Alibaba pushes ahead in US with AI agent despite tariff headwinds | Trump hosts tech CEOs at the new White House Rose Garden | Seek accuses Employment Hero of misusing data to lure new customers
Plus, is it safe to upload your photos to ChatGPT?
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Alibaba.com is courting American businesses as it expects growing demand for imports despite the Trump administration's efforts to onshore supply chains, including threatening high tariffs on China. Nikkei Asia
US President Donald Trump on Thursday will host more than two dozen technology and business leaders for a dinner in the newly renovated White House Rose Garden, according to a White House official. InnovationAus
Seek has accused Employment Hero of misusing data from its classifieds platform to lure jobseekers into joining the start-up’s own applications in an escalation of a months-long dispute between the two companies. The Australian Financial Review
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Australia
Seek accuses Employment Hero of misusing data to lure new customers
The Australian Financial Review
Tess Bennett
Seek has accused Employment Hero of misusing data from its classifieds platform to lure jobseekers into joining the start-up’s own applications in an escalation of a months-long dispute between the two companies. Employment Hero launched legal action against Seek, a competitor and an investor through its venture capital fund, in July. It alleged in the Federal Court that the ASX-listed giant had cut off its access to a tool that allows its customers to post directly onto the widely-used jobs platform, claiming the larger company was engaging in anticompetitive conduct.
Lawyer caught using AI-generated false citations in court case penalised in Australian first
The Guardian
Josh Taylor
A Victorian lawyer has become the first in Australia to face professional sanctions for using artificial intelligence in a court case, being stripped of his ability to practise as a principal lawyer after AI generated false citations that he had failed to verify. Guardian Australia reported in October last year that in a 19 July 2024 hearing, the anonymous solicitor representing a husband in a dispute between a married couple provided the court with a list of prior cases that had been requested by Justice Amanda Humphreys in relation to an enforcement application in the case.
Simon bought two gift cards. Then he found a major security flaw
The Sydney Morning Herald
Gemma Grant and David Swan
When Simon Dean bought two $500 gift cards from his local Woolworths, he wasn’t expecting to uncover a security vulnerability affecting a major fintech company. In the market for a laptop upgrade in mid-July, the video creator and business owner wanted to take advantage of an Everyday Rewards points promotion with The Card Network products at the supermarket retailer. But alarm bells started ringing a day later. After issues trying to use the card online, a support staff member brought Dean dreaded news. One of the $500 cards had already been accessed and drained of its cash.
Meta, TikTok told to get ready as Australia’s under-16 ban nears
Bloomberg
Angus Whitley
Meta Platforms Inc., Google, TikTok Inc. and other digital platforms have been told by Australia’s online safety regulator to prepare now for the country’s social-media ban for under-16s — three months out from when the law comes into force. eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said Thursday she had written to the technology companies saying she expected them to get ready to deactivate accounts held by Australians who are under 16. Social-media companies should also stop under-age kids changing their account settings in a bid to get around the restriction, Inman Grant said. The law takes effect Dec 10. “This is the time for companies to start mobilizing and planning for implementation,” she said.
Scientists warn capability chasm threatens future generations
InnovationAus
Joseph Brookes
A “collapsing pipeline” of skilled workers and a policy quagmire threatens Australia’s ability to meet intergenerational challenges like the ageing population and technological disruption, according to one of the most detailed analysis ever of Australia’s science needs. To be released on Thursday, the analysis shows tertiary enrolments are falling in vital fields, and the research workforce is shrinking or stagnating in strategic demand areas, while research infrastructure and policy coordination also struggles.
China
Tech war: China advances in AI agentic tools as Tencent, ByteDance weigh in
South China Morning Post
Vincent Chow
China is making progress in artificial intelligence “agentic frameworks”, the tools required to make AI agents, as the country’s tech giants begin to take on US players such as AutoGen and OpenAI Swarm. Tencent Holdings was the latest to join the fray after the Shenzhen-based company open-sourced its new Youtu-Agent agentic framework on Tuesday. Developed by Youtu Labs, Tencent’s AI research department, the framework was released on Microsoft’s open-source code-hosting platform GitHub last week.
