Talking with the chatbot about poetry

Large Language Models have proved remarkably adept at translating language, but human intermediaries are still required to capture the full nuance of literary works.

Gravitation waves and neutron stars

Collisions between neutron stars are some of the biggest events in the universe and create ripples in space and time that we can detect on Earth.

Waking up to the risks of AI

Will the Australian government’s AI Safety Institute be enough to keep Australians safe from what could be one of the most powerful, rapidly advancing technologies the world has known?

A red card for Infantino?

The World Cup is in full swing but FIFA’s controversial decision to bow to President Trump and overturn a red card awarded to an American player has left FIFA’s chief in a precarious position.

Who feels it knows it

Lived experience is not merely a personal story but offers knowledge developed from engagement with systems, institutions and the realities of everyday life.

Working memory

Just as computers have RAM and long term storage, so the human mind can be understood in terms of working and long-term memory, while consciousness is the “broadcast” of information in the “global workspace” of the brain.

Immigration then and now

Modern Australia is a country of immigrants but the reality of immigration today is very different from that of the past and on an entirely different scale.

What is migration for?

High levels of immigration in Western countries have provoked a backlash, not least in Australia where One Nation is riding high in the polls, so what is migration for?

The new space race

After decades of little progress, a new ‘space race’ is underway propelled by a new rivalry between the USA and China and the efforts of private space programmes run by tech billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.

Count to three

Everyone means something different when they talk of free speech but understanding it in terms of reason, ‘carnival’ and honour may help prevent it being weaponised against others.

Do we live too long?

Edmund Burke described society as a partnership between the living, the dead and those yet to be born, so are older people in Australia breaking that covenant by living too long?

Awkward questions and divisive debates

When the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion holds its final public hearings between late June and the end of August, they are likely to trigger some awkward questions and divisive debates.