Justin Hendry

You’ve been thinking about it, been creating excuse after excuse in your mind, justifying how you can leave all the connections you’ve built up. But it has become inexcusable to remain on X/Twitter – now a genuine propaganda machine spewing hate and disinformation to undermine facts, our information ecosystem and democracy. If leaving because of the scandals, the erratic product changes, promotion of abhorrent content, vile hate speech or the conspiracy theories wasn’t reason enough, X was also used to mobilise a type of ‘citizen journalism’ that favoured lies or just outright fiction, made a villain out of news organisations, and created an alternate reality all to favour a Donald Trump victory. There is no doubt that X played a material role in electing Donald Trump as US President. After buying Twitter and transforming it into X, Musk wasted no time in turning it into his own personal propaganda machine, demonising critics and the news media, while amplifying supporters, cryptobros, and toxic masculinity idols, nurturing the kind of disaffected groups that supported Trump. Once he gave his formal endorsement, X became one of the most important channels for the Trump campaign.

Australia has climbed one place in global digital competitiveness rankings, helped by AI research prowess and its front-footed policy making for the technology, as other indicators stagnate. The latest edition of the World Digital Competitive Ranking by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) puts Australia in 15th position, up from 16th of 67 in 2023.The rankings, released on Thursday, show the country’s relative strengths lie with its credit rating (1), the net flow of international students (2) and the ease of starting a business (5).

A trial of age verification technology will not deliver its findings to the federal government until six months after proposed legislation banning social media for under-16s is introduced to Parliament. The Communications department revealed the expected wait for the results while announcing a consortium of “industry experts” led by Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS) as...

Flying vehicle startup AMSL Aero has completed the first untethered test flight of its Australian designed and manufactured electric aircraft in New South Wales’ central west. The first free battery-power flight took place earlier this month, AMSL Aero announced on Monday, with the fully electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft taking off and landing successful more than 50 times. It marks a crucial milestone eVTOL, which the Bankstown-based company wants to test with hydrogen fuel in 2025 and have ready for its customers to begin commercial flights in 2027, pending certification and regulatory approval.

Public sector organisations increasingly rely on enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems as a unified platform to streamline business processes across finance, human resources, procurement and asset management. While ERP systems promise operational efficiency, implementing them involves more than just a technological upgrade -- it is a fundamental business transformation challenge. Success lies in balancing these two dimensions effectively. Governments operate under stringent regulations, accountability and security standards, yet they vary in size, complexity and requirements. This diversity complicates ERP adoption, making it crucial to select the right pathway for both technology and business processes. While a few core ERP platforms dominate, challenges remain in navigating data migration, decommissioning and integration.

The Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator has awarded more than $60 million in long-term R&D contracts to local quantum and defence tech companies, universities and the CSIRO. Analog Quantum Circuits, QuantX Labs and Q-CTRL are among the local startups to score contracts under the oversubscribed Emerging and Disruptive Technologies program. A total of 21 projects have been funded as part of the $60 million investment, which represents the biggest spend by the Defence accelerator since it was set up in July 2023.

Australia will conduct a series of hypersonic vehicle tests with its AUKUS partners under a new agreement designed to accelerate the development of the dual-use technology. The agreement, announced on Tuesday, will see Australia work with the United State and United Kingdom on as many as six “trilateral flight test campaigns” at a cost of US$252 million. The Hypersonic Flight Test and Experimentation (HyFliTE) Project Arrangement will grant the three nations access to each other’s hypersonics testing facilities and involve the sharing of technical information.

Tech giants will face fines of up to $50 million for breaches of Australia's online safety laws under new legislation introduced to give rise to a world-first social media ban for under 16-s.Communications minister Michelle Rowland introduced the controversial Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill to Parliament on Thursday morning, having settled on 16 as the minimum age requirement earlier this month. Elon Musk’s X, TikTok, Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat and Reddit are among the social media platforms that will be designated “at a minimum”, Ms Rowland said, requiring them to “take reasonable steps” to prevent access for age-restricted users.

Victoria-based Esper Satellites secured $1 million from a Northern Territory-based venture capital fund for winning the local Croc Pitch event with its hyperspectral imaging technology. Mounted on a satellite, Esper’s sensors can reveal the detailed chemical composition of the earth from space for a fraction of the usual cost, potentially transforming Australia’s resource management and environmental monitoring sectors. The earth observation startup beat 35 other applicants, including eight other finalists on the day of the pitch event, to win the Darwin Innovation Hub’s sixth annual Croc Pitch event last month. Multispectral imaging is especially useful in the energy and mining sectors because it can be used to create extremely detailed scans of an area of land, or a manufacturing facility, or body of water.

A $6 million investment in Australia’s largest university-based machine learning research group by the Commonwealth Bank earlier this year paid for itself just three weeks into the partnership. That’s according to Commonwealth Bank chief information officer for technology Brendan Hopper, who has explained the thinking behind the recent $6 million investment in the Australian Institute for Machine Learning (AIML). It represents the “biggest-ever investment from a private sector company in Australia into foundation AI”, and follows several other investments by AIML university and state government backers in recent months.