Colleges Are Preparing To Self-Lobotomize
The skills that future graduates will most need in an age of automation – creative thinking, critical analysis, the capacity to learn new things – are precisely those that a growing body of research suggests may be eroded by inserting AI into the educational process, yet universities across the United States are now racing to embed the technology into every dimension of their curricula.

O … ⌘ Read more

UK ‘Not in Favor’ of Dimming the Sun
The British government said it opposes attempts to cool the planet by spraying millions of tons of dust into the atmosphere – but did not close the door to a debate on regulating the technology. From a report: The comments in parliament Thursday came after a POLITICO investigation revealed an Israeli-U.S. company Stardust Solutions aimed to be capable of deploying solar radiation modification, as the t … ⌘ Read more

Can AI Transform Space Propulsion?
An anonymous reader shared this report from The Conversation:

To make interplanetary travel faster, safer, and more efficient, scientists need breakthroughs in propulsion technology. Artificial intelligence is one type of technology that has begun to provide some of these necessary breakthroughs. We’re a team of engineers and graduate students who are studying how AI in general, and a subset of AI call … ⌘ Read more

Smart cars used as ‘weapons’ by domestic violence abusers
A new eSafety advisory warns Australians about technology-facilitated abuse and provides advice on how to protect themselves from it. ⌘ Read more

AI Can Already Do the Work of 12% of America’s Workforce, Researchers Find
An anonymous reader shared this report from CBS News:

Artificial intelligence can do the work currently performed by nearly 12% of America’s workforce, according to a recentstudy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The researchers, relying on a metric called the “Iceberg Index” that measures a job’s potential to be aut … ⌘ Read more

Black Sesame SoC Support To Be Merged For Linux 6.19
A new SoC vendor and in turn new SoC/platform support is set to premiere in the Linux 6.19 kernel with the initial Black Sesame Technologies C1200 support… ⌘ Read more

‘Thongs aren’t underwear’: The case for an Australian ChatGPT
Sovereign Australia AI wants to build a model that understands Australian culture and values. But does the country really need it? ⌘ Read more

Uber Launches Driverless Robotaxi Service in Abu Dhabi, and Plans Many More
“A year after launching a commercial robotaxi service in Abu Dhabi, Chinese autonomous vehicle technology company WeRide and partner Uber can finally call that service driverless,” reports TechCrunch.
A company official hailed it as “a historic transportation milestone, as the first driverless AV deployment outside of the U.S … ⌘ Read more

Handheld Xbox might not be all it seems, but it’s a great portable PC
As the Xbox brand expands to all gaming platforms, the Xbox Ally X puts its best foot forward with huge performance and a streamlined UI. ⌘ Read more

Europe Fears It Can’t Catch Up in Great Power Competition
European leaders have spent years warning that the continent risked falling behind the U.S., China and Russia in the global contest for economic, technological and military dominance, and officials now believe they have reached that point.

The mood darkened over the summer when Europe found itself on the sidelines as Washington and Beijing negotiated a reset of glo … ⌘ Read more

Less-known social apps surge as teen users look for new home
The likes of Yope and Lemon8 are enjoying an uptick in Australia right now, but they will still be subject to the government’s regulations. ⌘ Read more

Better Technology, Worse Motivation: GenAI’s Mediocrity Trap

While generative AI (GenAI) promises productive efficiency, it can paradoxically lead to lower-quality work. We conducted an experiment with professional illustrators and found that AI assistance flattens the quality curve—it accelerates initial gains but sharply diminishes the returns on sustained effort. Faced with this, a significant number of professionals made a strategic choice: they sacrificed the final quality to save time.

From http://www.jin-li.org/uploads/1/1/4/5/114595093/ai_and_motivation.pdf

I haven’t read this and can’t vouch for it; seems vaguely AI-boostery. Still, the conclusions are interesting. This seems to be the picture that is emerging about generative AI generally: most people don’t like it and find that degrades the quality of work. Coders seem to like it and think that it helps them, but in fact it makes the slower, less productive, and more bug prone.

By all measures it’s a bad technology. We should just be honest about it. There is no need to make excuses for multi-trillion-dollar corporations.

Victoria’s worst-for-business reputation? Atlassian says it hasn’t noticed
The Business Council of Australia has slammed Victoria’s taxes and red tape, but tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes says the criticism doesn’t stack up ⌘ Read more

Inquest finds murder of Lilie James ‘was a premeditated killing’
A NSW coroner has urged young people to consider their use of location-sharing technology after the “senseless” murder of Lilie James at the hands of her ex-boyfriend. ⌘ Read more

Social media ban: A guide for Australian parents
What you need to know, and what you can do. ⌘ Read more

@prologic@twtxt.net AI is slot machines for coders:

• “Before starting tasks, developers forecast that allowing AI will reduce completion time by 24%. After completing the study, developers estimate that allowing AI reduced completion time by 20%. Surprisingly, we find that allowing AI actually increases completion time by 19%–AI tooling slowed developers down.” https://metr.org/blog/2025-07-10-early-2025-ai-experienced-os-dev-study/
  
• “Stack Overflow data reveals the hidden productivity tax of ‘almost right’ AI code”: https://venturebeat.com/ai/stack-overflow-data-reveals-the-hidden-productivity-tax-of-almost-right-ai-code
  

The same intermittent reward operant conditioning that gets people addicted to gambling and thinking that if they follow certain rituals they’ll win “next time” drives people’s beliefs that AI tools are making them more productive when they’re making them less productive. I’m going to guess that a side effect of this is that people think they’re typing less when in the longer term they’re typing the same amount or more when you factor in the productivity loss (as far as I’ve read the studies don’t measure this so I’m only guessing).

