With $26 billion expected to be invested in data centres and other AI infrastructure by 2030, the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) has called for a Digital Economy minister to be appointed to centralise policy coordination. In a pre-election policy statement, the AIIA said an incoming government should streamline the planning and approvals process for…
Four years on from a royal commission that warned of critical gaps in aged care data, the sector is still struggling with siloed solutions and a host of other information barriers, according to new CSIRO research. The science agency worked with the Digital Health CRC to assess progress in a complex and changing system comprising…
Canberra startup Quantum Brilliance and the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre in Western Australia on Monday unveiled a significant milestone in its ongoing quantum computing integration research. The research partners say the breakthrough demonstrates for the first time a practical path toward incorporating quantum processing into real-world applications. The collaboration has created a scalable, hybrid system that…
The federal government’s main technology suppliers have significant gender pay gaps, with some well above the industry averages and going backwards, newly released transparency data shows. Tuesday’s data reveals that overall the tech industry is closing its gender pay gap faster than the national rate, but it remains a chasm at almost double the economy…
Australia’s largest data centre providers added more than 100,000 tonnes in emissions to the atmosphere last year, with new data showing the CO2 impact of the fast-growing market. Annual emissions data released by the Clean Energy Regulator on Friday show emissions reached 1.78 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) in 2023-24, surging 114,763 tonnes…
Thousands of informational government webpages have been taken down so far in the second Trump administration, including on public health, scientific research and LGBTQ rights. Amid this mass erasure of public information, the Internet Archive is racing to save copies of those deleted resources. The San Francisco-based nonprofit operates the Wayback Machine, a popular tool that saves snapshots of websites that may otherwise be lost forever, and it has archived federal government websites at each presidential transition since 2004. While it’s normal for a new administration to overhaul some of its online resources, the Trump administration’s pace of destruction has shocked many archivists. “There have been thousands and thousands of pages removed,” says Mark Graham, director of the Wayback Machine, who notes that even a page about the U.S. Constitution was scrubbed from the White House website.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
Defence took back control of its troubled data consolidation overhaul from KPMG before it reached minimum viable capability late last year after identifying “deficiencies” with the contracted work, Senate Estimates has heard. The consulting giant’s technology arm corrected the shortcoming after a period of “hypercare”, before exiting the ambitious program altogether, Defence chief information officer…
Surging demand for artificial intelligence expertise and a scarcity of talent had created a yawning skills gap in Australia that is hindering companies’ ability to implement generative AI systems. The skills gap, which is growing, has put pressure on Australia’s existing talent pool and is expected to double over the next three years, according to…
Around a dozen current and former federal workers are behind a new website created as an outlet to share anonymous stories and technical expertise about the Department of Government Efficiency’s dismantling of government agencies.
“We the Builders” aims to be a secure outlet for government workers to share how their workplaces are being impacted by DOGE, and a place to explain the real world impact of its access to government tech systems, a former federal worker behind the project tells The Verge. The website was created by people who “made government websites easier to use while protecting the integrity of your personal information,” according to its description.
At the Paris AI Summit, leaders came together to make a commitment around artificial intelligence that empowers everyone, is sustainable and more inclusive. The Summit’s delegates announced “more than a hundred concrete actions … in favour of trusted AI accessible to all”. But is this model of global cooperation under threat, as we enter a…
The Health department has signed up for another year of Salesforce to help manage its COVID-19 vaccine data, after tightening assurance controls to verify its technology suppliers’ data security and privacy. The latest renewal pushes the US software giant’s pandemic software deals with the federal government to nearly $7 million. The wider COVID-19 vaccine technology…
ASIO chief Mike Burgess has delivered a “frank, uncomfortable” assessment of national security challenges, and says rapidly evolving technology – from artificial intelligence to encryption – will make the next five years more dangerous for Australia than the last. Australia had entered a period of “strategic surprise and security fragility” the director-general of the Australian…
Australia’s sovereign wealth fund has boosted its stake in Canberra Data Centres, the largest provider of data centre services to the federal government, in a transaction that values the company at $17 billion. The Future Fund reached an agreement on Monday to acquire almost half of the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation’s 24.08 per cent share of…
There is only so much thinking most of us can do in our heads. Try dividing 16,951 by 67 without reaching for a pen and paper. Or a calculator. Try doing the weekly shopping without a list on the back of last week’s receipt. Or on your phone. By relying on these devices to help…
Healthcare providers will be forced to upload key health information to My Health Record by default after laws designed to improve the utility of the national digital health platform passed parliament. A bill which makes Medicare rebates for providers conditional upon pathology and diagnostic imaging reports being shared to the system passed both houses of…
Until a few weeks ago, few people in the Western world had heard of a small Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company known as DeepSeek. But on January 20, it captured global attention when it released a new AI model called R1. R1 is a “reasoning” model, meaning it works through tasks step by step and…
The fires in Los Angeles represent a catastrophic failure to anticipate and respond to environmental threats. In the aftermath of such devastation, an obvious question looms: How did we miss the warning signs?
