Woolies BSOD
Business

Here’s what you need to know about Microsoft’s BSOD and what happened with CrowdStrike

- July 20, 2024 2 MIN READ

Computer systems across Australia and overseas have failed on Friday afternoon after an update was pushed out by global security software provider CrowdStrike. The software affected by the update appears to be the CrowdStrike Falcon platform, which is installed by businesses or other organisations on desktop computers and notebooks to provide security monitoring. What’s happening?… Read more »

Cyber security

The CrowdStrike Falcon crash – what you need to know and do

- July 20, 2024 3 MIN READ

A massive IT outage is currently affecting computer systems worldwide. In Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, reports indicate computers at banks, media organisations, hospitals, transport services, shop checkouts, airports and more have all been impacted. Friday’s outage is unprecedented in its scale and severity. The technical term for what has happened to the affected computers… Read more »

Business

Researchers found an easy way to detect companies that perform poorly – the number of government grants they receive

- July 18, 2024 3 MIN READ

Australia hands out the best part of A$1 billion per year in grants to businesses. Many of these come with no strings attached, meaning there is no need to evaluate whether the grants boost employment, help the recipients become more efficient, or benefit the nation. To test what good these grants do, my team at… Read more »

Young child being scanned by technology
AI/Machine Learning

AI has been scraping photos Australian kids for training data sets

- July 12, 2024 3 MIN READ

Photos of Australian children have been used without consent to train artificial intelligence (AI) models that generate images. A new report from the non-governmental organisation Human Rights Watch has found the personal information, including photos, of Australian children in a large data set called LAION-5B. This data set was created by accessing content from the… Read more »

Climate Tech

A Canberra experiment using EVs for power after transmission lines were cut shows they have a role to play in grid emergencies

- July 10, 2024 4 MIN READ

Electric vehicles are an increasingly common sight on Australian roads. Each one cuts carbon emissions by half compared to fossil fuel vehicles, but increases household electricity use by 50%. This extra electricity demand could be a major strain on the grid unless the charging of vehicles is coordinated. But the large batteries in electric vehicles… Read more »

Google cloud data centre
AI/Machine Learning

AI has a massive, and growing, carbon emissions problem that’s a long way from being solved

- July 9, 2024 3 MIN READ

Since the release of ChatGPT in November 2022, the world has seen an incredible surge in investment, development and use of artificial intelligence (AI) applications. According to one estimate, the amount of computational power used for AI is doubling roughly every 100 days. The social and economic impacts of this boom have provoked reactions around… Read more »

Cloud representation
Global tech

Why Amazon is building a ‘top secret’ $2 billion cloud for Australia’s military intelligence

- July 8, 2024 3 MIN READ

Amazon has secured a A$2 billion contract with the Australian Signals Directorate – the agency responsible for foreign signals intelligence and information security. A local subsidiary of Amazon Web Services will build a Top Secret Cloud to provide secure data storage for military intelligence. The deal will securely manage top secret data vital to Australia’s… Read more »

AI/Machine Learning

Record companies are suing music apps for copying classic songs in a legal battle that will shape the future of generative AI

- July 3, 2024 3 MIN READ

Last month, several major record labels filed copyright infringement lawsuits in US courts against the makers of two generative AI music apps, Suno and Udio. The labels allege the AI companies have engaged in copyright infringement by copying many sound recordings belonging to the record labels, and producing outputs very similar to those recordings. The… Read more »

Caryn Marjorie
AI/Machine Learning

When an influencer made an AI clone, it turned into a pornbot within a year, without her knowing

- June 26, 2024 4 MIN READ

Caryn Marjorie is a social media influencer whose content has more than a billion views per month on Snapchat. She posts regularly, featuring everyday moments, travel memories, and selfies. Many of her followers are men, attracted by her girl-next-door aesthetic. In 2023, Marjorie released a “digital version” of herself. Fans could chat with CarynAI for… Read more »

energy
Climate Tech

Global investors are fighting for a slice of Australia’s $7bn green bond. Here’s why that’s a good news

- June 17, 2024 3 MIN READ

You might think government debt is bad, but it actually plays a crucial role in modern finance. Back when he was treasurer, Peter Costello famously declared that April 21 2006 would be known as Australia’s “Debt Free Day”. On this day, he proclaimed, the Commonwealth would eliminate its net debt and “pay off the mortgage”.… Read more »

Life hacks

If you’re a To-Do list fan, here’s how understanding the psychology of goals can help keep you ticking them off

- June 14, 2024 3 MIN READ

It feels like we are living in busy times. According to the OECD Better Life Index, 12.5% of Australians report working at least 50 hours a week, higher than the OECD average. Many Australians are also working more than one job to buffer against cost-of-living pressures. Psychology has long been interested in our goals –… Read more »

Elon Musk
People

Book review: Kara Swisher’s swingeing memoir is an expose of Silicon Valley’s ‘frequently wrong, but never in doubt’ tech titans ‘lying to themselves’

- June 12, 2024 7 MIN READ

Burn Book is that rare thing: a book about tech that can be enjoyed by readers who are not that into tech. It is a witty and engaging account of the rise (and often fall) of internet companies and the often dysfunctional talents behind them, told by an exceptionally well-connected outsider. Kara Swisher is somehow… Read more »

Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency has a massive carbon emissions problem – and green alternatives have their own risks

- June 7, 2024 3 MIN READ

As the urgency of climate change ramps up, focus is increasing on digital currencies to address their environmental impact. According to industry forecasts, the global cryptocurrency market is expected to surge to US$4.94 billion by 2030. But the process of mining digital currencies such as Bitcoin requires immense computational power – causing a significant drain… Read more »