Australian unions seek public-interest veto on workplace AI | Asian Development Bank contemplates nuclear energy | Europe's sovereign AI moment
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Unions want workers to have the right to refuse to use artificial intelligence if it’s not in the public interest, in measures that may clash with the Albanese government’s light-touch approach at its upcoming productivity roundtable. Australian Financial Review
The Asian Development Bank is reviewing whether to lift a ban on funding nuclear power projects to help meet a surge in demand for energy across the region. Australian Financial Review
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has been pitching the idea of "sovereign AI" since 2023. Europe is now starting to listen and act. In a place where leaders are increasingly wary of the continent's dependency on a handful of U.S. tech companies and after drawing ire from the U.S. President Donald Trump, his vision has started to gain traction. Reuters
ASPI
Where to next for Australian satellite communications?
The Australian
Malcolm Davis
Resilient communications is a key foundation of the Australian Defence Force’s ability to undertake joint and integrated military operations as part of a military strategy of denial. Therefore it is vital that Australia has access to secure and resilient satellite communications, or “satcom”. Yet on November 4, 2024, the government cancelled the most important space capability planned for the ADF – defence Joint Project JP-9102. Some $US90m ($138m) had already been spent on the capability by the then most likely preferred bidder, Lockheed Martin, which was all set to ¬provide four sophisticated communications satellites to be placed in geosynchronous orbit (GEO) at 36,500km from Earth.
China reviews impact of US data curbs due to Trump’s budget cuts
Bloomberg
Several Chinese ministries and bodies have in recent weeks started assessing potential disruption to their work, and made efforts to determine the extent to which some activities have become reliant on data published by the US, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified to discuss details that aren’t public. Cuts to research and information sharing in the US will also impact partners from Europe to Australia, across fields such as astronomy, physics, public health and weather monitoring, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute said last month.
Australia
Union push for workers to have right to refuse to use AI
The Australian Financial Review
David Marin-Guzman
Unions want workers to have the right to refuse to use artificial intelligence if it’s not in the public interest in measures that may clash with the Albanese government’s light-touch approach at its upcoming productivity roundtable. The previously unreported demands detailed in the Australian Council of Trade Unions’ AI policy and endorsed at the most recent ACTU Congress, show union ambitions go beyond just mandated training and consultation about the emerging technology to more ambitious workers’ powers over AI.
AUKUS Pillar 2 is coming – no time to snooze
The Australian
Phillip Roberts & Ian Koegelenberg
The AUKUS trilateral security partnership between Australia, the US and the UK is one of the most consequential defence commitments Australia has ever made – and not just because of nuclear submarines. While Pillar 1, which outlines Australia’s acquisition of ¬nuclear-powered submarines, has received the most attention, Pillar 2 – focused on the joint development of advanced technologies – may prove even more critical for Australia’s long-term sovereignty.
WA audit slams $1.6b cost blowout on major IT projects
InnovationAus
Justin Hendry
Western Australia’s largest in-flight IT projects have blown out by at least $1.6 billion and will be delivered years later than first planned, a damning review by the state’s auditor-general has found. The first transparency report on major IT projects like the state’s long-awaited public transport ticketing upgrade and electronic health record also reveals that parliament and the public are being kept in the dark about the cost blowouts and delays.
2025 Transparency Report – Major IT Projects
Government of Western Australia
Office of the Auditor General
Despite the importance of IT projects for the delivery of quality public services, Parliament and the public do not have a full and accurate picture of project costs and progress, including when benefits will be available to the community. We found publicly available information on IT projects is patchy and inconsistent.
China
Baidu ramps up AI hiring as China faces talent crunch, joining other tech giants
South China Morning Post
Ben Jiang and Coco Feng
Chinese internet search giant Baidu is accelerating its hunt for artificial intelligence talent with its largest-ever recruitment drive focused on the industry, as technology giants race to secure scarce expertise in the fast-growing sector. The Beijing-based firm said in a statement that job openings in its so-called AIDU annual recruitment drive – an initiative to attract and develop future AI tech leaders – had surged 60 per cent this year. The company did not specify the total number of positions.
