AI, job cuts and a very fragile mandate
In a week when the Government announced 8,700 public sector roles will go and AI will help fill the gaps, a lunchtime event at Parliament turned into something of a reality check on how fragile trust in AI has become in New Zealand.
One NZ’s second annual AI in Trust report, a nationally representative survey of 1,001 New Zealanders, shows 76% of us have interacted with AI-powered services in the past … ⌘ Read more
NVIDIA 610.43.02 Linux Driver Released With Vulkan Improvements, DRM Color Pipeline API
NVIDIA is kicking off the new week with their first Linux driver beta in the R610 driver series that is succeeding the current R595 release branch… ⌘ Read more
I Spent a Week Recording Myself Doing Chores for Money. Who’s the Robot Now?
Cooking. Doing laundry. Tidying up. All your household tasks can be turned into data to train future humanoids—if you’re prepared for the consequences. ⌘ Read more
Commerce Commission’s gas pipe ruling to test who pays for system’s decline
The Commerce Commission’s final decision on gas pipeline regulation this week will test how far it is prepared to go in letting network owners recover costs earlier as gas demand weakens and the future of the network becomes more uncertain.
On Wednesday, the regulator will set the default price-quality path for gas pipeline businesses from Oct 1, 2026 (DPP4). The decision cover … ⌘ Read more
AI ‘capability leap’: 80% of software developers now using it
Late last year, AWS senior engineer Mike Nooney noticed a flurry of activity on social media that indicated something exciting had happened in his field: AI had taken what we described as a “capability leap”.
“So, I thought, let’s get in and have a look at Claude Code and some of the other tools,” he recounted to an audience at last week’s Techweek26 summit. ⌘ Read more
Results are in: BusinessDesk subscribers are a good-looking bunch
When we rolled out our subscriber survey, I thought it would take a few weeks to reach 500 respondents.
It took barely two days. ⌘ Read more
A visual push to start the week ⌘ Read more
NZ sharemarket trades flat, down 0.1%
The New Zealand sharemarket was a little hesitant as it entered a pivotal week for company earnings releases and economic moves.
The S&P/NZX 50 Index reached an intraday high of 13,101.27 but then fell late, closing at 12,970.80, down 21.03 points, or 0.16%. ⌘ Read more
FreeBSD Foundation Executive Director Tries Daily Driving FreeBSD On Laptop
Phoronix reports on a presentation about trying FreeBSD on modern Framework laptop from last week’s Open Source Summit hosted by the Linux Foundation:
With FreeBSD having worked on improving its laptop support over the past two years with some big changes and ongoing efforts for making a nice KDE desktop experience on FreeBS … ⌘ Read more
Trump says he is in no rush for an Iran deal that is far from finished
By Summer Said, Anat Peled and Alexander Ward
President Trump said Sunday he was in no hurry to complete an end-of-war agreement with Iran after spending weeks insisting Tehran had to quickly make nuclear concessions or face renewed attacks. ⌘ Read more
Canonical Is Shutting Down Ubuntu Pastebin
“Canonical says Ubuntu Pastebin will be decommissioned at the end of May 2026,” writes Slashdot reader BrianFagioli, “as part of an infrastructure modernization effort.”
The announcement only appeared this week, giving the Linux community barely any warning before a service that has been tied to Ubuntu support culture for years suddenly disappears.
Ubuntu Pastebin has long been used for … ⌘ Read more
Mozilla Brings Web Serial Workflows to Firefox, Collaborates With Adafruit
The Web Serial API lets websites write to (and read from) serial devices using JavaScript, including USB and Bluetooth devices with virtual serial ports. And this week’s Firefox 151 release introduced support for the Web Serial API on desktop.
“Most folks won’t use this API,” acknowledges Mozilla’s blog, “but for our community … ⌘ Read more
I turn 33 this week, my tits are still pretty nice ⌘ Read more
GitHub Copilot & Claude Code Helped With Graphics, WiFi Linux Driver Issues This Week
For those curious about the growing use of AI and coding agents within the Linux kernel, this week there was another large batch of new patches fixed that were generated or co-authored by agents like Claude Code and GitHub Copilot… ⌘ Read more
I really dig #caturday on the Fediverse, so I thought I would start doing it here as well.
