Climate Tech

GASLIGHTED: Mike Cannon-Brookes scores emphatic win as AGL dumps demerger plan. So what happens next?

- May 30, 2022 4 MIN READ

Billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes has won a major battle against Australia’s biggest energy company, AGL Energy, thwarting its plan to split up the company’s coal-heavy generation and power distribution assets. AGL’s board announced it was dumping its demerger proposal this morning. Heads have rolled too. Chief executive Graeme Hunt, chairman Peter Botten and non-executive director Jacqueline… Read more »

Fintech

Why Mastercard’s new ‘smile to pay’ face recognition payment system could cause some big problems

- May 27, 2022 4 MIN READ

Mastercard’s “smile to pay” system, announced last week, is supposed to save time for customers at checkouts. It is being trialled in Brazil, with future pilots planned for the Middle East and Asia. The company argues touch-less technology will help speed up transaction times, shorten lines in shops, heighten security and improve hygiene in businesses.… Read more »

Tesla, autopilot, car, self driving
Other tech

Now that Australia’s had a serious accident involving a self-driving car, it’s time to open AI’s black box and decide who’s responsible

- May 25, 2022 4 MIN READ

  The first serious accident involving a self-driving car in Australia occurred in March this year. A pedestrian suffered life-threatening injuries when hit by a Tesla Model 3 in “autopilot” mode. In the US, the highway safety regulator is investigating a series of accidents where Teslas on autopilot crashed into first-responder vehicles with flashing lights… Read more »

Musk, twitter
Business

Elon Musk’s wrong about free speech on social media – the problem lies in the algorithms

- May 19, 2022 4 MIN READ

Imagine there is a public speaking square in your city, much like the ancient Greek agora. Here you can freely share your ideas without censorship. But there’s one key difference. Someone decides, for their own economic benefit, who gets to listen to what speech or which speaker. And this isn’t disclosed when you enter, either.… Read more »

Climate Tech

How New Zealand could be a decarbonisation leader using forestry and geothermal tech

- May 18, 2022 4 MIN READ

Energy is the double-edged sword at the root of the climate crisis. Cheap energy has improved lives and underpinned massive economic growth. But because most of it comes from burning hydrocarbon fuels, we’re now left with a legacy of high atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and an emissions-intensive economy. But what if we could flip the… Read more »

Jean-Claude Van Damme
Politics

Australia doesn’t have a strategy for moving to clean transport quickly – so we wrote this plan

- May 12, 2022 4 MIN READ

Australia has no clear strategy to decarbonise transport. That’s a problem, because without a plan, our take-up of clean technologies like electric cars, trucks and buses is slow. It’s stopping us from meeting our climate commitments. And it leaves us paying exorbitant prices for imported oil at the fuel pump, as well as in the… Read more »

Mark Zuckerberg
Business

Whistleblowers accuse Facebook of deliberately taking down important non-news pages during its 2021 fight over paying for news

- May 10, 2022 4 MIN READ

On Friday, the Wall Street Journal published information from Facebook whistleblowers, alleging Facebook (which is owned by Meta) deliberately caused havoc in Australia last year to influence the News Media Bargaining Code before it was passed as law. During Facebook’s news blackout in February 2021, thousands of non-news pages were also blocked – including important… Read more »

Other tech

Elon Musk claims his Neuralink brain chip could ‘cure’ tinnitus within 5 years, but here’s why it may take longer

- May 5, 2022 3 MIN READ

The human brain is said to be the most complex biological structure ever to have existed. And while science doesn’t fully understand the brain yet, researchers in the expanding field of neuroscience have been making progress. Neuroscientists have made substantial inroads towards mapping the complex functions of the brain’s 85 billion or so neurons and… Read more »

Kogan.com
Data

The ACCC wants online marketplaces to give users more control over their data

- May 4, 2022 4 MIN READ

Consumers using online retail marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon “have little effective choice in the amount of data they share”, according to the latest report of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) Digital Platform Services Inquiry. Consumers may benefit from personalisation and recommendations in these marketplaces based on their data, but many are… Read more »

Grill'd burgers, Fable
Advice

From plant-based burgers to insects: the CSIRO’s protein roadmap to where to invest

- April 19, 2022 3 MIN READ

As demand for alternative protein sources grows, Australians are increasingly looking for options that are healthy, sustainable and ethically made. At CSIRO, we have produced a “protein roadmap” to guide investments in a diverse range of new products and ingredients. We believe plant-based patties, lab-made meat and insects are just some of the foods set… Read more »