Category Archives: Technology

Turnbull government’s $33m grant went to company part-owned by mental health commissioner after lobbying

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Exclusive: Funding to Innowell in 2017 without competitive tender was for mental health app and followed months of lobbying by Prof Ian Hickie. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Hickie

The former government led by Malcolm Turnbull awarded a $33m grant to a company that was developing a mental health app after months of lobbying from one of its own mental health commissioners who was also a shareholder in the months-old startup.

The one-off grant was awarded in 2017 without a competitive tender to Innowell for a series of collaborative research trials into a digital mental health platform. Its shareholders include PwC, the University of Sydney and former mental health commissioner Prof Ian Hickie.

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New cryptocurrency offers users tokens for scanning their eyeballs

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Worldcoin, launched by CEO of ChatGPT developer OpenAI, says scheme will distinguish between ‘verified humans’ and AI

Members of the public are being invited to have their eyeballs scanned by a silver orb as part of cryptocurrency project that aims to use biometric verification to distinguish humans from AI systems.

People signing up to the Worldcoin scheme via an app this week will receive a “genesis grant” of 25 tokens, equivalent to about £40, after having their iris scanned by one of the bowling ball-sized devices.

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AI bots could replace us, peer warns House of Lords during debate

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Crossbencher asks Lords to imagine bots with ‘higher productivity and lower running costs’ as example of risk to UK jobs market

The House of Lords could be replaced by bots with “deeper knowledge, higher productivity and lower running costs”, said a peer during a debate on the development of advanced artificial intelligence.

Addressing the upper chamber, Richard Denison hypothesised that AI services may soon be able to deliver his speeches in his own style and voice, “with no hesitation, repetition or deviation”.

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Elon Musk reveals new Twitter logo X

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Experts warn that rebranding of 15-year-old app may be a risky move at a time when competitors are upping their game

Elon Musk has revealed a new logo for Twitter, choosing a “minimalist art deco” X as part of a rebrand of the platform.

The Twitter owner indicated that the design would be altered, tweeting that it “probably changes later, certainly will be refined”. Twitter’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, confirmed the choice on Monday by tweeting the design and writing: “X is here! Let’s do this.”

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Home affairs cyber survey exposed personal data of participating firms

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Shadow minister says leak of ‘sensitive’ information after research into the Optus and Medibank hacks was ‘deeply ironic’

The home affairs department exposed the personal information of more than 50 small business survey participants who were sought for their views on cybersecurity, Guardian Australia can reveal.

The names, business names, phone numbers and emails of the participants in the survey were published on the parliament website in response to a question on notice from May’s Budget estimates hearing.

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Brittany Higgins, her fiance and dog under ‘serious threat’ from online harassment, police allege

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David Wonnocott charged with using carriage service to menace and threaten to kill

A man accused of menacing Brittany Higgins, her fiance and their dog online posed a “serious threat” to their wellbeing, court documents allege.

David William Wonnocott, 49, is charged with using a carriage service to menace and threaten to kill in separate incidents relating to Higgins and the New South Wales politician Alex Greenwich.

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US woman who hired hitman using bitcoin to kill ex-husband gets five years in prison

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Kristy Lynn Felkins of Nevada pleaded guilty in March to murder-for-hire charge as part of a deal to avoid trial

A Nevada woman who admitted to hiring a hitman on the internet for $5,000 in bitcoin to kill her ex-husband “and make it look like an accident” was sentenced to five years in prison.

Kristy Lynn Felkins, 38, of Fallon, Nevada, pleaded guilty in March to a charge of murder-for-hire as part of a deal with federal prosecutors that avoided trial, court records show.

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‘Bargaining for our very existence’: why the battle over AI is being fought in Hollywood

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The ramifications of artificial intelligence are of concern to the actors and writers on strike – from big stars to bit players

To get her start in Hollywood, Chivonne Michelle studied acting at New York University. But what helped her break into the industry and gave her the key training she needed was working on set as a background actor.

Today, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) technology threatens to put those “entry level and working class” Hollywood jobs at risk, Michelle and other striking actors say.

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Top tech firms commit to AI safeguards amid fears over pace of change

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Joe Biden announced Meta, Amazon and OpenAI among others had agreed to eight measures to encourage responsible practices

Top players in the development of artificial intelligence, including Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI, have agreed to new safeguards for the fast-moving technology, Joe Biden announced on Friday.

Among the guidelines brokered by the Biden administration are watermarks for AI content to make it easier to identify and third-party testing of the technology that will try to spot dangerous flaws.

Using watermarking on audio and visual content to help identify content generated by AI.

Allowing independent experts to try to push models into bad behavior – a process known as “red-teaming”.

Sharing trust and safety information with the government and other companies.

Investing in cybersecurity measures.

Encouraging third parties to uncover security vulnerabilities.

Reporting societal risks such as inappropriate uses and bias.

Prioritizing research on AI’s societal risks.

Using the most cutting-edge AI systems, known as frontier models, to solve society’s greatest problems.

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US ambassador to Beijing targeted in Chinese cyber-attack – report

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Nicholas Burns’ emails reportedly accessed in hack that exploited flaw in Microsoft system and took Washington by surprise

The US ambassador to Beijing, Nicholas Burns, was reportedly one of the American officials whose emails were accessed in a recent Chinese hacking attack which took Washington by surprise with its sophistication.

