Now that tech companies are cutting back on free breakfasts, acai and poke bowls, life in the work kitchen is getting much harder. In some startups you may even have to put your own plates, cutlery and cups in the dishwasher after a meal. And for those currently putting them in the sink, because unsure… Read more »
An Australian council mayor may become the first person in the world to sue AI platform ChatGPT for defamation over false claims he was imprisoned over a bribery scandal. The mayor of Hepburn Shire in Victoria, Brian Hood, discovered late last year that artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT was incorrectly claiming that he had pleaded guilty… Read more »
Australia has joined other countries in announcing a ban on the use of TikTok on government devices, with some states and territories following suit. The rationale was based on security fears and, in particular, the risk the platform will be used for foreign interference operations by China. TikTok is a video-sharing platform operated by ByteDance,… Read more »
For over 30 years, MYOB has been shaping and shaking-up the small business sector. As one of Australia’s first tech unicorns, we led the charge in helping businesses digitise their processes and improve their finances. When we started, loading our software onto desktop computers – via CD-rom – helped many business owners take the first… Read more »
Australia’s transition to renewables is gathering speed, but there’s a looming problem with storage. We will need much more long-duration storage to get us through the night, once coal and fossil gas exit the system. We also need to find new and better ways to create heat for industrial processes. Renewables can supply much of… Read more »
The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange can no longer legally operate within Australia after financial regulator ASIC cancelled the firm’s financial services license due to policy breaches that left consumers financially exposed. Although it was licensed to sell financial derivatives to wholesale customers, Binance Australia Derivatives – the trading name of Oztures Trading Pty Ltd –… Read more »
Last week, an Australian “cultured meat” company called Vow made headlines with a meatball made from the flesh of a woolly mammoth – or something very much like it. Combining the technologies of lab-based cell culture and “de-extinction,” Vow scientists grew muscle proteins based on DNA sequences from the long-dead proboscideans. The meatball was not… Read more »
Sixty years ago, the animated series The Jetsons finished its first and only season before being canceled. Just 24 episodes were broadcast between September 1962 and March 1963. Despite this, the cartoon has achieved huge influence in popular culture, with countless reruns, a reboot in the mid-1980s (51 episodes over two seasons), and a feature-length… Read more »
As a savvy startup founder, the mission is clear: scale the business like a boss. But the secret sauce to achieving that mission lies in attracting and retaining the crème de la crème of talent and maximising their potential to boost profitability. In today’s cut-throat job market, it’s not enough to offer just a paycheque;… Read more »
Venture Science is a practice for founding and building new companies with designed advantage at the start. We’ve done this a lot at Main Sequence to create companies like v2food, Samsara Eco, Eden Brew, Endua and Quasar Sat. I’ve been using Chat GPT-4 to help me imagine new companies. Here’s how you can too. #1… Read more »
Last week, artificial intelligence pioneers and experts urged major AI labs to immediately pause the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4 for at least six months. An open letter penned by the Future of Life Institute cautioned that AI systems with “human-competitive intelligence” could become a major threat to humanity. Among the risks,… Read more »
The Australian government has banned TikTok from all public service devices, claiming the app poses “significant protective security risk” to the Commonwealth. Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus announced on Tuesday he had authorised a mandatory direction to ban the TikTok social media app from any device issued by a Commonwealth department or agency. State and territory governments… Read more »
Is it time to put the brakes on the development of artificial intelligence (AI)? If you’ve quietly asked yourself that question, you’re not alone. In the past week, a host of AI luminaries signed an open letter calling for a six-month pause on the development of more powerful models than GPT-4; European researchers called for… Read more »
Australia’s federal parliament has approved a A$15 billion National Reconstruction Fund, intended to reverse the nation’s dwindling manufacturing sector. It is the “first step” in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s election promise “to revive our ability to make world-class products.” The fund will focus on investing in high-tech manufacturing. There are seven priority areas: clean energy… Read more »
Three years ago, Kiwi entrepreneur Mahesh Muralidhar (an early leader at Canva, the COO at Simply Wall St. and a senior exec at Airtasker) announced that he’d returned to NZ with a bold vision: to produce 10 New Zealand technology unicorns (or ‘kiwicorns’) by 2026 through a brand-new incubator program. Phase One Ventures has had… Read more »
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