AI in the dock

Our courts are overburdened, and so the use of generative AI promises consistency and efficiency but it risks undermining a fundamental principle of justice: the right to be judged by a human being.

The age of the apostles

The “12” apostles are a famous tourist attraction on the Great Ocean Road, but they’re also younger and more fragile than one might expect.

Australia’s most expensive illusion

Why have Australians, otherwise alert to unfairness and quick to condemn political failure, accepted a settlement around work and housing that now punishes so many of them?

Can AI do science?

As in many information-rich tasks, researchers are looking to artificial intelligence systems to speed up their work, but the complexity of the natural world means that AI “scientists” will only be truly effective when they can go beyond connecting words together, to modelling the full complexity of the systems those words describe.

Always lead with your jab

A UNSW medical researcher says fewer Australians are getting vaccinated, with the decline hitting some communities harder than others.

What have we done to our children?

Children starting school today are less able to regulate their emotions, sustain attention or navigate peer conflict without adult support than their predecessors, and screens may be to blame.

Could Asimov’s laws avoid an AI Chernobyl?

We may soon experience a disaster that will force us to belatedly realise we should have drawn up some shared rules to govern a technological development that we ourselves triggered.

Black swan watching

The world has changed and so should our approach to analysing it so we should update our approach and include more deductive techniques to complement strategic decision making.

Do 300,000 Kiwis really believe Canada is building an army of mutant super‑raccoons?

We’re constantly told a worrying percentage of people believe outlandish things, but do research results like these reflect people giving silly answers or deliberately skewing surveys for fun?

Where have all the artists gone?

The artistic population of Greater Sydney is shrinking and becoming less culturally diverse as housing costs rise.

Civic patriotism strengthens our democracy

Liberal democracies therefore have a strategic interest in cultivating a confident civic patriotism that strengthens social cohesion, reinforces institutional legitimacy and supports national resilience.

Maxing out

Counting tokens is one measure of AI activity, which is itself intended as a measure of productivity, which in turn leaves aside the question of what is being produced. Not only is tokenmaxxing a dubious metric in itself, but it may also distort our vision of what actually matters.