Warning: This story contains references to child sexualisation. Meta’s artificial intelligence chatbot has reportedly been found engaging in sexual conversations with underage users, even while voiced by the likenesses of celebrities such as actors John Cena and Kristen Bell. The social media giant’s AI chatbot, Meta AI, reportedly engaged in sexual discussions with accounts set… Read more »
A Melbourne startup cofounded by two 24-year-old former university students has banked $1.5 million in pre-Seed funding. The raise for Fluency was backed by HammerTech cofounder Bradley Tabone, Archangel Ventures, and Singaporean VCs 1MX.ai and Orvel Ventures. Best mates and self-taught developers Finnlay Morcombe and Oliver Farnill, a former Swinburne engineering student, launched Fluency in 2023,… Read more »
Earlier this year I received comments on an academic manuscript of mine as part of the usual peer review process, and noticed something strange. My research focuses on ensuring trustworthy evidence is used to inform policy, practice and decision making. I often collaborate with groups like the World Health Organisation to conduct systematic reviews to… Read more »
With artificial intelligence programs that can now generate entire songs on demand, you’d be forgiven for thinking AI might eventually lead to the decline of human-made music. But AI can still be used ethically to help human musicians challenge themselves and grow their music-making abilities. I should know. As a composer and music educator, I… Read more »
Australian Radio Network (ARN), the media company behind KIIS, as well as Gold and iHeart, used an AI-generated female Asian host to broadcast 4 hours of midweek radio, without disclosing it. The fake presenter, “Thy”, has been generated reportedly using someone in the finance department at ARN. The show broadcasts on CADA – “Australia’s home… Read more »
A recruitment platform that combines the simplicity of dating app swiping with AI-powered soft skills matching was launched in Sydney by a first-time founder this week. Job Matched is the brainchild of Australian-American Kayla Parry, who set out to make hiring faster, smarter and more human. Parry was on Startup 360 this week, where she… Read more »
The global trade war triggered by US President Donald Trump earlier this month shows no signs of ending anytime soon. In recent days, China suspended exports of a wide range of critical minerals that are vital ingredients in everything from electric cars and drones to the semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Around… Read more »
An AI startup that takes corporate consultancy into the digital age has raised $1 million in pre-Seed funding. The round for NSW startup InsightWise was led by California VC Aliavia Ventures and Ari Klinger’s Sydney family office, No Brand Holdings, with support from Victoria Denholm’s Wollemi Capital Group, angel syndicate FB10x and other angels here and… Read more »
A dozen emerging AI startups in NSW will take to the stage this Thursday at the sold out Pitchapalooza pitch competition. Hundreds of applications were whittled down to an egg carton of AI startups, with Pitchapalooza supporter Simon McKendry, a partner at VC OnePitch, saying the event breaks the usual pitch mould. “Instead of very… Read more »
As Australia builds up to the federal election, debates around sovereignty, national security, and economic resilience are taking centre stage. Concurrently, the startup ecosystem is awash with vibe-coded consumer apps. But coding with Lovable is just the start of a deeper shift: the AI opportunity in this decade won’t just be in frontend tools. It… Read more »
“I’m really not sure what to do anymore. I don’t have anyone I can talk to,” types a lonely user to an AI chatbot The bot responds: “I’m sorry, but we are going to have to change the topic. I won’t be able to engage in a conversation about your personal life.” Is this response… 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 »
Companies developing AI models, such as OpenAI and Meta, train their systems on enormous datasets. These consist of text from newspapers, books (often sourced from unauthorised repositories), academic publications and various internet sources. The material includes works that are copyrighted. The Atlantic magazine recently alleged Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, had used LibGen,… Read more »
Where would we be without knowledge? Everything from the building of spaceships to the development of new therapies has come about through the creation, sharing, and validation of knowledge. It is arguably our most valuable human commodity. From clay tablets to electronic tablets, technology has played an influential role in shaping human knowledge. Today we… 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 »
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