E-hiking is here. You can tell by my 1,000-watt hips
By Nicole Nguyen
AI is entering the physical realm in a big way. Case in point: I spent Mother’s Day e-hiking with bionic leg boosters. ⌘ Read more
‘Huge validation’: Trump administration backs Aussie quantum tech
Two of Australia’s most prominent quantum names have been drawn into the Trump administration’s growing portfolio of strategic technology companies. ⌘ Read more
‘Creepy’ Listening Tool for Targeted Ads Didn’t Actually Work, FTC Says
Three firms will pay nearly $1 million for selling “Active Listening” technology that they claimed tapped people’s phones for advertising. The FTC alleges the “tech” was just pricey email lists. ⌘ Read more
US To Award $2 Billion To Quantum Companies, Take Equity Stakes
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Quantum Insider: The Trump administration is preparing a new round of industrial policy aimed at quantum computing, with roughly $2 billion in grants expected to go to nine companies developing quantum hardware and related technologies. According to Reuters, citing a Wall Street Journal report, the U.S. Dep … ⌘ Read more
Colossal Biosciences Is Growing Chickens In a 3D-Printed Artificial Eggshell
Colossal Biosciences says it has grown chickens inside 3D-printed artificial eggshells. “The company says the egg technology could help conserve at-risk bird species,” reports MIT Technology. “It could also play a role in a project to re-create the extinct giant moa, a flightless 12-foot-tall bird that once lived in New … ⌘ Read more
Musk’s X admits breaking Australian child safety law, fined $650,000
Elon Musk’s social media company, formerly known as Twitter, failed to comply with an order to detail its child exploitation safeguards. ⌘ Read more
Software startup Factor bursts out of Taiawa tech hub into the big time
Wellington technology hub Taiawa is celebrating the first exit of one of its in-house startup companies in a $24 million deal announced this week.
The day before BusinessDesk visited Taiawa, NZ company Gentrack revealed it was acquiring Taiawa’s resident startup Factor for $ … ⌘ Read more
Space Mafia: How orbital AI changes everything
Artificial intelligence is no longer confined to the data centres of Silicon Valley or the cloud regions dotted around the world. ⌘ Read more
Tackling the future workforce challenge
Some of the biggest challenges posed by the rapid development and deployment of artificial intelligence have to be tackled in areas related to workforce management.
“Nowadays, we are experiencing the greatest change in work since the Industrial Revolution,” Deloitte’s talent and experience leader, Alexandra (Sasha) Kozlova, said at a Techweek26 panel in Wellington on Wednesday morning. ⌘ Read more
Google unveils new search bar, smart glasses as it ramps up the AI wars
Google may be starting to win the race towards truly useful consumer AI. ⌘ Read more
AI requires us to take ‘considered risks’ – Deloitte CEO
We are living through one of the most significant technological shifts in our careers, and it is happening at a rapid pace, Mike Horne, chief executive of Deloitte New Zealand, told Techweek26 attendees.
There was a palpable sense at the conference that the pace of technological innovation had accelerated to the point where its many potential impacts were becoming hard to comprehend. ⌘ Read more
Before Mass Layoffs, Meta Reassigns 7,000 Workers To Focus On AI
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Meta told employees on Monday that it was reassigning 7,000 workers to focus on new initiatives around artificial intelligence, the latest change in a company transformation spurred by the powerful technology. Employees will be moved to four new organizations focused on building new A.I. … ⌘ Read more
[$] What’s brewing in CXL
Compute\
Express Link (CXL) is a technology intended to enable the provision of
“memory nodes” in data centers that provide (possibly shared) memory to
nearby CPUs. It has, Dan Williams said at the beginning of his
memory-management-track session on the topic at the 2026 Linux Storage,\
Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit, “been making
memory-management problems worse since 2021”. He used the sessi … ⌘ Read more
US rebellion against AI is gaining steam
By Amrith Ramkumar, Katherine Blunt, Lindsay Ellis
The only thing growing faster than the artificial intelligence industry may be Americans’ negative feelings about it, as former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt saw on Friday. ⌘ Read more
Critical infrastructure’s AI moment arrives and why AI agents worry Five Eyes spies
It is December 2025, and a storm is sweeping through parts of the South Island, with emergency responders alongside a set of AI agentsresponding to it.
On Wednesday, One NZ’s AI and Data director, Summer Collins, told a crowd … ⌘ Read more
Advanced startups wow Techweek audience across biotech and AI
The breadth and scope of current AI and advanced technology development in New Zealand were highlighted on the opening day of the annual Techweek conference on Monday through a trio of case studies covering biotechnology, family management and efforts to digitise and automate sign language.
