The election campAIgn

For better or worse, the parties contesting Australia’s election campaign are using artificial intelligence to mass produce materials and target voters with bespoke messages.

Reclaiming personal agency in the age of AI

In an era where AI systems increasingly shape our decisions and dilute our personal autonomy, reclaiming individual agency over data, knowledge and wisdom is not just a technological imperative – it’s a societal one.

Government by chatbot won’t work

The news that Peter Kyle, the British secretary of state for science and technology, had been using ChatGPT for policy advice has prompted some difficult questions.

Hollowing out peer review

Students are heavy users of AI to cheat on their assignments and homework, but now even academics are using it to ‘peer review’ each others work, saving themselves time but completely undermining the scientific process.

Dig your own grave

Melbourne-based publishers Black Inc has asked authors to sign AI agreements but why should writers – or anyone else – help AI learn how to do their job and ultimately replace them?

The robot is in

The immediacy of AI chatbots makes them an attractive alternative to human-to-human therapy that is expensive and often inconvenient. But while they may offer sensible advice, they aren’t infallible.

Putting the AI into assistant

Users who understand how exactly AI learns – or doesn’t – will invest more in developing effective prompting strategies and get more out of their interactions.

Controlling AI

Technology can and does shape society, but society can also shape technology. We are still able to formulate the path AI should take in order to produce the best outcome for humanity.

The burst of the bubble?

Microsoft has spent the last few years investing billions in AI research and shoving the technology into all its services, but is now slashing its grandiose data centre plans and hiking prices to make its unconvinced users pay for it all.

The AI race is underway

The AI race underway between the world’s major tech companies and geo-political superpowers is a marathon, rather than a sprint, and so success will depend on proper preparation and determination to see things through.

Managing the AI boom

AI could trigger a global productivity boom and national policies to help economies harness the benefits of AI while avoiding the potential political consequences of poorly managed economic change are required.

Super-intelligence is almost here, again

A cynic might think AI companies have absorbed billions of venture capital dollars without producing anything useful, let alone profitable, and so keep dangling the prospect of ‘super intelligence’ to keep the investment rolling in, but but maybe, just maybe – the hype is real.