By Ted Smillie - Saturday, March 31st, 2018
Mark Zukerberg’s 21 March 2018 public post about Cambridge Analytica gives a timeline which starts In 2013, with Cambridge University researcher Aleksandr Kogan creating a personality quiz app. However, our March 2017 Cambridge Analytica article Fear the Geeks tells a different story. That article is primarily about “The Reclusive Hedge-Fund Tycoon Behind the Trump Presidency” […]
By American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev - Tuesday, March 13th, 2018
Off-the-shelf devices that include baby monitors, home security cameras, doorbells, and thermostats were easily co-opted by cyber researchers . As part of their ongoing research into detecting vulnerabilities of devices and networks expanding in the smart home and Internet of Things (IoT), the researchers disassembled and reverse engineered many common devices and quickly uncovered serious security issues.
By Martin Jucker - Wednesday, March 7th, 2018
Designing climate experiments is all but impossible in the real world. We can’t, for instance, study the effects of clouds by taking away all the clouds for a set period of time and seeing what happens.
Instead, we have to design our experiments virtually, by developing computer models. Now, a new open-source set of climate models has allowed this research to become more collaborative, efficient and reliable.
By Andrew Leigh - Thursday, March 1st, 2018
Randomised trials are in your life, whether you like it or not. In most advanced countries, governments won’t pay for pharmaceuticals unless they’ve undergone a randomised evaluation. Increasingly, the world’s smartest aid agencies are looking for the same level of evidence before they allocate funds to a project.
By Ted Smillie - Tuesday, February 27th, 2018
The OECD 11 February 2018 report, Embracing Innovation in Government: Global Trends 2018, is based on “a global review of ways governments are transforming their operations and improving the lives of their citizens though innovation.” 58 countries contributed 276 cases of innovative initiatives. The Report identifies 3 Key Trends and 10 Case Studies. The OPEC […]
By The Mandarin - Monday, February 19th, 2018
The newest commander of Australia’s peak war college might not have made it very far in his military career if not for a leader who crossed his path some 30 years ago.
Major General Mick Ryan has penned the story of why he always looks to give others a second chance, after meeting the former commandant who taught him that failure did not have to be the end, but an opportunity to learn.
By Helen Dickinson, Nicole Carey, Catherine Smith, Gemma Carey - Tuesday, February 6th, 2018
An ANZSOG-funded research project is exploring the increasing use of robots in care services to replace or complement the roles of humans. In this article, researchers Helen Dickinson, Nicole Carey, Catherine Smith and Gemma Carey explore some of the long-term implications for governments from the rise of robots.
The rise in number of citizens needing government-provided care services and advances in technology make it inevitable that robots will play a far greater role in care services, including services most of us will access at some point in our lives (e.g. education and health) and those that only a small proportion of the population will access (e.g. disability services or prison).
By CSIRO - Monday, February 5th, 2018
The disclosure of the Meltdown and Spectre computer vulnerabilities on January 2, 2018 was in many ways unprecedented. It shocked – and scared – even the experts. The vulnerabilities bypass traditional security measures in the computer and affect billions of devices, from mobile phones to massive cloud servers.
By Ted Smillie - Saturday, January 20th, 2018
Our June 2017 article How Dangerous Is Deep Learning? reviewed the deep learning arguments (sometimes acrimonious) as “part of an ongoing controversy which engages some of the best minds on the planet”. New evidence is offering further insights for and against the proposition that “Artificial Intelligence (AI) will soon be able to set its own […]
By Esther Rajadurai - Saturday, January 20th, 2018
At the heart of Australia’s society and economy is the idea of the ‘fair go’: the notion that, if we work hard enough, we will be able to get ahead no matter our gender, ethnicity, or our post code. But in recent years, the fair go has been under threat, particularly as wage and income inequality has widened, leaving more Australians behind.1