For this week, I’d like to introduce my spirit animal, Bowie.
May his supreme laziness (and fuzzy-chunky-monkey cuteness) serve as an inspiration to you, too.
Linus Torvalds on How AI is Impacting the Hunt for Linux Kernel Bugs
Linus Torvalds spoke this week at the Linux Foundation’s Open Source Summit North America, reports ZDNet — and described how AI is impacting Linux kernel development:
“In the last six months, we’ve seen a lot more commits,” Torvalds noted, estimating that “the last two releases, it’s been about 20% more commits than we had in the previo … ⌘ Read more
Free Software Foundation’s Call for ‘LibreLocals’ Answered on Six Continents - With More Coming
The Free Software Foundation announced this week that “its global call for free software supporters to organize LibreLocals this May resulted in free software supporters organizing forty-six LibreLocal events on six continents thus far.” (And new dates and locations are being added daily. … ⌘ Read more
Linux Mint Making Improvements To Its File Manager, Theme & Dialogs
The Linux Mint project today published their May 2026 status report to outline recent work done to this Ubuntu/Debian-based Linux platform and much of their focus in recent weeks on enhancements to their Cinnamon desktop environment… ⌘ Read more
AV2 Codec Looks Like It Will Be Officially Released Next Week
For years already AV2 has been in development as the successor to AV1 for this wonderful open-source, royalty-free video codec. While there was talk about releasing AV2 by the end of 2025, that didn’t happen but now latest indicators are pointing toward its formal debut next week… ⌘ Read more
The FBI Wants ‘Near Real-Time’ Access to US License Plate Readers
Plus: Google publishes a live exploit for an unpatched flaw, the feds arrest two men accused of creating thousands of nonconsensual deepfake nudes, and more. ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.1 Merges AMD Dynamic EPP Fixes, Intel Bartlett Lake Scaling Fix
Merged today for Linux 7.1 was this week’s power management fixes with a few notable fixes for both AMD and Intel platforms… ⌘ Read more
This Cannes Film Cost $500,000 to Make. $400,000 Was AI Compute Costs.
Higgsfield AI is debuting a 95-minute fully AI-generated film at Cannes called “Hell Grind” that reportedly cost $500,000 to make, $400,000 of which was spent on compute alone. The project took just two weeks to produce and is intended to showcase the startup’s AI production tools. But it also underscores the current limits of AI f … ⌘ Read more
On the Money: Grant Baker’s book launch, Ray Smith, Nikhil Ravishankar, a great AI speech, and more
On the Money (OTM) is our column of general frippery we observed within the worlds of business and government this week.
It was not the easiest week to be a departmental chief executive. Minister for the Public Service Nicola Willis signalled 9,000 public-sector jobs might go, and several agencies might be folded into on … ⌘ Read more
Linux Sound Subsystem Also Seeing Many Fixes Driven By AI/LLMs
It’s not only the Linux networking subsystem where many fixes have been appearing – including several notable security fixes for local privilege escalation issues – leading to “craziness” from AI / LLMs. The Linux sound subsystem has also been seeing an uptick in activity with many “assisted-by” patches coming about in recent weeks… ⌘ Read more
At Least 80% Responsibility For Ill Health In Old Age Down to Individual, Study Says
A new Oxford Longevity Project report argues that individuals bear at least 80% of the responsibility for ill health in old age. “The report (PDF), launched at the Smart Ageing Summit in Oxford last week, argues that individuals have far greater control over their longevity than is commonly understood,” re … ⌘ Read more
NZ sharemarket down almost 4% year to date
The retirement village stocks stole the show as the New Zealand sharemarket ended a volatile week with a gain of nearly 1%.