Death, bans, and fines: China’s top AI-generated fake news stories
Sixth Tone
Ding Rui
Was the mortality rate among China’s post-1980 generation really 5.2% in 2024? Was Guangzhou the first Chinese city to ban food delivery in 2023? And did a fruit vendor in Shandong province face a 1.4 million yuan ($195,000) fine for lacking a business license last October? These three widely shared stories, which sparked considerable attention on the Chinese internet, share one thing in common — it wasn’t the truth. Investigations later revealed that they had all been fabricated with the help of artificial intelligence.
China’s robotics market set to double from 2024 to 2028: Morgan Stanley
South China Morning Post
Hannah Wang
China’s robotics market is set to grow at an annual rate of 23 per cent to US$108 billion by 2028 from US$47 billion in 2024, solidifying the country’s dominant position in the fast-developing sector, according to a research note published by Morgan Stanley on Monday. China’s share of the global robotics market was about 40 per cent last year, according to the report by Hong Kong-based analysts Sheng Zhong and Chelsea Wang. A specific forecast for China’s market share by 2028 was not provided.
China joins US in brain implant race with clinical trial
Bloomberg
Karoline Kan
China’s first clinical trial of a technology that allows signals from the brain to control an external device has proved successful, making it only the second country after the US to reach this stage, according to the Global Times. Chinese researchers used brain-computer interfaces, or BCI, a wireless invasive implant in a patient with tetraplegia in March, the English-language newspaper reported.
United States
Trump Organization enters phone market with $499 Trump Mobile device
Reuters
Hannah Lang and Michelle Conlin
The Trump Organization launched a self-branded mobile service and a $499 smartphone on Monday, dubbed Trump Mobile, signaling a new effort to court conservative consumers with a wireless service positioned as an alternative to major telecom providers. The new mobile venture will include call centers based in the United States and phones made in America, the organization said.
The U.S. Navy is more aggressively telling startups, ‘We want you’
TechCrunch
Connie Loizos
The Navy’s chief technology officer, Justin Fanelli, says he has spent the last two and a half years cutting through the red tape and shrinking the protracted procurement cycles that once made working with the military a nightmare for startups. The efforts represent a less visible but potentially more meaningful remaking that aims to see the government move faster and be smarter about where it’s committing dollars.
BlackSky unveils wide-area imaging satellite
Space News
Sandra Erwin
BlackSky, a provider of satellite imagery and analytics, announced plans to develop a new type of Earth observation satellite designed to capture large areas of the planet. This new satellite will target applications requiring broad geographical coverage, including country-scale mapping, maritime monitoring and the creation of virtual replicas of physical locations. The wide-area imaging satellite, called Aros, is scheduled to launch in 2027, BlackSky’s CEO Brian O’Toole told SpaceNews.
Donald Trump's Truth Social files for dual Bitcoin and Ether ETF
CoinDesk
Oliver Knight
Trump Media and Technology Group filed an S-1 with the SEC to launch a spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF, allocating 75% to bitcoin and 25% to ether. Crypto.com will serve as the ETF’s custodian and liquidity provider. The move aligns with the Trump family's crypto interests as World Liberty Financial is heavily focused on Ethereum.
Americas
How the trade war with the U.S. could fix Canada's internet
CBS News
Philip Drost
Canada's trade relationship with the U.S. is now more uncertain than ever, thanks to President Donald Trump's unpredictable regime of tariffs. But even though it's a bad situation, Doctorow says, it's an opportunity for Canada to do something it should've done before. Since it was trade pressure that pushed Canada to go above and beyond what the WIPO treaties required, and that trade situation is in flux, Doctorow says Canada has the chance to change its digital copyright laws to something more in line with the rest of the world, and isn't as restrictive as the U.S.'s laws.
North Asia
Asian Development Bank mulls lifting nuclear power funding ban
The Australian Financial Review
Jamie Smyth and Harry Dempsey
The Asian Development Bank is reviewing whether to lift a ban on funding nuclear power projects to help meet a surge in demand for energy across the region. The talks between officials at Asia’s largest multilateral lender and government stakeholders reflect growing support for the emissions-free energy source among global policymakers as they search for solutions to meet fast-rising electricity demands and climate commitments.
