Technology
The cable shortage: Plugging in offshore wind farms
Australia’s late entry into the offshore wind market is a welcome development for clean energy advocates. The federal government this month issued what it has called the first…
Quantum of silence
For most people, quantum computers are the stuff of science fiction. Based on shooting microwave photons at “qubits”, quantum computers are estimated to be far more powerful than…
Cultivating a healthy information environment
The recent behaviour of some social media companies seems explicitly designed to provoke governments into enacting much more stringent regulation of the sector. Elon Musk’s very…
The cable ties to China’s Digital Silk Road
Technological competition between the United States and China is transforming the physical connections that make up the digital world and its governance. China’s “Belt and Road…
Australia’s comparative advantage in climate transition
Australia’s $2 billion Southeast Asia Investment Financing Facility (SEAIFF) is a catch-all response to diverse objectives. It was a “deliverable” – or at least an “announcable” –…
China’s high ambition for the low-altitude economy
The futuristic notion of flying drones buzzing atop houses and city streets, making deliveries or even transporting passengers, might never quite eventuate. Yet governments and…
Are US export controls making China’s chip industry more innovative?
Recent reports of Chinese semiconductor chip manufacturers planning to produce 5-nanometre (nm) chips this year raise several uncomfortable questions for American efforts to…
ASEAN and the military applications of AI
ASEAN's new Guide on AI Governance and Ethics, released earlier this year, marks a milestone as the region's first coordinated effort to manage the risks of artificial…
Don’t play it by ear: Audio deepfakes in a year of global elections
Artificial intelligence company OpenAI recently introduced Voice Engine, a natural-sounding speech generator that uses text and a 15-second audio sample to create an “emotive and…
China and the great global AI governance divide
For all the common global purpose on the need to manage the risks associated with the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence, deep fissures about how to govern this new…