[BioOra chief executive and managing director John Robson](https://businessdesk.co.nz/article/startups/tech-st … ⌘ Read more
Small Town Fights Over Flock’s AI-Enhanced Network of License Plate-Reading Cameras
160 miles north of New York City, a man was convicted of manslaughter “with the help of license plate reader technology,” reports a local news station. In the small town of Troy (population: 51,000), the mayor described the cameras as “a critical tool” in that investigation. But locals and city officials “have … ⌘ Read more
PowerHub bets batteries can make wholesale power work for households
A company called PowerHub is hoping to bring a new focus to the New Zealand electricity market by offering residential and commercial consumers exposure to wholesale power prices while using battery technology to reduce exposure to extreme price spikes.
Spot market electricity prices are often significantly lower than standard retail rates, but previous attempts to expose households direct … ⌘ Read more
Digital legacy: How to make sure your family is not locked out
Security keeps people out of our documents, photos, financials, and secrets. How do you make sure family can access them if you die? ⌘ Read more
Suddenly, AI’s tech titans are talking up humanities. Wishful thinking or just a guilt trip?
After decades of dismissing liberal arts as useless, the tech world is coming around to the idea that learning about human nature could be a valuable asset. But it may be too late. ⌘ Read more
Kioxia and Dell Cram Nearly 10PB Into a Single 2U Server
BrianFagioli writes: Kioxia and Dell Technologies say they have built a 2U server configuration capable of scaling to 9.8PB of flash storage, which is the sort of density that would have sounded impossible just a few years ago. The setup combines a Dell PowerEdge R7725xd Server with 40 Kioxia LC9 Series 245.76TB NVMe SSDs and AMD EPYC processors. According t … ⌘ Read more
AMD Is Bringing Improved FSR 4 Upscaling To Its Older GPUs
AMD says FSR 4.1 will finally bring its newer hardware-accelerated upscaling technology to older Radeon GPUs. “The rollout will begin in July with RDNA3- and 3.5-based GPUs, which include the Radeon RX 7000 series, as well as integrated GPUs like the Radeon 890M and Radeon 8060S,” reports Ars Technica. “In ‘early 2027,’ support will also be extended to t … ⌘ Read more
AI start-up boss who faked millions in revenue faces jail time
The former chief executive has been told by his own lawyer that a jail sentence is unavoidable after pleading guilty to fraud. ⌘ Read more
Google takes fight to Apple, Microsoft with new high-end laptops
The web giant’s new line of Googlebook laptops will bring Gemini AI to the laptop in an attempt to compete with Apple’s MacBook and Microsoft’s Copilot+ PCs. ⌘ Read more
LinkedIn cuts hit Australia as global cull claims 875 jobs
Local leadership has been gutted but the Microsoft-owned company says AI isn’t to blame. ⌘ Read more
US Clears H200 Chip Sales To 10 China Firms
Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from CNBC: The U.S. has cleared around 10 Chinese firms to buy Nvidia’s second-most powerful AI chip, the H200, but not a single delivery has been made so far, three people familiar with the matter said, leaving a major technology deal in limbo as CEO Jensen Huang seeks a breakthrough in China this week. […] Before U.S. export curb … ⌘ Read more
Linux’s KVM With CET Virtualization Is Causing Some Hosts To Hang
Introduced to the Linux kernel last year was Control-flow Enforcement Technology “CET” virtualization for modern AMD and Intel CPUs. This complements CET that has existed in Linux for quite some time but it’s new now to the KVM virtualization world, but some yet to be diagnosed problems are causing some hosts to hang when making use of this virtualization security feature… ⌘ Read more
Firmus quietly scrubs UN logo ahead of $12 billion IPO push
AI factory builder Firmus, eyeing a $12 billion ASX float, displayed the UN emblem on every page of its website before quietly removing it. ⌘ Read more
LinkedIn Planning To Lay Off 5% of Staff In Latest Tech-Sector Cuts
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: LinkedIn planned to inform staff of layoffs on Wednesday, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters, in a widening of technology sector cuts this year. The Microsoft-owned social network plans to cut about 5% of its headcount as it reorganizes teams and focuses personnel on areas where … ⌘ Read more
KDE Receives $1.4 Million Investment From Sovereign Tech Fund
The German Sovereign Tech Fund has invested 1.2 million euros ($1.4 million USD) in KDE Plasma technologies to help strengthen the structural reliability and security of the desktop environment’s core infrastructure, including Plasma, KDE Linux, and the frameworks underlying its communication services. Longtime Slashdot reader jrepin shares an excerpt fro … ⌘ Read more
Ransom ‘paid’ to hackers who crippled online learning in Australia
More than 120 Australian schools, universities and TAFEs were caught in the world’s largest education breach. Now their data is supposedly deleted. ⌘ Read more
Sam Altman details ‘hair-raising’ chat with Elon Musk as he takes stand
Nobody has more to lose in the high-profile trial than OpenAI chief Sam Altman, and he has finally taken to the stand. ⌘ Read more
