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Technology & democracy

October

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland says X could face huge fines when new laws are introduced this year.

Everything you need to know about Labor’s misinformation crackdown

More than 75 per cent of people believe addressing the deliberate spread of misinformation online is extremely important or quite important. On how you achieve that goal, the country is far more divided.

  • Ronald Mizen

September

Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin in Beijing this year. China and Russia are pushing for greater state control of the internet.

China and Russia want to rule the Web. The West is trying to stop them

In backrooms at the UN in New York, a battle is quietly being fought between liberal democracies and authoritarian governments over who rules the internet.

  • Andrew Tillett

Tech moguls face the revenge of the regulators

Democratic governments are losing patience with cyber-libertarian tech moguls who thumb their noses at authorities perhaps one too many times.

  • Will Oremus

August

Pavel Durov.

Telegram boss charged, blocked from leaving France

Pavel Durov faces preliminary charges over the alleged failure to address criminality on the messaging app, including the distribution of sexual abuse content.

  • Aurelien Breeden
Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov.

Why a Russian tech billionaire who stood up to Putin is now a target

Pavel Durov, who founded secret, successful messaging app Telegram in 2013, has been arrested in France, sparking outrage from free speech campaigners.

  • Updated
  • Abigail Buchanan
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March

Supports gather outside the High Court in London.

Assange wins temporary reprieve from extradition to US

London’s High Court said the US must provide further assurances by April 16 that Julian Assange would not face the death penalty.

  • Michael Holden and Sam Tobin
Treasurer Jim Chalmers.

Slowing tech investment complicates Chalmers’ growth goal

The contribution of IT equipment to capital input has fallen sharply in recent decades, which economists warn could undermine long-term economic growth.

  • Updated
  • Ronald Mizen

December 2023

Andrew Shearer, head of the powerful Office of National Intelligence.

Spy boss warns of intelligence failure without faster tech adoption

The director-general of the Office of National Intelligence says policymakers need to ensure technology is adopted faster or risk an intelligence failure.

  • Matthew Cranston

November 2023

X owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Antisemitism was rising online. Then Elon Musk’s X supercharged it

The billionaire plays a uniquely potent role in the spate of hate flourishing across the internet, experts say.

  • Elizabeth Dwoskin, Taylor Lorenz, Naomi Nix and Joseph Menn

Why right-wing Silicon Valley billionaires dumped Trump

Faith in the former president’s ability to lessen government oversight of business has crumbled, leaving conservatives in the tech industry adrift.

  • Elizabeth Dwoskin, Maeve Reston and Hannah Knowles
Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic at the AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park, Oxfordshire.

Government claims ‘seismic’ week for AI development

With the White House, China and Big Tech all signed onto a more careful approach to AI risks, Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic has some wind in his sails.

  • Hans van Leeuwen
Elon Musk in conversation with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during the AI summit in London.

Elon Musk warns AI bots will swamp social media

At a summit in London, the X owner’s dystopian warnings on AI came leavened with a vision of a future where nobody has to work.

  • Hans van Leeuwen

Global tech rivals vow to fight AI threats

The US, Europe and China have starkly different visions of how to manage and regulate the evolution of technology. But at Bletchley Park, they promised to work together.

  • Hans van Leeuwen
Elon Musk is among those attending a global summit on regulating AI.

Elon Musk, world leaders wrangle over AI rules

Debate rages over whether the AI Safety Summit at Britain’s Bletchley Park, home of the World War II Enigma code breakers, can achieve anything, or is even needed.

  • Hans van Leeuwen

October 2023

Rene Haas, chief executive officer of Arm, at the IPO last week.

Arm’s shares get helping hand as IPO banks weigh in

The flurry of recommendations marked the end of the quiet period for the almost 30 banks that underwrote Arm’s float, which raised $US4.87 billion for SoftBank.

  • Aditya Soni and Roshan Abraham
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May 2023

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is calling for regulation of his own industry, which some see as being motivated by a desire to slow down his rivals.

ChatGPT chief asks to be regulated, but does he mean it?

The boss of OpenAI, creator of the chatbot, has called for regulation of his own product, but the current discussions are being dominated by those with vested interests, and that is dangerous.

  • Rebecca Johnson
Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida wants AI on the agenda of this week’s G7 leaders summit.

Kishida puts AI dangers at top of G7 summit agenda

Japan’s prime minister says G7 leaders will discuss the risks of generative AI alongside security threats from Russia and China in Hiroshima this week.

  • Michael Smith

April 2023

Former Google boss Eric Schmidt says the West needs to compete more strongly with China in technology.

China will win AI race if research paused: ex-Google chief

Eric Schmidt says concerns over artificial intelligence may be understated which is why industry urgently needs to apply guardrails over its use.

  • Andrew Tillett

March 2023

ACTU President Michele O’Neil says unions are concerned about nuclear-powered submarines.

‘Nuclear-free’ unions fire warning over AUKUS pact

ACTU President Michele O’Neil says unions have long-standing support for a “nuclear-free defence policy”.

  • Andrew Tillett

January 2023

Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg. US tech giants including Meta, Microsoft, Twitter and Snap have purged more than 150,000 staff, many of whom have formed their own startups.

Start-ups spring from ashes of big tech purge

A wave of would-be entrepreneurs is emerging from the ashes of the mass job losses seen in Silicon Valley in the second half of 2022.

  • Supantha Mukherjee, Martin Coulter and Krystal Hu

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/technology---democracy-1lyc