A Melbourne-based software engineer has lost an unfair dismissal case after he was fired for refusing to return to the office. Richard Johnson worked as a product engineer at print management software provider PaperCut Software from April 2022 until mid-June 2025, when he was fired for refusing to comply with a three days per week… Read more »
Google reads and summarises your email as to-do list. Powered by Google’s flagship AI model Gemini, the new feature will bake AI summaries directly into users’ Gmail accounts along with buttons to write AI-generated responses, set up calendar events, and provide summaries of email threads, according to preview footage. By checking which people you email… Read more »
From smart Lego bricks to robots big and small. Annual technology showcase CES (formerly Consumer Electronics Show) returned to Las Vegas this week, highlighting some of the most interesting new consumer products coming in 2026, and beyond. While the event showed yet again that generative AI continues to be integrated into everything from fridges to… Read more »
A British cybersecurity expert has landed a coveted tech visa for exceptional talent after he hacked an Australian government department and exposed a “critical vulnerability”. Jacob Riggs, a British national with more than a decade of experience in the cyber sector, was granted an 858 National Innovation visa in December, less than a year after… Read more »
Chinese company New Senyang’s Q11 wireless earbuds promise live translation of a whopping 156 languages “in seconds” via artificial intelligence, for around the same price as two cups of coffee. Purchased from Temu for only $11.60, the headphones are uncomfortable to wear and don’t have great sound quality. But surprisingly enough, the translation provided by… Read more »
The largest data centre in the southern hemisphere will be built in New South Wales after local provider CDC Data Centres’s proposal received approval. The NSW government last week approved the plan for a $3.1 billion hyperscale data centre at Marsden Park, about 36km north-west of the Sydney CBD. First announced in October last year,… Read more »
Australia’s national science agency CSIRO says it will cut up to 350 more research jobs after already removing over 800 positions in the past 18 months amid rising costs and stagnant funding. The news comes just days after the heads of CSIRO’s digital and manufacturing research arms — which have both seen job losses — left… Read more »
A Sydney startup founder’s post about “fully adopting” a Silicon Valley-style work culture has sparked a debate about long hours in tech and whether work-life balance clashes with ambition. After arriving in San Francisco two weeks ago, Lyra co-founder and COO Anh Dao posted that he had experienced a “wake-up call” on work culture, and… Read more »
Chief artificial intelligence officers will be appointed to every federal agency in 2026 as generative AI causes a “fundamental shift” in government operations, according to an AI Plan for the Australian Public Service (APS) released by the federal government on Wednesday. The plan will see every government worker given access to generative AI tools, as… Read more »
Australia is “not on track” to meet the federal government’s goal of 1.2 million technology‑related jobs by 2030, according to new economic data from its Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR). The target, which was set by industry lobby group Tech Council of Australia and adopted by the federal government in 2022, would no longer… Read more »
Microsoft will offer refunds after admitting that it “fell short of our standards” by failing to inform users of the Microsoft 365 productivity suite that they could have stayed with a cheaper version of the suite that did not include the tech giant’s Copilot AI features. The move relates to the October 2024 introduction of… Read more »
Australian technology leaders are losing sleep over increasing regulatory complexity, growing damage from ransomware, and the challenges of near-ubiquitous artificial intelligence (AI) and deepfakes, a new survey by cybersecurity body ISACA has found. Generative AI (genAI) and large language models will drive the agenda in 2026, with 64% of Oceania respondents to ISACA’s 2026 Tech… Read more »
After a decade of work, the federal government has committed to finalising formal road rules, regulations, and technical and cybersecurity standards for self-driving cars by 2027, even as autonomous vehicles are already on Australian roads. The new National Road Transport Technology Strategy (NRTTS), including the 2024-27 National Connected and Automated Vehicle (CAV) Action Plan nationwide framework, replaces National Land… Read more »
OpenAI is steadily embedding itself in the Australian government, with the US tech giant winning its second contract without any competition as the public sector is encouraged to embrace public generative AI tools. The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) last week issued new guidance recommending agencies and departments be encouraged to use public generative AI tools… Read more »
An Australian scientist and a group of international quantum researchers have been awarded Nobel Prizes for their work at the cutting edge of chemistry and physics, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced on Wednesday. Richard Robson, an English-born professor who has worked at the University of Melbourne since 1966, will share the $1.77 million… Read more »
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