The S&P/NZX 50 Index climbed strongly in the late afternoon and closed at 12,991.31, up 113.24 points or 0.88%. ⌘ Read more
CHUWI’s $449 USD Wildcat Lake Laptop Should Work Fine With Linux
CHUWI this week announced their UniBook laptop as a ~$449 USD laptop that aims to compete with Apple’s MacBook Neo. While shipping with Microsoft Windows 11, it should be Linux-friendly and we’ll soon be putting it to the test at Phoronix… ⌘ Read more
Palantir Held a Hack Week to Add New Controls to Software Used by ICE
The hackathon, held to build user-auditing tools for Palantir customers, comes as the company struggles to address employee concerns over its relationship with ICE. ⌘ Read more
For the love of a Marsden Point rail spur: Winston and Wayne write to one another
For the love of a Marsden Point rail spur, Rail Minister Winston Peters and Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown have been penning polite but corrective letters to one another.
Peters wrote to Brown last week after … ⌘ Read more
Zespri benefits from more kiwifruit, better value
Zespri has improved its profitability by selling more fruit at a higher value, its chief executive says.
The grower-owned kiwifruit marketer released its full-year results for the 2025/26 season this week. ⌘ Read more
WasteCo crisis deepens as chair abroad during WorkSafe fatality probe
WasteCo chair and acting CEO Roger Gower has been overseas for several weeks while the company faces a health and safety and leadership crisis.
Last week BusinessDesk reported that WorkSafe was investigating a second fatality at the NZX-listed company, less than a year af … ⌘ Read more
[$] LWN.net Weekly Edition for May 21, 2026
Inside this week’s LWN.net Weekly Edition:
Front: OpenSUSE site age restrictions; Lots of LSFMM+BPF coverage; The tenth OpenPGP email summit.
Briefs: Firefox 151.0; pgBackRest funding; RIP Peter G. Neumann; Quotes; …
Announcements: Newsletters, conferences, security updates, patches, and more. ⌘ Read more
OpenAI is preparing to file for an IPO very soon
By Corrie Driebusch, Annamaria Andriots and Berber Jin
ChatGPT-maker OpenAI has been working with bankers to prepare to file for an initial public offering in the coming days or weeks, according to people familiar with the matter. ⌘ 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
The Government’s billion-dollar frigate question
Sailing from Wellington Harbour on Wednesday morning was a 5,500-tonne example of what could be a multibillion-dollar Budget item for the Government in the coming decade.
The 130m-long JS Kumano, a Japanese Mogami-class frigate built for stealth with flat steel panels and few distinguishable features other than a sensor-filled mast and 54-calibre cannon at its bow, spent four days tied up at Wellington’s wharf this week. ⌘ Read more
Google’s AI Studio Now Lets Anyone Build Android Apps In Minutes
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The AI coding boom is now coming directly for Android app development. On Tuesday at Google IO 2026, the company announced new native Android app creation capabilities in its web-based Google AI Studio, shrinking a process that takes weeks of setup and coding down to minutes. The company also sa … ⌘ Read more
Greg KH Calls For More Rust Linux Developers
Greg Kroah-Hartman took time away from his duties as Linux’s second-in-command as stable maintainer, various subsystem maintainer, and recent hobby of using AI/LLMs for uncovering Linux kernel bugs to present at the Rust Week conference… ⌘ Read more
FFmpeg Introduces Vulkan Accelerated Decoding For APV Video
FFmpeg already supports CPU-based decoding for Samsung’s APV as the Advanced Professional Video Codec. FFmpeg also has APV encode support too while now an interesting addition was merged this week: Vulkan-based acceleration for APV… ⌘ Read more
NZ sharemarket whipsaws again, down over 1.6%
The normally stable energy sector stumbled after a large parcel of shares in Contact was put up for sale, and the New Zealand sharemarket fell more than 1.5% in a broad sell-off.