The answer is clear. Unlike other feedback systems designed to drive immediate response — think of the life-saving equipment in intensive care units, or even a car’s fuel gauge — the tools we use to monitor climate resilience and risk are dangerously, and indefensibly, outdated.
Take the Planetary Boundaries framework, one of the most recognized global indicators of humanity’s transgression of critical ecological thresholds, such as climate stability and biodiversity.
The arrival of a Chinese challenger shows Australia isn’t out of the AI arms race and could even carve out a dominant position in powering the technology, according to one of Australia’s leading AI experts. DeepSeek disrupted the AI scene this week by releasing a genuine alternative to US giants like OpenAI that it built…
Government legislation that ensures medical imaging data is shared by default with the My Health Record system is set to float through the Senate, despite concerns of an uneven cost on providers. On Thursday, a Labor-chaired Senate inquiry into the bill recommended it pass when it reappears for parliamentary debate next Wednesday, with Greens and…
The federal government has awarded $6.4 million to an industry-funded cyber threat intelligence network to establish a information sharing and analysis centre for the healthcare sector. The Critical Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Centre (CI-ISAC), a not-for-profit, will use the funding to bring on additional full-time staff and upgrade its technical information sharing platform. Its…
The Western Australian government has appointed a seven-member board of experts to advise on artificial intelligence as the the public sector looks to ramp up its use. The AI Advisory Board, announced over the weekend, consist of leaders with technical, legal, academic, cyber security, community engagement and governance backgrounds that will each serve a two-year…
In one of his first moves as the 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump announced a new US$500 billion project called Stargate to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence (AI) in the US. The project is a partnership between three large tech companies – OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle. Trump called it “the largest…
Defence’s Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator has selected two undisclosed companies for its first mission, signing contracts collectively worth $61.5 million after 18 months of co-design. Defence Industry minister Pat Conroy on Wednesday announced that the companies, based in Adelaide and Brisbane, would rapidly develop “technology to degrade integrated air and missile defence systems” as part of…
DXC Technology has secured $14.7 million for another four years of work on a secure data management system it developed for the federal government’s price setter for public health and aged care services . The multinational IT services and consulting company will operate, manage and support the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority’s (IHAPCA)…
Government support for industry-developed micro-credentials can reverse a decline in productivity growth and should be prioritised by government, according to one of the Parliament’s emerging leaders on technology and innovation policy issues. Liberal backbencher and co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Tech and Innovation Aaron Violi is calling on the federal government to “turbo charge”…
The World Health Organization has called on China to fully release crucial data surrounding the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan in 2020, although the call was dismissed by Beijing.
Five years ago, on Dec. 31, 2019, WHO’s Country Office in China picked up a media statement by the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission on cases of “viral pneumonia” in Wuhan, China, the World Health Organization, or WHO, said in a statement commemorating the start of the pandemic.
“In the weeks, months and years that unfolded after that, COVID-19 came to shape our lives and our world,” the United Nations health body said. “We continue to call on China to share data and access so we can understand the origins of COVID-19. This is a moral and scientific imperative.”
The statement came after the World Health Organization (WHO) urged China to release key COVID-19 origin data from Wuhan.
It added: “Let’s take a moment to honor the lives changed and lost, recognize those who are suffering from COVID-19 and long COVID, express gratitude to the health workers who sacrificed so much to care for us.”
China on Tuesday dismissed calls on its government to release more data from the emergence of the pandemic, which has killed at least 7 million people worldwide, and defended its record on international collaboration.
