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The AI data center boom is colliding with cities scarred by big industry
Communities across the United States, many still bearing the physical and health scars of past heavy industry, are pushing back against a wave of proposed AI data centre construction in their neighbourhoods. In Philadelphia’s Grays Ferry, activists such as Shawmar Pitts and Sonya Sanders of the group Philly Thrive, who grew up beside a since-shuttered…
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Labor accused of throwing creatives ‘under the bus’ with proposal to ease copyright protections for AI giants
The Albanese government is weighing a compromise that would give artificial intelligence companies default access to Australian creatives’ work for training AI models, as it seeks to attract major datacentre investment from US tech firms. The proposal emerged after senior OpenAI personnel met with Labor ministers to press the case that Australia’s copyright laws are…
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Anthropic’s CEO calls for AI slowdown as Nvidia’s urges acceleration
At a San Francisco technology conference on Tuesday, Anthropic’s chief executive, Dario Amodei, renewed his call for AI development to slow down, while Nvidia’s chief executive, Jensen Huang, argued the industry should accelerate. Speaking at Salesforce’s Dreamforce event, Amodei used a car-safety analogy to urge firms to scrutinise their own practices rather than attack rivals…
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AI networking startups race to replace Nvidia’s NVLink
Networking startups Cornelis Networks and Delos Data have unveiled rival technologies aimed at breaking Nvidia’s dominance in “scale-up” interconnects, the fabric that lets clusters of GPUs act as a single giant accelerator. Announced at the AI Infra Summit, the moves reflect a wider industry push, alongside efforts from AMD and others backing protocols such as…
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Tragic update after three-year-old girl killed by car in driveway as 27-year-old is charged
A 27-year-old man has been charged with negligent driving occasioning death after a three-year-old girl was fatally struck by a 4WD in a driveway in Auburn, western Sydney. The girl was hit while playing in the front yard shortly after 2pm on Tuesday and was rushed to Westmead Hospital in a critical condition, where she…
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Microsoft announces Windows and Surface event for October 7th
Microsoft has announced a Windows and Surface event for 7 October in San Francisco, its first major Windows event in more than two years. The company says it will focus on “how local AI will shape the next chapter of the PC”, with the presence of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang alongside Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and…
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Your AI agents’ reports and questions have a new inbox, courtesy of AWS
AWS engineers have released Pizza Bot, an open-source tool that manages AI agent tasks through an email-style inbox rather than a live chat window, so users can delegate work and check back only when a response or decision is needed. The tool addresses a common frustration with chat-based AI assistants, which require users to stay…
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What if social media isn’t hurting kids?
Psychologist Peter Gray has published *Restoring Childhood*, a direct challenge to Jonathan Haidt’s bestselling *The Anxious Generation*, which blames the decline in teen mental health since 2010 largely on smartphones and social media. Gray, a former collaborator of Haidt’s, argues instead that the causes lie in decades of reduced childhood autonomy and, more recently, rigid…
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How to improve the audio quality on your iPhone
The iPhone’s default sound is decent, but Engadget outlines several free and low-cost adjustments users can make to noticeably improve audio quality, whether listening through speakers, wired headphones or AirPods. This matters for anyone who regularly streams music or video on their phone, as small tweaks to streaming settings, equalisation and hardware can produce a…
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Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon call for curbs on AI at ‘pro-human’ summit
Senator Bernie Sanders and strategist Steve Bannon shared a platform at the “Pro-Human Assembly” in Washington on Tuesday, both warning about the dangers of artificial intelligence and calling for restrictions on Silicon Valley “oligarchs”, despite occupying opposite ends of the political spectrum. The event highlighted an unusual convergence between progressive and populist-right figures on AI…