People are also being rapidly de-skilled by this technology: the more they use it, the more their actual skills atrophy. “Continuous exposure to AI might reduce the ADR (adesoma detection rate) of standard non-AI assisted colonoscopy, suggesting a negative effect on endoscopist behaviour.” (science speak for saying that radiologists get worse at seeing tumors in scans once they’ve used AI): https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langas/article/PIIS2468-1253(25)00133-5/abstract

Nobody who cares about the future should be using this stuff for anything.

https://fokus.cool/2025/11/25/i-dont-care-how-well-your-ai-works.html

AI systems being egregiously resource intensive is not a side effect — it’s the point.

And someone commented on that with:

I’m fascinated by the take about the resource usage being an advantage to the AI bros.

They’ve created software that cannot (practically) be replicated as open source software / free software, because there is no community of people with sufficient hardware / data sets. It will inherently always be a centralized technology.

Fascinating and scary.

‘Premium prices for a downgrade’: $96.5 million BoM website savaged
Pressure is mounting on the agency and its newly minted chief executive Stuart Minchin after a major cost blowout. ⌘ Read more

Amanda’s husband seemed able to read her mind. Then she learnt why
Amanda’s husband always seemed to just know things. When fiddling around with her social media settings, she discovered how he had been using technology to gaslight her. ⌘ Read more

Victorian premier demands answers after copper thieves trigger Optus crisis
Jacinta Allan has sought an urgent briefing after another Optus outage left more than 14,000 customers in the lurch. ⌘ Read more

Fresh Optus outage impacting emergency service calls
The incident is thought to be caused by vandalism, with no current timing for a fix. ⌘ Read more

Fresh Optus outage impacting emergency service calls
The incident is thought to be caused by vandalism, with no current timing for a fix. ⌘ Read more

US Banks Scramble To Assess Data Theft After Hackers Breach Financial Tech Firm
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Several U.S. banking giants and mortgage lenders are reportedly scrambling to assess how much of their customers’ data was stolen during a cyberattack on a New York financial technology company earlier this month. SitusAMC, which provides technology for over a thou … ⌘ Read more

Just because a robot can walk, doesn’t mean it can work
The tech industry is obsessed with humanoid robots, and people are fascinated by them. But for almost every application they’re pitched for, they make zero sense. ⌘ Read more

Meta Plans New AI-Powered ‘Morning Brief’ Drawn From Facebook and ‘External Sources’
Meta “is testing a new product that would give Facebook users a personalized daily briefing powered by the company’s generative AI technology” reports the Washington Post. They cite records they’ve reviwed showing that Meta “would analyze Facebook content and external sources to push custom updates to its users. … ⌘ Read more

How bad was the “Digital Sovereignty Summit”?

Heise explains: https://www.heise.de/en/opinion/Analysis-of-the-Digital-Sovereignty-Summit-Open-Source-Gets-Scolded-11084765.html

But I’ll highlight one thing - the Declaration for European Digital Sovereignty, published and signed there, has this ridiculous sentence:

“Open-source solutions can play an important role enhancing digital sovereignty, provided they meet high cybersecurity standards and are complemented by reliable proprietary technologies where appropriate.”

#Sovereignty #EU #OpenSource

IBM, Cisco Outline Plans For Networks of Quantum Computers By Early 2030s
IBM and Cisco plan to link quantum computers over long distances by the early 2030s, “with the goal of demonstrating the concept is workable by the end of 2030,” reports Reuters. “The move could pave the way for a quantum internet, though executives at the two companies cautioned that the networks would require technologies that … ⌘ Read more

An offer he couldn’t refuse: The young Aussie who couldn’t say no to Zuckerberg
Australians are plentiful in Silicon Valley building the future of AI intelligence. And they’re earning pay packets that defy belief. ⌘ Read more

Future Google TV Devices Might Come With a Solar-powered Remote
An anonymous reader shares a report: Epishine, a company that makes solar cells optimized for indoor lighting, has announced its technology is being used in a new remote control for Google TV devices, as spotted by 9to5Google. The remote will rely on rechargeable batteries instead of disposable ones, and thanks to the use of solar cells on both sid … ⌘ Read more

‘Very beautiful’: A new robot dances for Putin days after embarrassing faceplant
The unusual event was watched closely by Putin’s bodyguards, one of whom stood between the robot and the Russian leader afterwards to make sure it moved away from him and did not get too close. ⌘ Read more