Samsung is desperate to compete on chips. Workers say it comes at a cost.
Rest of World
Michelle Kim
Scarred by long hours, heavy workloads, and lower bonuses compared to rivals, many Samsung engineers are leaving for South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix, 10 current and former engineers told Rest of World. Some are moving to Micron and Intel in the U.S., as well as Chinese competitors such as CXMT and YMTC. Burnout is deepening across short-staffed teams already stretched thin, they said. All workers except Han requested they be identified by pseudonyms because they feared retaliation from the company.
The underlying risks to Japan’s undersea cables
The Japan Times
Karin Kaneko
Recent reports of suspected sabotage targeting undersea cables near Taiwan and in the Baltic Sea are highlighting a vulnerability in Japan — an island nation that relies almost entirely on such cables to stay connected to the rest of the world. The government is increasingly aware of the risk. Tucked into this year’s economic and fiscal policy guidelines, referred to as honebuto no hōshin, which set the tone for budget planning for the next fiscal year, is official recognition of submarine cables as strategic infrastructure vital to Japan’s economic security.
SK, AWS to build Korea’s largest AI data center in Ulsan
The Korea Herald
Ahn Sung-mi
SK Group is partnering with Amazon Web Services to build South Korea’s largest artificial intelligence data center in Ulsan, with both companies investing several trillion won, according to industry sources Monday. The two companies are set to kick off the project this month, with a groundbreaking ceremony scheduled for August. The mega-sized facility will be built on a 36,000-square-meter site in the Mipo Industrial Complex in Ulsan, sources said.
Korea Zinc ships antimony to US in move to counter China supply risks
The Korea Herald
Lim Jae-song
Korea Zinc, one of the world’s leading non-ferrous metal producers, announced Monday that it has made its first export of antimony, a key material used in electronics and defense manufacturing, to the United States. With this move, Korea Zinc aims to position itself as an alternative supplier to China, which accounted for 60 percent of US antimony imports last year.
LG Energy Solution breaks into Chinese EV market with battery deal for Chery
The Korea Herald
Byun Hye-jin
LG Energy Solution announced Monday that it has secured an agreement to supply 46-series cylindrical batteries to China’s Chery Automobile, marking the first time a Korean company will power Chinese electric vehicles. Under the deal, LG Energy Solution will provide 8 gigawatt-hours of its new 46-series batteries — measuring 46 millimeters in diameter and between 80 and 120 millimeters in height — over the next six years, enough to power approximately 120,000 EVs.
Southeast Asia
Race to mine metals for EV batteries threatens marine paradise
BBC
Victoria Gill
The Raja Ampat archipelago - a group of small islands in Indonesia's Southwest Papua Province - has been dubbed the "Amazon of the Seas". But mining for nickel - an ingredient in electric vehicle batteries and in stainless steel - has ramped up there in recent years, according to the organisation Global Witness. In a move that was welcomed by campaigners, the Indonesian government this week revoked permits for four out of five mining companies operating in the region.
US pushes Vietnam to decouple from Chinese tech, sources say
Reuters
Francesco Guarascio
The United States is pushing Vietnam in tariff talks to reduce the use of Chinese tech in devices that are assembled in the country before being exported to America, three people briefed on the matter said. The Southeast Asian nation has been organising meetings with local businesses to boost the supply of Vietnamese parts, with firms showing willingness to cooperate but also warning they would need time and technology to do so, according to one person with knowledge of the discussions.
South & Central Asia
A 3-tonne, $1.5 billion satellite to watch Earth’s every move is set to launch this week
The Conversation
Steve Petrie
In a few days, a new satellite that can detect changes on Earth’s surface down to the centimetre, in almost real time and no matter the time of day or weather conditions, is set to launch from India’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre near Chennai. Weighing almost 3 tonnes and boasting a 12-metre radar antenna, the US$1.5 billion NISAR satellite will track the ground under our feet and the water that flows over and through it in unprecedented detail, providing valuable information for farmers, climate scientists and natural disaster response teams.