Peter Daszak, a member of the World Health Organization team investigating the origins of COVID-19, takes a swab sample on the balcony of a hotel in Wuhan, China, Feb. 6, 2021.(Hector Retamal/AFP)
“After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic five years ago, China immediately shared epidemic information and virus gene sequences with the World Health Organization and the international community,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a regular news briefing in Beijing on Tuesday.
“On the issue of COVID-19 origin tracing, China has always adhered to the spirit of science, openness and transparency, actively supported and participated in global scientific tracing, and resolutely opposed any form of political manipulation,” Mao said, quoting WHO experts as saying that they were satisfied with the access granted during their February 2021 visit.
Early days of COVID-19 pandemic
When reports first began to emerge of a “mystery virus” causing pneumonia in patients in Wuhan, China said it definitely wasn’t SARS, but later said it was a SARS-like virus.
Ho Pak-leung, head of the University of Hong Kong’s Centre for Infection, warned in early January 2020 that that it was highly possible that the disease was spreading from human to human, given the sheer number of cases that appeared in a short period of time.
Human-to-human transmission was confirmed by the WHO on Jan. 19, 2020.
The WHO also continued to advise that the disease was spread through “respiratory droplets and contact” rather than traveling through the air like smoke. This led governments and health services around the world to emphasize hand-washing and social distancing over other preventive measures.
But a WHO team sent to Wuhan to investigate the origins of the coronavirus pandemic in February 2021 sent out mixed signals regarding the transparency of the probe. Investigators said China refused to hand over raw patient data on early COVID-19 cases, making it harder to figure out how the outbreak began.
Whistleblowing doctors like Li Wenliang died of COVID-19 in the early phase of the pandemic, while those who survived were later silenced by intense political pressure.
Citizen journalists who went to Wuhan to document the early weeks of the outbreak and the citywide lockdown that followed were eventually caught, detained and sentenced to lengthy jail terms. Even after their release, some continue to face restriction and harassment.
Medical workers attend to COVID-19 patients in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Wuhan, China, Feb. 6, 2020.(China Daily via Reuters)
Rights groups said many Chinese people who spoke out against the government’s handling of the initial outbreak that eventually spread around the world had been prevented from getting anywhere near the team.
Competing theories of origin
Experts hired by the global health body to carry out a politically sensitive investigation of the origins of the pandemic had initially said that a leak from the lab was “extremely unlikely.” But WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus later said the lab leak theory warranted further investigation, as experts from 13 countries criticized a lack of transparency from China.
The U.S. intelligence community remains divided over whether COVID-19 originated from a lab in Wuhan or from natural exposure to an infected animal, and is only sure it wasn’t a deliberate bioweapon, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told the Senate in March 2023.
China has continued to insist that the virus originated from outside its borders, a claim reiterated by Mao on Tuesday.
“The international scientific community has more and more clues pointing to the global origin of the virus,” she said. “Origin tracing should also be based on a global perspective and carried out in multiple countries and regions.”
Better public health response still needed
Nearly five years since the first SARS-CoV-2 infections were reported, most countries have lifted public health and social measures and have moved to end their national COVID-19 emergencies, the WHO said on its official website.
The bio-containment level 4 laboratory, called P4 (left), is seen on the campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, Dec. 21, 2024.(Hector Retamal/AFP)
“COVID-19 continues to circulate widely, however, presenting significant challenges to health systems worldwide,” it said, adding that “tens of thousands” of people are infected or re-infected with SARS-CoV-2 each week around the world.
It called on governments to “sustain the public health response to COVID-19 amid ongoing illness and death and the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants.”
According to the National Institutes of Health’s LitCovid website, which compiles COVID-19 research from around the world, Long COVID and sequelae — new health problems like neurological and cardiovascular disease that are caused by the virus — are among the most heavily researched and trending topics among scientists.
Papers on the virus’ links to neurodegeneration, chronic fatigue and mitochondrial damage topped the list of trending topics out of more than 440,000 articles from 8,000 scientific journals on the website on Dec. 31, 2024.
Edited by Roseanne Gerin.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Luisetta Mudie.
The National Reconstruction Fund Corporation has announced a $22.5 million investment in secure data infrastructure provider Vault Cloud, bringing its total investments into Australian companies in the past month to $100 million. The investment in Vault, announced by NRFC chair Martijn Wilder on Friday, is the first into the fund’s Defence Capability priority area, and…
