Earlier this year, Neuralink implanted a chipinside the brain of 29-year-old US man Noland Arbaugh, who is paralysed from the shoulders down. The chip has enabled Arbaugh to move a mouse pointer on a screen just by imagining it moving. In May 2023, US researchers also announced a non-invasive way to “decode” the words someone… Read more »
Australia is a trading nation. Its economy relies on a strong and open global trade environment. Australian governments have historically rejected protectionist industrial policies that undermine fair competition, and Canberra has long been a staunch advocate of the World Trade Organisation, whose rules help “promote and protect the open global trading system”. Yet Labor has… Read more »
No founder achieves greatness without getting spooked along the way. So the challenge is how you vanquish those demons, with the right ghostbusters by your side, that makes all the difference. Funding and customer growth may be the loudest concerns we hear from startups, but there’s a lot more happening beneath the surface that should… Read more »
The federal government will directly intervene to support and subsidise key growth areas such as clean energy and innovative technologies in a significant policy shift that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will take to the next election. In a speech to the Queensland Press Club on Thursday, Albanese set out a “more strategic and more sophisticated”… Read more »
Founder and investor network Innovation Bay is holding a two day conference, Inspire, in Sydney next month to gaze into the crystal ball about what lies ahead for the startup ecosystem over the next 5-10 years. Inspire, May 22-23, will feature founders, VCs and high net worth investors, as well as prominent sector leaders and… Read more »
Outside the world of open-source software, it’s likely few people would have heard about XZ Utils, a small but widely used tool for data compression in Linux systems. But late last month, security experts uncovered a serious and deliberate flaw that could leave networked Linux computers susceptible to malicious attacks. The flaw has since been… Read more »
For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or –273.15°C). That’s because the quantum phenomena that grant quantum computers their unique computational abilities can only be harnessed by isolating them from the warmth of the familiar classical… Read more »
Rayn Ong is the Taylor Swift of Australian venture capital. The Archangel Ventures partner has made more than 100 investments. A Startmate mentor, Blackbird limited partner and poker shark, Ong works with angel investors and venture fund mangers to co-invest in 1st and 2nd rounds for early stage tech startups. His fans, known as Ongies,… Read more »
ChatGPT has repeatedly made headlines since its release late last year, with various scholars and professionals exploring its potential applications in both work and education settings. However, one area receiving less attention is the tool’s usefulness as a conversationalist and – dare we say – as a potential friend. Some chatbots have left an unsettling… Read more »
Semiconductors are the basic building blocks of microchips. These technological marvels are in everything from lightbulbs and toothbrushes to cars, trains and planes, not to mention the vast array of electronics that have become integral to many people’s daily lives. The 21st century chip manufacturing industry has been described as “at least as significant geopolitically… Read more »
Investor Rayn Ong pointed out recently that “VCs (and angels) say no to 95% of the founders they meet with”. That’s ignoring the many more no responses over emails and even DMs (from some brave founders). As anyone in startup land will attest, the no comes in many forms. There is of course the quick,… Read more »
Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they come close to making streaming services look generous. By law, no radio station can be made to pay more than 1% of the station’s gross revenue for… Read more »
Carmakers including Kia, Subaru, Mitsubishi and General Motors are providing details of owners’ driving behaviour to insurance companies, leading many drivers to report surges in car insurance premiums despite industry claims that the transmitted data (‘telematics’) helps good drivers pay less. The revelations have stoked a PR firestorm after the New York Times related the experiences of… Read more »
Fred again.., one of electronic music’s hottest artists, secretly arrived in Australia on February 27. In true Fred again.. fashion, that very same day, he announced a raft of shows in arena-sized venues across Sydney, Melbourne, and the Gold Coast. According to multiple sources, this amounts to over 100,000 tickets for shows in the coming… Read more »
A new nationally representative survey has revealed Australians are deeply concerned about the risks posed by artificial intelligence (AI). They want the government to take stronger action to ensure its safe development and use. We conducted the survey in early 2024 and found 80% of Australians believe preventing catastrophic risks from advanced AI systems should… Read more »
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