Amazon Employees Are ‘Tokenmaxxing’ Due To Pressure To Use AI Tools
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Financial Times (via Ars Technica): Amazon employees are using an internal AI tool to automate non-essential tasks in a bid to show managers they are using the technology more frequently. The Seattle-based group has started to widely deploy its in-house “MeshClaw” product in recent weeks, allowing emplo … ⌘ Read more
Sam Altman details ‘hair-raising’ chat with Elon Musk as he takes stand
Nobody may has more to lose in the high-profile trial than OpenAI chief Sam Altman, and he has finally taken to the stand. ⌘ Read more
A Data Center Drained 30 Million Gallons of Water Unnoticed
A Georgia data center developed by QTS used nearly 30 million gallons of water through two unaccounted-for connections before residents complained about low water pressure and the county utility discovered the issue. “All told, the developer, Quality Technology Services, owed nearly $150,000 for using more than 29 million gallons of unaccounted-for water,” … ⌘ Read more
DroneShield insiders sold $67 million in shares. The watchdog has questions
ASIC has launched an investigation into the counter-drone group’s disclosures, six months after a botched contract announcement and a $67 million director sell-off. ⌘ Read more
GM Cutting Hundreds of Salaried IT Workers As It Trims Costs, Evaluates Needs
GM is laying off about 500 to 600 salaried IT workers, mainly in Austin, Texas, and Warren, Michigan, as it restructures its technology organization and trims costs. “GM is transforming its Information Technology organization to better position the company for the future. As part of that work, we have made the difficult dec … ⌘ Read more
What are passkeys? The end of the password era explained
Passkeys are designed to be the end of “remembering” login credentials. And it may be time to accept them. ⌘ Read more
Why Some US Schools Are Cutting Back On the Technology They Spent Billions On
America’s school districts “spent billions on technology during the pandemic,” reports the Washington Post.
“But now some states are limiting in-school screen time because of concerns about its impact on children.”
Nationwide [U.S.] schools invested at least $15 billion and possibly as much as $35 billion from federal … ⌘ Read more
Aussie tech giant pauses work, devotes entire week to AI
While Australian tech sheds jobs amid AI productivity claims, Canva is making the opposite bet - paying 5300 people to stop working. ⌘ Read more
An update on KDE’s Union style engine
Arjen Hiemstra has published
an article on the status of the Union project: a
single system to support all of KDE’s technologies used for styling
applications.
The work on Union’s Breeze implementation has progressed to the
point where it is very hard to distinguish whether or not you are
running the Union version. We have also tested with a bunch of
applications and … ⌘ Read more
Trump goes ‘woke’ with a sudden change of mind
The AI alarm bells are ringing louder for Donald Trump, prompting an abrupt U-turn. ⌘ Read more
Google DeepMind Workers Vote To Unionize Over Military AI Deals
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Employees at Google DeepMind in London have voted to unionize as part of a bid to block the AI lab from providing its technology to the US and Israeli militaries. In a letter addressed to Google’s managing director for the UK and Ireland, Debbie Weinstein, the workers asked the company to recognize th … ⌘ Read more
Expanded AMD HDMI 2.1 Support Is Coming To Linux
AMD is preparing expanded HDMI 2.1 support for Linux, following earlier delays after the HDMI Forum rejected an open source implementation of HDMI 2.1 as proprietary technology. As GamingOnLinux reports, AMD developer Harry Wentland submitted a patch series to the Linux kernel mailing list, noting that it brings “HDMI FRL support to the amdgpu display driver” and that “DSC is s … ⌘ Read more
Exclusive: Metalenz Has Figured Out a Way to Make Face ID Invisible
Metalenz’s Polar ID face-scanning technology works even when the camera is hidden under the display. ⌘ Read more
Welcome to the Great American Satellite Age
A new generation of satellite startups in San Francisco is racing to capitalize on recent technological breakthroughs in space-based data collection and communications. ⌘ Read more
TikTok’s Australian revenue skyrockets, along with payments to Cayman-owned companies
The social media juggernaut is showing no signs of slowing in Australia, even as the Albanese government moves to regulate social media platforms. ⌘ Read more
AI tool ‘too dangerous to release’ could wreak havoc on businesses
It found a 27-year-old bug in software used in routers worldwide. Experts fear Anthropic’s Mythos model could trigger the next wave of major breaches. ⌘ Read more
We need to hedge against controlling China and messy US on AI: Hello Japan!
Japan’s new leader, now visiting Australia, is investing heavily in future technology. Australia needs to join her. ⌘ Read more
Many people started to become distrustful of big tech in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. I began feeling pessimistic back in 2016, when AlphaGo beat master Go player Lee Sedol four games to one. Something about that event has soured me on the future of technology ever since.