Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company DeepSeek has sent shockwaves through the tech community, with the release of extremely efficient AI models that can compete with cutting-edge products from US companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic. Founded in 2023, DeepSeek has achieved its results with a fraction of the cash and computing power of its competitors.… Read more »
Power retailer Amber Electric has acquired the electric vehicle (EV) smart charging app Charge HQ as the renewables-focused startup positions itself as a key player in the energy management solutions. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Charge HQ allows EV owners to recharge directly from rooftop solar, optimising it based on grid conditions… Read more »
Voluntary administration has not dampened the ambitions of medical device startup Seer Medical, which is seeking a buyer as it prepares to release the next generation of its epilepsy home monitoring and detection device in the United States. Administrator Lindsay Bainbridge of Pitcher Partners Melbourne said non-binding offers are being sought for Seer Medical for… Read more »
A Tasmanian senator best known for her campaign to ban transgender people from women’s sport has been named by Opposition leader Peter Dutton as the Coalition’s spokesperson for government services, the digital economy, science and the arts. Senator Claire Chandler will be shadow minister stalking current science and industry minister Ed Husic in the forthcoming… Read more »
Spoony, a social app designed to help neurodivergent, chronically ill, and disabled people, has raised $1 million in pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Antler, NDIS provider Melba Support and Trampoline, with support from former Mable COO Piroska Bisits-Bullen. Spoony emerged from the Antler program in mid-2024, cofounded by CEO Nicholas Carlton and CTO… Read more »
University of NSW Professor Veena Sahajwalla, founding director of the Centre for Sustainable Materials Research & Technology (SMaRT) was named an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the Australia Day honours list in recognition of her distinguished service to science as an engineer and inventor, sustainable materials research and technology and waste management.… 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 »
Future of work education startup HEX has acquired Sydney edtech, EntryLevel, to build out its skills training offering. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. EntryLevel, founded in 2020, has developed an AI-powered, cohort-based learning management systems offering online courses in areas such as data analytics, cybersecurity, UX design, Python and growth marketing. More… Read more »
Former Square Peg senior investment associate Casey Flint has made the switch to the tech side, joining AWS where she’ll focus on AI. Flint has spend the last few years exploring and unpacking artificial intelligence (AI), explaining her findings and thinking in the excellent series Artificially Intelligent. After four years at the VC, the decision… Read more »
A Sydney startup developing AI ‘co-pilot’ systems to automate medical reports for specialist doctors has raised $2 million from leaders in surgical healthcare. Medow Health AI was cofounded by Joel Freiberg, who has Crohn’s disease, and his brother Josh, inspired by the time their father, a respiratory physician, spent doing admin after work. Clinicians who’ve… Read more »
In one of his first moves as the 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump announced a new US$500 billion project called Stargate to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence (AI) in the US. The project is a partnership between three large tech companies – OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle. Trump called it “the largest… Read more »
You could call it slow TV. For the last 8 days, the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney have been live streaming an Indonesian lily famed as the largest and stinkiest flower-spike in the world. They’ve been taking temperature checks – much like you’d do to check for ovulation – to see when it Amorphophallus titanum would… Read more »
Main Sequence-backed Levur, a biotech startup looking to create a palm oil alternative from yeast using fermentation, has won $100,000 consulting advice from the KPMG Nature Positive Prize. The Sydney startup, founded Tom Collier and Joanne Barber, was part of the SparkLabs Cultiv8 program last year, and was among five Australian startups selected from among… Read more »
Freshly elected US president Donald Trump has exercised his usual degree of modesty and named his newly launched cryptocurrency or memecoin, $Trump. And like the man himself, the coin’s price is extraordinarily volatile. The price ran up to US$75, fell below $60, went back to $75, fell below $40, then rose back to $60 and… 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 »
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