Europe
Nvidia's pitch for sovereign AI resonates with EU leaders
Reuters
Supantha Mukherjee
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has been pitching the idea of "sovereign AI" since 2023. Europe is now starting to listen and act. Last week, the CEO of the artificial-intelligence chipmaker toured Europe's major capitals - London, Paris and Berlin - announcing a slew of projects and partnerships, while highlighting the lack of AI infrastructure in the region.
Tánaiste announces major new contract for Sonar Capability
Government of Ireland
The Tánaiste and Minister for Defence, Simon Harris TD, today announced the signing of a multi-million euro contract with Thales DMS France for the provision of towed sonar capability. The new sonar capability will be used on Irish Naval vessels to monitor activities in the Irish Exclusive Economic Zone and, in particular, in the vicinity of subsea communication cables or gas pipelines.
EU’s waffle on artificial intelligence law creates huge headache
POLITICO
Pieter Haeck
When the bloc’s AI rules were agreed, EU officials and legislators celebrated a multi-year effort to set a global standard designed to keep humanity safe from dangerous tech. But the focus has shifted from safety to catching up with American and Chinese companies leading the AI race, and the EU's prized AI rulebook is at strong risk of being tweaked as part of a push in Brussels to simplify laws and reduce requirements on businesses. While digital rights campaigners warn the change of heart could see technological catastrophe come true, industry is also conflicted about the indecision.
EU seeks to sever nuclear energy ties with Russia
Financial Times
Alice Hancock
The EU has 101 nuclear reactors of which 19 are Soviet “VVER” designs. The bloc relies on Russia for about 20-25 per cent of its natural, converted and enriched uranium. Reactors across the EU often buy in Russian spare parts or require maintenance expertise. The European Commission ideally would like the European nuclear sector to be free of Russian imports by the 2030s, EU officials have said. But in a document published on Friday it warned that €241bn of investment was needed to build out the domestic nuclear supply chain.
Finnish police accuse Eagle S master of cable cutting
Lloyd's List
Joshua Minchin
Cook Islands-flagged Eagle S was suspected of damaging the Estlink 2 cable, which runs between Finland and Estonia, on December 25, 2024. The tanker was seized by Finnish police and an investigation into the incident began. During the investigation, police found the vessel’s anchor on the seabed at the end of an anchor drag mark. That investigation has now concluded, and Finnish police say the evidence collected points in the direction of those three seafarers.
Police seizes Archetyp Market drug marketplace, arrests admin
Bleeping Computer
Sergiu Gatlan
Law enforcement authorities from six countries took down the Archetyp Market, an infamous darknet drug marketplace that has been operating since May 2020. In total, law enforcement officers seized 47 smartphones, 45 computers, narcotics, and assets worth €7.8 million from all suspects during Operation Deep Sentinel.
UK
Taihan Cable joins UK’s Global Offshore Wind 2025 to showcase submarine cable solutions
The Korea Herald
Park Soo-bin
South Korean undersea cablemaker Taihan Cable & Solution on Monday announced its participation in Global Offshore Wind 2025, the UK’s largest offshore wind energy exhibition held in London this week. Taihan will present its offshore wind power solutions, high-voltage direct current submarine cable systems and a model of its cable-laying vessel, Palos.
Liverpool is crypto capital of UK, survey finds
The Guardian
Raphael Boyd
The city’s most famous sons may have sung that money can’t buy you love, but that was before bitcoin existed. Liverpool has emerged as the crypto capital of the UK, according to a study looking at the online habits of people across the country. The survey, conducted by telecommunications company Openreach, found that 13% of respondents from Liverpool regularly invest in cryptocurrency and check stocks, more than anywhere else in Britain.
Africa
‘Amazon of Africa’ Jumia fights to rebuild investor trust
Financial Times
Aanu Adeoye
The chief executive of Jumia, the ecommerce group often dubbed the “Amazon of Africa”, said it needs to “rebuild credibility” with investors as it steps up its push to reach profitability amid rising competition from Chinese rivals. Francis Dufay told the Financial Times the pan-African group had “history” with the stock market where “too much had been promised and not enough” was delivered since it listed in New York six years ago to become the continent’s first tech “unicorn” — a company valued at more than $1bn.
