@its-tom-williams
Technology journalist at @information-age.bsky.social 💻 Formerly at ABC News, and still talking tech (sometimes) on ABC Radio Gold Coast. Got a tip-off?💡 tomwilliams.contact@protonmail.com
Millions of human neurons are powering a new data centre in Melbourne – the first in the world to be powered by living brain cells.
I spoke with Hon Weng Chong, founder/CEO of the local startup behind it - Cortical Labs - which went viral after their system was used to teach neurons to play Doom:
The Singularity is upon us: Apple's AI summarized a text message that read "I'm still down to clown if you are" to.... "clown event still possible."
New from me: When I got a call from 'Mark' from inside a Sydney prison, he immediately spoke openly about his past and his new-found passion for coding.
“If I could [code] every day for the rest of my life, I'd consider myself very lucky,” he said.
Full feature on @information-age.bsky.social:
Text saying "You've read your last free article."
Jacked action hero with goon in headlock, in raspy yet firm voice:
BREAKING: Australian internet users are being blocked from some of the world’s most-visited pornography websites after their owner restricted access in protest over new age assurance rules which come into effect on Monday.
Full story on @information-age.bsky.social: ia.acs.org.au/article/2026...
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant says: "Make no mistake, where we see failures or foot-dragging, we will hold companies to account.”
BREAKING: Australian internet users are being blocked from some of the world’s most-visited pornography websites after their owner restricted access in protest over new age assurance rules which come into effect on Monday.
Full story on @information-age.bsky.social: ia.acs.org.au/article/2026...
Here are the actual MacBook Neo colours and details though:
Apple really missed a trick by not calling the MacBook Neo colours Red Pill and Blue Pill.
New from me: Major Australian technology companies Canva and NextDC saw their gender pay gaps more than double in the last financial year – as did the local arm of international data giant Amazon Web Services (AWS), according to new data released on Tuesday. 👇
Anthropic's Claude became the third most popular app on Apple's Australian App Store today, but is still one spot behind OpenAI's ChatGPT - and two spots behind the El Jannah app lol
On Android, Claude is now the fourth most popular app on Google Play in Australia - where ChatGPT remains number one
ngl, Samsung's new privacy display tech looks pretty slick, despite the cost.
If you can have a built-in protector without needing an annoying sticker, and it's customisable and only slightly decreases brightness, why not?
Wonder if Apple will pick it up too, given Samsung is a major supplier... 🤔
WiseTech: 2,000 job cuts, or almost a third of employees. "The era of manually writing code ... is over."
CBA: Around 300 cuts. Reduced support and coordination roles "by embedding the capability directly into our software delivery teams".
Optus: “Between 200 and 300” cuts, but no tech/AI mention.
Renowned artificial intelligence expert @tobywalsh.bsky.social criticised the Australian government and Big Tech firms for what he argued were inadequate approaches to AI regulation, in a speech at the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday.
Read more: ia.acs.org.au/article/2026...
New from me: The average earnings of an ICT manager in Australia dropped in 2025 while wages in other key industry roles continued to rise, new ABS figures show. 💸
“Basically, companies stopped paying people just to watch others work,” tech recruiter Ellis Taylor told @information-age.bsky.social.
This is a masterclass in how to say you're getting into NFTs without saying you're getting into NFTs.
New: While Telstra announced a $1.2 billion half-year profit today, it also confirmed it had cut more than 1,000 jobs in the final six months of 2025.
The telco removed 2,356 roles across the 2025 calendar year (more than 7 per cent of its workforce) — and there are further cuts to come in 2026.
Professor @kimweatherall.bsky.social from @sydney.edu.au's Centre for AI, Trust and Governance, on ByteDance's Seedance 2.0 AI vids:
"The visuals, and sound, and fluency are impressive.
“Do they appear similar to copyright materials? Yes — Spider-Man looks like Spider-Man, Mario looks like Mario."
Photo of a fairly generic modern bathroom with a shower/tub combo, a toilet, a sink, a mirror, and a demonic entity coming out of the mirror
What could go wrong using AI to help stage a few listing photos?
the computer is using itself issuing commands and it running off and doing better than I ever could an emptiness the net is leaving us behind and yet a hopefulness the fractured unreality ends eyes red and sore from staring into the flat abyss all day and all night hands sore from typing to it but it’s time to stop put it to an end cede the digital world to the machines it’s all over now only the real world remains where
the computer is using itself
vontonks.github.io/poetry
OpenAI researcher who resigned:
“People tell chatbots about their medical fears, their relationship problems, their beliefs about God and the afterlife.
“Advertising built on that archive creates a potential for manipulating users in ways we don’t have the tools to understand, let alone prevent.”
New from me: Telstra plans to cut more than 600 enterprise staff this financial year, as well as around 200 jobs from its joint venture with consultancy firm Accenture in which some roles will be offshored to India.
Full story on @information-age.bsky.social: ia.acs.org.au/article/2026...
Awesome visual feature here from UTS researcher @bronicee.bsky.social on AirTrunk's planned (and huge) 1GW Mamre Road Data Centre in Sydney's west.
via @aunz.theconversation.com: stories.theconversation.com/can-australi...
Hearing there might be another round of layoffs happening at Telstra.
Got a tip-off?💡 tomwilliams.contact@protonmail.com
“As a Prompt Writer, you define what "good" looks like for the Al agent by writing the "rulebook" and job descriptions it follows. You will design the prompts that guide Al agents through tasks in fake 'Salesforce' environments, ensuring the instructions are logical, clear, and efficient.”
Attn: Salesforce
If you’re not worried, I also just saw this job ad on LinkedIn from an anonymous AI company using a recruiter.
dubbers gonna dub
SaaSpocalypse Now?
A longtime romance novelist who has been published by Harlequin and Mills & Boon, Ms. Hart was always a fast writer. Working on her own, she released 10 to 12 books a year under five pen names, on top of ghostwriting. But with the help of A.I., Ms. Hart can publish books at an astonishing rate. Last year, she produced more than 200 romance novels in a range of subgenres, from dark mafia romances to sweet teen stories, and self-published them on Amazon. None were huge blockbusters, but collectively, they sold around 50,000 copies, earning Ms. Hart six figures.
slop pays, I guess?
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/b...
Finally got around to watching Grand Theft Hamlet, and it was so good.
youtu.be/OloHiBOMPm8?...