The S&P/NZX 50 Index was on a downward slide throughout the day and closed at 12,761.03, down 213.29 points or 1.64% – its lowest level in nearly seven weeks. ⌘ Read more
OpenAI Co-Founder Andrej Karpathy Joins Anthropic
OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy has joined rival AI lab Anthropic. “The hire is a major coup for Anthropic in the high-stakes competition for elite AI talent – and another sign the company is emerging as a magnet for some of the industry’s most respected technical minds,” reports Axios. From the report: Karpathy will start this week on Anthropic’s pre-training team, which is re … ⌘ Read more
Seymour’s red tape ministry now four times bigger than agency it replaced
David Seymour established the Ministry for Regulation in 2024 with the goal of slashing red tape, improving the scrutiny of new laws and boosting the skills of the country’s regulators.
Two years on, while most Government departments are contracting, and Seymour called again this week for “less Wellington bloat, [fewer government departments](https://businessdesk.co.nz/article/bus … ⌘ Read more
pgBackRest will continue
In April, David Steele, maintainer of the popular pgBackRest backup and restore project for
PostgreSQL, announced that he had archived\
the project and it would no longer be maintained due to lack of
sponsorship. On May 18, he announced
that a number of sponsors have stepped forward to ensure its continued
development:
Over the last few weeks, a coalition of sponso … ⌘ Read more
Meta Layoffs Stress Harsh AI Reality Inside Zuckerberg’s Company
Meta is expected to begin cutting about 8,000 jobs this week as it pours more money into AI infrastructure and looks to “offset” other investments, with additional layoffs reportedly possible later this year. According to CNBC, the morale has worsened inside the company. “Internally, there’s an emerging sense of dread across wide swaths of the comp … ⌘ Read more
Elon Musk Loses Lawsuit Against OpenAI
After three weeks of testimony, which was covered extensively here on Slashdot, a U.S. jury on Monday ruled against Elon Musk in his lawsuit against OpenAI, finding that he waited too long to bring his claims that the company betrayed its nonprofit mission. Reuters reports: The trial had widely been seen as a critical moment for the future of OpenAI and artificial intelligence generally, both in ho … ⌘ Read more
Receivers sell Airwork to Irish ASL Aviation Holdings
Global aviation services group ASL Aviation Group Holdings has signed a conditional sale-and-purchase agreement to acquire Airwork’s business and assets on a going concern basis. The price has not been disclosed.
The Irish-headquartered group told New Zealand and Australian staff, as well as stakeholders, in a note last week that the sale encompassed Airwork’s NZ and Australian freight operations, business, and exist … ⌘ Read more
Linux 6.6 LTS To Linux 7.1 Bechmarks: Performance Up 13% On AMD Threadripper Over Three Years
The Linux 7.1 kernel performance has been looking quite good on the various Intel/AMD systems I have tested over the past three weeks. Linux 7.1 does bring some solid improvements over Linux 7.0 prior in different workloads and haven’t encountered any worrisome regressions compared to the current Linux 7.0 stable kernel. For those wondering the longer-term picture, here are benchmarks of Linux 7.1 Git compared to recent Linux … ⌘ Read more
Kernel prepatch 7.1-rc4
The 7.1-rc4 kernel prepatch is out for
testing.
Some of the documentation updates might be worth highlighting: the
continued flood of AI reports has basically made the security list
almost entirely unmanageable, with enormous duplication due to
different people finding the same things with the same
tools. People spend all their time just forwarding things to the
right people or saying “that was already fixed a week/month ago”
and pointing to the public … ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.1-rc4 Released With Many Fixes, New Documentation For Security/AI Topics
It was another busy week in the Linux 7.1 kernel space that has culminated with the release of Linux 7.1-rc4… ⌘ Read more
Microsoft Exchange Server Vulnerability Actively Exploited, in a Bad Week for Microsoft
Forbes describes it as “definitely already out there, and under active exploitation according to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, urging all organizations to prioritize timely remediation as the attack vector poses a significant risk.”
“We have issued CVE-2026-42897 to address … ⌘ Read more
The running boom brings business for brands, retailers
Four days a week, the Zone Blue run club gathers for runs of varying length on Wellington’s waterfront, on the track at Newtown Park, and at Freyberg Beach.
There’s a “take it easy” Tuesday evening run, a speed session on the track on Wednesday, and a 30-minute effort followed by a coffee on Saturday mornings. ⌘ Read more