USA
Alibaba pushes ahead in US with AI agent despite tariff headwinds
Nikkei Asia
Yifan Yu
Alibaba.com is courting American businesses as it expects growing demand for imports despite the Trump administration's efforts to onshore supply chains, including threatening high tariffs on China. Alibaba.com, the business-to-business arm under Alibaba Group Holding, kicked off its annual CoCreate conference on Thursday. More than 3,500 American buyers -- mostly representatives from small and medium-sized enterprises -- flocked to the cross-border trade event in Las Vegas, nearly doubling the number of attendees from last year.
Trump hosts tech CEOs at the new White House Rose Garden
InnovationAus
Jarrett Renshaw
US President Donald Trump on Thursday will host more than two dozen technology and business leaders for a dinner in the newly renovated White House Rose Garden, according to a White House official. The guests include Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Apple chief executive Tim Cook, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the official said. The gathering highlights Mr Trump’s complicated but evolving relationship with Silicon Valley and the broader tech industry.
Trump administration doubles down on Big Tech antitrust cases despite Google setback
Financial Times
Stefania Palma and Michael Acton
Donald Trump has slapped down European tech rules and promised to slash regulation at home. But his administration is still pushing to break up America’s biggest companies. Washington continues to pursue cases aimed at curbing the market power of Google, Apple, Amazon and Meta. The Department of Justice showed no signs of relenting after a federal judge on Tuesday rejected its request to break up Google in the most high-profile monopoly case in a quarter century.
FTC announces settlement with toy robot makers that tracked location of children
CyberScoop
Derek B. Johnson
The Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement Tuesday with a Chinese robot toy manufacturer, following an investigation that charged the company with illegally collecting the location data of U.S. children who buy its products. In a complaint filed in the U.S. Northern District Court of California, the Department of Justice on behalf of the FTC charged Shenzhen, China-based Apitor Technology — makers of programmable robot toys for children — of violating U.S. federal law by tracking the geolocation of users under the age of 13 through an online app that users download to operate the robots.
Ice obtains access to Israeli-made spyware that can hack phones and encrypted apps
The Guardian
Stephanie Kirchgaessner
US immigration agents will have access to one of the world’s most sophisticated hacking tools after a decision by the Trump administration to move ahead with a contract with Paragon Solutions, a company founded in Israel which makes spyware that can be used to hack into any mobile phone – including encrypted applications. The Department of Homeland Security first entered into a contract with Paragon, now owned by a US firm, in late 2024, under the Biden administration.
North Asia
Taiwan signs MOU on drone cooperation with Poland, Ukraine
Taipei Times
A visiting delegation from Taiwan's defense industry has signed a memorandum of understanding with Ukrainian and Polish counterparts to cooperate in the field of unmanned aerial vehicle technology, Taiwan's representative office in Poland said yesterday. The MOU, signed at the International Defense Industry Exhibition in Poland, states that Taiwan would provide technology and components, while Ukraine would contribute research and development, and Poland would share its expertise in the field, according to the office.
DPP and LDP discuss undersea cable security
Taipei Times
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party and Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party explored ways to cooperate on undersea cable security during talks yesterday, DPP Legislator Kuo Kuo-wen told a news conference at the DPP’s headquarters in Taipei. The two groups discussed maintenance of undersea cables, which can be for telecommunications or high-voltage electricity, including the possibility of establishing a new information-sharing mechanism, Kuo said. To safeguard undersea cables, Taiwan would need assistance from Tokyo, because Japan has more advanced technology and expertise, he said.