Big Tech
OpenAI and Microsoft tensions are reaching a boiling point
The Wall Street Journal
Berber Jin
OpenAI wants to loosen Microsoft’s grip on its AI products and computing resources, and secure the tech giant’s blessing for its conversion into a for-profit company. Microsoft’s approval of the conversion is key to OpenAI’s ability to raise more money and go public. But the negotiations have been so difficult that in recent weeks, OpenAI’s executives have discussed what they view as a nuclear option: accusing Microsoft of anticompetitive behavior during their partnership, people familiar with the matter said.
Microsoft lays out data protection plans for European cloud customers
Reuters
Supantha Mukherjee
Microsoft in April laid out plans to protect user data as it expands its cloud and AI infrastructure in Europe, including respecting European laws seeking to rein in the power of large technology companies. On Monday, the company said all remote access by Microsoft engineers to the systems that store and process European data would be approved and monitored by European resident personnel in real-time. Microsoft said its sovereign private cloud is in preview mode currently and will be generally available later this year.
We uncovered how Meta's AI app was full of accidental public posts that were really personal. It's now trying to fix that.
Business Insider
Katie Notopoulos
Business Insider found that the Meta AI app's public feed was full of personal information that looked to be accidentally published. Although posts aren't public by default, some users might have been confused and shared personal chats. After BI's story and other media coverage, Meta has added a new warning message.
Artificial Intelligence
TikTok pushes deeper into AI-generated video ads with new tools
Bloomberg
Kurt Wagner
Marketers can upload an image of a product they want to feature, or write a short text prompt describing the kind of video ad that they want, and TikTok’s AI tools will produce various five-second clips that can then be used in an ad, the company announced Monday. TikTok, which is owned by Chinese parent company ByteDance Ltd., already lets advertisers use AI-enhanced spokespeople, referred to as avatars, to help promote and sell their products on the video app.
AI alone cannot solve the productivity puzzle
Financial Times
Carl Benedikt Frey
The shotgun marriage of the computer and the internet promised more than enhanced office efficiency — it envisioned a golden age of discovery. By placing the world’s knowledge in front of everyone and linking global talent, breakthroughs should have multiplied. Yet research productivity has sagged. The average scientist now produces fewer breakthrough ideas per dollar than their 1960s counterpart. What went wrong?
Research
Testing the waters: securing the UK’s undersea cables against grey-zone threats
China Strategic Risks Institute
Andrew Yeh
A series of suspicious breakages in the Baltic Sea and Taiwan Strait indicate that China and Russia may be using undersea sabotage as part of broader grey-zone operations against their adversaries – including NATO and its member states. This paper examines 12 suspected undersea cable sabotage cases from January 2021 to April 2025. Of the 10 with identified vessels, 8 are linked to China or Russia by flag or ownership. The involvement of Chinese vessels in cable breakages in Europe, and Russian vessels near Taiwan, suggests plausible China-Russia coordination amid deepening ties in both the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific.
Events & Podcasts
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 8-9 October. 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.
Reimagining Knowledge: Can we Craft Feminist and Decolonial Futures with AI?
European University Institute
Paula Helm and Beatrice Bonami
Can AI help unsettle dominant technological imaginaries and amplify marginalized voices? What are the risks of reinforcing extractive logics, and how might we craft alternative, plural futures with AI? How can we work with people on the ground, including indigenous groups in the Amazon Forest, in a way that fosters epistemic justice and self-determination? Bringing applied insights and critical reflection, this conversation bridges theory and practice to consider how AI intersects decolonial and feminist interventions in the global knowledge economy.
The Daily Cyber & Tech Digest is brought to you by the Cyber, Technology & Security Programs team at ASPI and supported by partners.
For more on China's pressure campaign against Taiwan—including military threats, interference and cyberwarfare, check out ASPI’s State of the Strait Weekly Digest.