Another target was Daniel Kritenbrink, the assistant secretary of state for east Asia, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. When the attack was first disclosed last week, the administration admitted the email account of the commerce secretary, Gina Raimondo, had also been compromised. US officials were quoted as saying those were the three most senior targets but that in total, hundreds of thousands of government email accounts could have been breached.

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Twitter investor writes down stake by 47% as analyst claims Threads user fall

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Elon Musk has said advertising has plunged on his social media platform and it is cashflow negative

An investor in Elon Musk’s Twitter has written down their stake in the business by 47% as advertisers rein in their spending on the social media platform.

The move by ARK Investment Management came as an analysis firm claimed that usage of the “Twitter killer” Threads app has fallen by half since its launch by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta.

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First-generation Apple iPhone sells at auction in US for $190,000

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Device launched by Steve Jobs in 2007 with promise to ‘reinvent the phone’ sells for 300 times original price

A 2007 Apple iPhone has been sold at auction for $190,372.80 (£145,416) – 300 times its original sale price.

The 4GB model , originally bought for $599, was still in its factory wrapping and was in exceptional condition, the auction listing said. The auctioneer LCG Auctions described the device as a “popular high-end collectible” and “exceedingly rare”.

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In America’s ‘Voltage Valley’, hopes of car-making revival turn sour

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EV manufacturer Lordstown Motors, lauded by Trump in 2020, has gone bankrupt – what now for the once-proud auto-making region?

When Lordstown Motors, an electric vehicles (EV) manufacturer in Ohio’s Mahoning Valley, declared bankruptcy last month, it was the latest blow to a region that has seen decades of extravagant promises fail to deliver.

The 5,000 new jobs executives vowed to create in 2020 generated fresh hope for the shuttered General Motors Lordstown plant, which once functioned as an economic engine for the area and a critical piece of the nation’s industrial heartland.

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Republicans attack FTC chair and big tech critic Lina Khan at House hearing

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Khan accused of giving herself ‘unchecked power’ by taking aggressive steps to regulate Twitter, Meta and Google

Lina Khan, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission, faced a grueling four hours of questioning during a House judiciary committee oversight hearing on Thursday.

Republicans criticized Khan – an outspoken critic of big tech – for “mismanagement” and for “politicizing” legal action against large companies such as Twitter and Google as head of the powerful antitrust agency.

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Twitter owes ex-employees $500m in severance, lawsuit claims

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Former head of employee benefits files proposed class action over workers laid off after Elon Musk acquired company

Twitter allegedly refused to pay at least $500m in promised severance to thousands of employees who were laid off after Elon Musk acquired the company, a lawsuit filed on Wednesday claims.

Courtney McMillian, who oversaw Twitter’s employee benefits programs as its “head of total rewards” before she was laid off in January, filed the proposed class action in San Francisco federal court.

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Financial firms must boost protections against AI scams, UK regulator to warn

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Financial Conduct Authority chief to highlight risks of ‘deepfake’ fraud as well as benefits of Artificial Intelligence

The head of the UK’s financial regulator is to warn that banks, investors and insurers will have to ramp up their spending to combat scammers using artificial intelligence to commit fraud.

Nikhil Rathi, the chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), will say that there are risks of “cyber fraud, cyber-attacks and identity fraud increasing in scale and sophistication and effectiveness” as artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more widespread, in a speech in London on Wednesday.

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Elizabeth Holmes’ 11-year prison sentence shortened by two years

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Release date changed to 2032, records show, but reasons for change are unclear

Elizabeth Holmes’ prison sentence was quietly shortened by two years, new records show.

An update to Holmes’ profile on the website of the Bureau of Prisons now projects her release date as 12 December 2032, two years sooner than initially scheduled. A spokesman for the federal agency confirmed the update but said he could not comment further citing “privacy, safety, and security reasons” for inmates.

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Elon Musk goes low against Zuckerberg as Twitter-Threads spat intensifies

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Twitter owner calls Facebook founder a ‘cuck’ as rancour grows over launch of Threads, a competitor to Musk’s network

Twitter owner Elon Musk has suggested he and Mark Zuckerberg should have “a literal dick-measuring contest” in the latest broadside aimed at his rival billionaire.

In a message inspired by the Meta chief executive’s launch last week of Threads, a Twitter competitor, Musk added a ruler emoji.

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Police using live facial recognition at British Grand Prix

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Northamptonshire force says technology adds ‘extra layer of security’ at Silverstone for F1 race

Police are using live facial recognition (LFR) to scan the faces of people attending the British Grand Prix at Silverstone this weekend.

Northamptonshire police were deploying the technology on Saturday and Sunday to provide “an extra layer of security” at the Formula One race, which 450,000 people were expected to attend, the force said.

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Are Australian Research Council reports being written by Chat GPT?

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Multiple accounts from researchers suggest that feedback for Discovery Project grant funding was written by artificial intelligence

The Australian Research Council has faced allegations that some of its peer reviewers may have used ChatGPT to assess research proposals, prompting a warning from the education minister and concerns about possible academic misconduct.

Several researchers have reported that some assessor feedback provided as part of the latest Discovery Projects round of grant funding included generic wording suggesting they may have been written by artificial intelligence.

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