

Unlockd founder Matt Berriman has battled for almost six years to try to make Google publicly explain why it killed his company.

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.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/tech-observed-6fpm