Elon Musk says he will “significantly” reduce his work advising the United States government in May to allocate “far more” of his time to Tesla, following the company’s 71% drop in quarterly profits. “The large slug of work” establishing the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for US President Donald Trump had been mostly… Read more »
Australia’s peak science and tech body has warned the Coalition’s plans to shut down Labor’s $15 billion manufacturing fund would put a handbrake on the nation’s innovation efforts. Citing Coalition sources, the AFR reported last week that if the Coalition wins the upcoming May election it plans to redirect all remaining capital allocated to the National… Read more »
Australia needs to reduce its “risk aversion” in order to improve its lagging research and development (R&D) sector and fragmented innovation ecosystem, according to industry experts. The nation has struggled to capitalise on innovations developed by universities and startups, and has seen their intellectual property taken overseas in search of greater funding, a panel of… Read more »
High-level tech workers looking for work and accepting lower-tier jobs has seen salaries in the tech sector decline over the last year, according to a new report. The 2025 Morgan McKinley Australian Salary Guide includes the average salaries for a range of jobs in the tech sector, along with a survey of more than 2,750 workers and… Read more »
Most of Canva’s technical writing team has been laid off as the company continues to expand its use of artificial intelligence, but the graphic design giant does not see the redundancies as a result of its increasing AI use. Technical writers are typically responsible for writing and updating documents such as guides and manuals for… Read more »
Concerned about privacy? Your Amazon Echo devices will get creepier next week, when all Alexa conversations will be sent to the cloud after a policy change seemingly intended to feed data to the company’s souped-up generative AI (genAI) revamp. The policy change – which was announced in a recent email to customers – will see… Read more »
Social media giant Meta is attempting to lessen the impact of a tell-all memoir by its former director of global public policy Sarah Wynn-Williams, titled Careless People, which the company alleges is “defamatory”. Meta won an emergency arbitration ruling in the United States on Wednesday, where an absent Wynn-Williams was ordered to temporarily stop personally promoting… Read more »
A quantum computing innovation developed by researchers at the University of Sydney is being used in Google’s latest quantum chip, called Willow. The processor, which was unveiled by the tech giant in December, utilises a breakthrough in error correction which can improve the performance of quantum devices. The technology was formally detailed in 2021 when… Read more »
Apple says it plans to introduce age assurance technologies which can tell social media platforms if a user is underage, before Australia implements a ban of under-16s from such platforms in late 2025. The tech giant’s announcement pushes back against companies such as Snap and Meta, which have called for device manufacturers like Apple and… Read more »
Australia has banned the use of Kaspersky Lab products across government, mandating the popular antivirus suite be removed from federal government systems. Since 2017, Russia-based cybersecurity vendor Kaspersky Lab has faced a slew of international bans over perceived risks to national security – namely that the Kremlin could hold sway over the organisation and its… Read more »
Australia is “virtually giving [its] world-class science away for free” according to the nation’s industry and science minister, as a panel of experts reviews the country’s struggling Research and Development (R&D) system. The independent review by four industry experts, announced in December and led by Australian-born Tesla chair Robyn Denholm, released a discussion paper on Wednesday as… Read more »
Sleep tracking, oxygen saturation, fall detection, mindfulness: today’s smartwatches and fitness trackers are jacks-of-all-trades – but experts believe we’re just getting started, with new sensors and AI-driven analysis soon set to diagnose more disease than doctors do. It’s a big prediction for a device category that only hit the mainstream in 2007, when Fitbit gamified the working… Read more »
Surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI) has driven Telstra to upgrade its international networks, with a planned network using AI and digital twins to manage itself as the carrier chases new revenues in a stagnant telco market – and bolsters security in uncertain times. The company’s business-focused Telstra International division outlined its plans for next-generation… Read more »
Apple is temporarily pausing its artificial intelligence software’s ability to summarise notifications from news and entertainment apps, after concerns were raised over inaccuracies. Apple Intelligence’s notification summaries feature was designed to “help users prioritise and stay in the moment” by using AI technology to summarise large numbers of notifications for things such as messages, emails,… Read more »
The Australian Open (AO) has rolled out facial recognition technology for all visitors under a new addition to its conditions of entry. By purchasing a ticket or entering Melbourne Park for this year’s competition, which runs January 6-26, visitors acknowledge security cameras “that may incorporate facial recognition technology” are used to “enhance security and patron safety”… Read more »
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