Netgear Accused by Rival of China Smear To Fan Security Fear
An anonymous reader shares a report: California-based TP-Link says it may take a sales hit of more than $1 billion because of erroneous reports that the networking company’s technology has been “infiltrated” by Beijing. In a lawsuit, TP-Link claims its competitor, Netgear, orchestrated a smear by planting false claims with journalists and internet influen … ⌘ Read more

Google’s Gemini 3: what’s new and what can it do?
The latest AI from Google makes big promises for developers and power users, but how does it compare in everyday tasks? ⌘ Read more

Cloudflare chaos: Third internet outage in four weeks triggers global disruptions
A massive outage at internet infrastructure giant Cloudflare triggered a wave of “500 Internal Server Errors” across the globe, knocking substantial portions of the web offline. ⌘ Read more

Internet outage that sparked chaos across the world resolved
Cloudflare works behind the scenes to make the internet faster and safer, but when problems flare up “it results in massive digital gridlock”. That’s what happened overnight. ⌘ Read more

TPG says person dead after failed Triple Zero call
The telco says the person died in Sydney after a Samsung device was unable to connect to emergency services. ⌘ Read more

‘Most exciting shooter on the market’? Battlefield 6 devs throws down the gauntlet
As Call of Duty launches their next major title, 9news.com.au sat down with Battlefield 6’s Justin Wiebe and Thomas Andersson to talk post-launch records, their new free-to-play mode, and how Battlefield plans to stand out. ⌘ Read more

TPG says person dead after failed Triple Zero call
The telco says the person died in Sydney after a Samsung device was unable to connect to emergency services. ⌘ Read more

TPG says person dead after failed Triple Zero call
The telco says the person died in Sydney after a Samsung device was unable to connect to emergency services. ⌘ Read more

TPG customer dies after failed Triple Zero call
The telco says the Sydney customer died after their Samsung device was unable to connect to emergency services. ⌘ Read more

Cybercriminals unleash fake Centrelink scam on vulnerable Australians
More than 270,000 malicious emails impersonating Services Australia and Centrelink have flooded Australian inboxes. ⌘ Read more

AWS: Working to bridge the AI gap in Australia
The AI revolution presents an enormous opportunity for Australia, but only if the crucial skills gap is addressed. AWS is directly confronting this challenge by accelerating AI adoption in enterprises, backing the next generation of startups, and establishing a foundational curriculum in schools. ⌘ Read more

The ‘Chinese Apple’ is bringing budget tech down under, but is it any good?
We test five products from Chinese technology giant Xiaomi’s Australian lineup, including an $80 smartwatch and a flagship phone. ⌘ Read more

Virtual reality had its chance. It blew it
I’ve spent more time this year thinking about virtual reality than actually using it. That should tell you everything you need to know about VR’s state of play in 2025. ⌘ Read more

Only Half the Homes in America Have Cable TV Anymore
Pay television penetration in American households fell to 50.2% in the third quarter and is projected to drop to 50% or lower by December, according to Madison and Wall, a technology and media advisory firm. Fifteen years ago, nearly nine in ten households subscribed to pay television services.

The decline has prompted major media companies to shed cable asset … ⌘ Read more

Russian humanoid robot collapses face first during showcase
One of the first humanoid robots in Russia collapsed on stage as it was presented in Moscow on Tuesday. The anthropomorphic robot, known as AIDOL, fell soon after walking onto the stage and staff rushed to shield it from journalists and guests with black curtains. ⌘ Read more

Google’s Waymo is talking to NSW about its driverless taxis
Think an Uber, but with no driver, and a steering wheel that turns itself. ⌘ Read more

Apple Cuts App Store Fee In Half For ‘Mini Apps’
Apple is cutting its App Store fee from 30% to 15% for developers who join a new Mini Apps Partner Program, which requires using more of Apple’s built-in technology to power lightweight “mini apps.” “This includes using Apple software to register a user’s purchase history, verify user ages and to process in-app purchases,” reports CNBC. From the report: A “mini app” is a lightwei … ⌘ Read more

Chinese Hackers Used Anthropic’s AI To Automate Cyberattacks
China’s state-sponsored hackers used AI technology from Anthropic to automate break-ins of major corporations and foreign governments during a September hacking campaign, the company said Thursday. From a report: The effort focused on dozens of targets and involved a level of automation that Anthropic’s cybersecurity investigators had not previously seen, a … ⌘ Read more

One billionaire’s plan to build a women-only residential college at major Sydney university
Venture capitalist Solina Chau’s donation will house science, technology, engineering and maths students on campus. ⌘ Read more

China’s EV Market Is Imploding
An anonymous reader shares a report: The Chinese electric car has become a symbol of the country’s seemingly unstoppable rise on the world stage. Many observers point to their growing popularity as evidence that China is winning the race to dominate new technologies. But in China, these electric cars represent something entirely different: the profound threats that Beijing’s meddling in markets poses to both China … ⌘ Read more