Climate Tech

New climate reporting laws, kicking off in 2025, passed the Senate last week. Here’s the opportunity for climate tech startups

- August 27, 2024 3 MIN READ

The Australian Senate passed the new laws last week, setting in place a new climate-related financial disclosure regime that kicks off at the start of 2025 for Australia’s biggest companies, then trickling down to others in the coming years. While the Treasury Laws Amendment (Financial Market Infrastructure and Other Measures) Bill 2024 doesn’t sound like… Read more »

Meerkats
Data

What’s next for Australia’s Consumer Data Right after action initiation – and the lessons from overseas

- August 23, 2024 4 MIN READ

Despite being drafted and tabled in the Australian Senate in 2022, the Action Initiation Bill was only passed last week. Action initiation would transform the Consumer Data Right (CDR) from merely a data-sharing framework into a dynamic system that empowers consumers to take action based on the insights they gain. The CDR was created to… Read more »

Landscape aerial view of Sydney Opera house near Sydney business center by AdobeStock's Generative AI model, Firefly.
AI/Machine Learning

Generative AI hype is still high, but we’re still a few years away from it becoming a truly useful tool

- August 21, 2024 4 MIN READ

Less than two years ago, the launch of ChatGPT started a generative AI frenzy. Some said the technology would trigger a fourth industrial revolution, completely reshaping the world as we know it. In March 2023, Goldman Sachs predicted 300 million jobs would be lost or degraded due to AI. A huge shift seemed to be… Read more »

model collapse, generative AI
AI/Machine Learning

An expert explains the likelihood of doomsday scenarios for AI model collapse

- August 20, 2024 4 MIN READ

Artificial intelligence (AI) prophets and newsmongers are forecasting the end of the generative AI hype, with talk of an impending catastrophic “model collapse”. But how realistic are these predictions? And what is model collapse anyway? Discussed in 2023, but popularised more recently, “model collapse” refers to a hypothetical scenario where future AI systems get progressively… Read more »

Canberra
Data

Why this weeks changes to the Consumer Data Right are great news for tackling climate change and the cost of your power bill

- August 16, 2024 3 MIN READ

This week’s passing of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Consumer Data Right) Bill 2022 by the Australian Parliament has reignited discussions about its potential to drive positive change. While concerns about complexity, data quality, low consumer uptake, and high implementation costs persist, the government’s commitment to extending and simplifying the CDR by focusing on high-value use… Read more »

Other tech

Melbourne’s e-scooter experiment is over

- August 14, 2024 2 MIN READ

The Victorian capital’s 30-month trial of renting e-scooters on the city streets will end after the council killed off their use in a majority vote. City of Melbourne councillors voted 6-4 to end the contracts with Lime and Neuron, having trialed their use since February 2022. Lord mayor Nicholas Reece led the charge against them,… Read more »

Surveillance room
Cyber security

Why trust and protection from government snooping are central to its digital ID plans

- August 14, 2024 3 MIN READ

On Tuesday, Australia’s minister for government services, Bill Shorten, announced the federal government is developing a new digital identity and credential system. Known as the Trust Exchange (TEx), Shorten said the new system will be “world leading” and represents an “exciting step forward for Australia’s digital infrastructure”. But details about the system are scarce. Shorten… Read more »

Stephen Jones
Fintech

Why the Consumer Data Right matters and you need to tell Australian politicians what you think

- August 7, 2024 3 MIN READ

Next week, the Australian Parliament will cast a pivotal vote on advancing the Consumer Data Right (CDR) to Action Initiation. This decision could redefine consumer freedom and competition across the nation, making it one of the most significant moments in our history. What is Action Initiation?  Action Initiation will enable consumers to take unprecedented control… Read more »

Tech Facility Data Center
Business

Data centres have an energy problem. Here’s what needs to be done about it

- August 6, 2024 4 MIN READ

Our insatiable demand for digital content and services has been driving a rise in energy-hungry data centres. The International Energy Agency reports global data centre electricity consumption could double in a few short years, reaching 1,000 terawatt hours (TWh) by 2026. That’s roughly the same as generated by the whole of Japan per year. Some… Read more »

Accelerator

13 Startmate mentors and investors reveal what they’re looking for in startup ideas

- July 31, 2024 12 MIN READ

At Startmate we’re industry agnostic. We invest in people first. People with deep expertise and unique visions, working to solve some of the thorniest problems frustrating industries worldwide. The role we play is simple. Accelerate their progress – avoid pitfalls, leverage opportunities, prompt customer conversations, advise sales, and marketing – do everything in our power… Read more »

Soccer
Other tech

The value of Australian sportstech has grown 10% to $4.7 billion a year

- July 31, 2024 3 MIN READ

With the Brisbane Olympics now just 8 years away, Australia’s sportstech is already booming, growing 10% in both employment and revenue over the past 12 months to be worth $4.69 billion annually, according to new analysis. The third edition of the Australian Sports Technologies Network’s (ASTN) annual Sports Innovation Report concludes that the sector is… Read more »

Other

Drone food delivery is taking off, but research reveals it’s junk food that’s flying high

- July 28, 2024 3 MIN READ

Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from cafes and restaurants via the DoorDash app and have it brought to them in minutes by a small aircraft. This is the… Read more »

smart business man allocate egg into many baskets . do not put all eggs in one basket
Global tech

The CrowdStrike systems outage is a timely warning on the lessons for managing IT risks

- July 22, 2024 3 MIN READ

Friday’s global IT outage caused by a software update gone wrong highlights the interconnected and often fragile nature of modern IT infrastructure. It demonstrates how a single point of failure can have far-reaching consequences. The outage was linked to a single update automatically rolled out to Crowdstrike Falcon, a ubiquitous cyber security tool used primarily… Read more »

Cyber security

The CrowdStrike Falcon crash – what you need to know and do

- July 20, 2024 3 MIN READ

A massive IT outage is currently affecting computer systems worldwide. In Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, reports indicate computers at banks, media organisations, hospitals, transport services, shop checkouts, airports and more have all been impacted. Friday’s outage is unprecedented in its scale and severity. The technical term for what has happened to the affected computers… Read more »