Japanese startup brings AI chips to space in bid to rival Nvidia
Nikkei Asia
Ryohtaroh Satoh
A Japanese startup designing cost-efficient artificial intelligence chips to challenge Nvidia aims to start significantly boosting sales next year and become "IPO ready" by 2028, according to its CEO. Experts warn that computing power, transmission capacity and massive energy needs will be the primary bottlenecks to global AI adoption. Tokyo-based EdgeCortix is confident it can solve all these issues at once with efficient chips capable of handling AI workloads directly on satellites and devices such as smartphones, rather than relying on data centers powered by Nvidia's powerful but costly chips.
Fujitsu to launch US pilot of advanced optical network for data centers Nikkei Asia
PayPay app to expand to South Korea in first big step outside Japan Nikkei Asia
Korean firms warn of uneven rules as Seoul softens platform reform
The Korea Herald
Jie Ye-eun
South Korea is scaling back its online platform reform plan, as geopolitical tensions surrounding global tech regulation intensify, with recent warnings from US President Donald Trump sparking caution in Seoul’s approach. According to industry sources Thursday, the ruling Democratic Party of Korea is reconsidering its legislative strategy on digital platforms. During a policy workshop on Aug. 28, party officials reportedly discussed shelving the broad proposed Online Platform Act in favor of a narrower bill focused specifically on domestic food delivery apps.
Southeast Asia
At Singapore’s anti-fraud convention, even the experts get scammed
Financial Times
Owen Walker
As the world’s leading experts on preventing cyber fraud met in Singapore this week, conference attendees were offered the chance to queue-jump by scanning a QR code. More than 50 people fell for the mock scam, set up by organisers to raise awareness of “quishing” — or QR phishing — attacks, where hackers trick victims into exposing personal data to malicious websites. “Don’t worry, your mobile phone was not infected with malware and we are not sharing your credit card details,” Jorij Abraham, managing director of the Global Anti-Scam Alliance, reassured attendees. “But it does mean that everybody — even you — can be scammed.” The online scamming industry is growing quickly, with fraudsters stealing about $1tn a year, according to Gasa. South-east Asia is the hotbed for such fraudulent activity, with industrial scam centres in Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos — staffed by hundreds of thousands of trafficked workers — targeting victims around the world.
Ukraine – Russia
Ukraine’s cyber chief on Russian hackers’ shifting tactics, US cyber aid
The Record by Recorded Future
Daryna Antoniuk
When Oleksandr Potii took the helm of Ukraine’s cybersecurity agency last November, his to-do list exploded. Once responsible for only a handful of policy areas, the brigadier general saw his remit expand to more than a dozen — from protecting critical infrastructure to coordinating cyberdefense in the midst of a full-scale war. Potii’s promotion to lead the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection came as Ukraine faced relentless Russian attacks on both the battlefield and in cyberspace. He is the third person to run the agency since the Kremlin’s invasion in 2022.
Corruption case against ousted cyber chief is ‘revenge,’ Ukraine’s security service says The Record by Recorded Future
Europe
European court backs transatlantic data pact — for now
Center for European Policy Analysis
Anda Bologa
The European Union’s General Court, the bloc’s second-highest court, has handed Brussels and Washington a crucial win: it upheld the US-EU Data Privacy Framework, dismissing a French challenge that sought to annul the 2023 agreement allowing personal data to move freely across the Atlantic. This sounds technical. It isn’t. The ruling affects everything from sending an email, booking a hotel or storing photos in the cloud. American and European companies depend on moving personal information — names, emails, credit card numbers, even browsing histories — from Europe to servers in the US.
Middle East
Streameast, world’s largest pirated live sports network, shut down by Egyptian authorities
CyberScoop
Matt Kapko
Streameast, the most popular and largest illicit live sports streaming network, was shut down following a coordinated law enforcement action conducted by Egyptian authorities last month, an antipiracy coalition of entertainment companies announced Wednesday. Egyptian authorities seized infrastructure powering Streameast and arrested two operators at their residences in El-Sheik Zaid, Egypt, a spokesperson for the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment told CyberScoop.
