T-shirt wearing billionaire Scott Farquhar has articulated AI’s claim on Australia with rare honesty – so what will we and will we not give up? * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Australians owe Scott Farquhar a vote of thanks. When the Atlassian co-founder and freshly minted chair of the local tech lobby fronted the National Press Club recently, he articulated the industry’s claim on the nation with rare honesty. The T-shirt wearing billionaire shared his log cabin story about a 12-year-old who naively predicted the internet, Amazon and the mass automation of work. But it was when he pivoted to the Tech Council of Australia’s talking points that things got real. Continue reading...

If we don’t refuse and resist, not just our culture but our democracy will be irrevocably diminished

Grave remarks on the potential shocks to people, property and the economy are all too familiar. Putting a credible number on the emissions target is the harder part * Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast It is hard to imagine there will be a more important piece of work put out by the Albanese government in this term of parliament than the national climate risk assessment. It suggests that at more than 2C of global heating – a level we are headed towards on our current trajectory – the systems Australians rely on could start to crumble and collapse. That’s an easy thing to say, but a hard thing to get your head around. There was a huge amount of information released on Monday, including an adaptation plan that is only the start of grappling with the issue, and it will take time to digest. But it is worth considering what the assessment led by the Australian Climate Service says about the country’s economic future if global emissions are not curbed and temperatures continue to rise. Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter Continue reading...

Full extent of artificial intelligence’s use in the legal profession is unknown but courts are worried about it being called on to write affidavits and witness statements and for case citations