Cato Networks acquires AI security startup Aim Security
CyberScoop
Greg Otto
Israeli cybersecurity company Cato Networks has acquired AI security startup Aim Security in its first ever acquisition, reflecting the broader industry rush to address security challenges posed by artificial intelligence adoption. The deal combines Cato’s Secure Access Service Edge networking platform with Aim’s AI security capabilities, allowing the company to protect customers from threats associated with generative AI tools and applications. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Big Tech
The message for big tech in the Google ruling: play nice, but play on
The New York Times
Steve Lohr
A wave of government antitrust suits targeting American technology giants — Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta — spans different markets and makes different allegations of monopolistic misconduct. But their outcomes will determine the rules of competitive conduct in the modern digital economy, where the internet, data and increasingly artificial intelligence shape markets and corporate behavior. A federal judge’s ruling Tuesday on what steps Google must take to fix its monopoly in online search delivered the first clear answer: You will be restrained, but not broken up or forced to fundamentally change your business practices.
Google ruling shows antitrust tools struggle to keep up with tech markets The Wall Street Journal
Artificial Intelligence
Is it safe to upload your photos to ChatGPT?
The Wall Street Journal
Jackie Snow
People are increasingly turning to AI chatbots not just for written queries, but for visual ones—uploading photos to identify a rash, spot a plant in the backyard or edit a headshot for LinkedIn. But as image-based interactions with artificial intelligence become more common, privacy experts say users might be sharing more than they realize. AI companies often frame image uploads as temporary inputs. What happens to those images after that interaction ends, however, can be far more unclear. There are risks in uploading images to AI, due to technical vulnerabilities, inconsistent and unclear policies from AI companies, and the unknown uses down the line.
The software promises to handle ever more complex jobs autonomously and fast. But legal teams are cautious
Financial Times
Nick Huber
Just a couple of years after the disruptive potential of generative artificial intelligence hit legal technology, a new subset is emerging: AI agents. This software can perform tasks on its own — make decisions, take action or solve problems — with less human guidance than generative AI. And it will enable further cost savings and speed up processes. At least, that is the promise. Companies’ in-house legal departments were keen early adopters of generative AI.
Research
MIGS launches new report “Wired for War: How Authoritarian States are Weaponizing AI against the West.”
Montreal Institute for Global Security
Kyle Matthews and Marie Lamensch
MIGS and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Canada are delighted to launch the report Wired for War: How Authoritarian States are Weaponize AI against the West.” Written by Kyle Matthews and Marie Lamensch, the report offers an initial assessment of how emerging technologies— particularly artificial intelligence, deepfakes, bots, and algorithmic amplification—are accelerating the scope and scale of foreign information manipulation and interference operations and cognitive warfare.
Events & Podcasts
China Future Tech webinar | How US tactics could boost China’s chip self-sufficiency
South China Morning Post
The US-China chip war is escalating, with Washington’s goal of limiting Beijing’s technological advancement now sparking a counter-reaction that may accelerate China’s drive for chip self-sufficiency. The latest actions in this conflict – including US export controls and China’s push for domestic alternatives – are reshaping the global semiconductor landscape. To explore these issues, the South China Morning Post will host a webinar with guest speaker Gary Ng, senior economist, Asia Pacific from Natixis, alongside SCMP’s speakers Ann Cao and Ralph Jennings, with Zhou Xin as the moderator.
The Sydney Dialogue 2025
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute is pleased to announce the Sydney Dialogue, the world’s premier policy summit for critical, emerging and cyber technologies, will return on 4-5 December. Now in its fourth year, the dialogue attracts the world’s top thinkers, innovators and policymakers, and focusses on the most pressing issues at the intersection of technology and security. TSD has become the place where new partnerships are built among governments, industry and civil society, and where existing partnerships are deepened.
The Daily Cyber & Tech Digest is brought to you by the Cyber, Technology & Security Programs team at ASPI and supported by partners.
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