Meta’s warning to Anthony Albanese on AI laws | Nvidia's Huang hails Chinese AI models as 'world class' | AI chatbot website with millions of users gives child rape advice
OpenAI preps ChatGPT agents in challenge to Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint
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Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has told Anthony Albanese that a pursuit of “overly broad” changes to privacy laws would curtail its attempts to train artificial intelligence bots to mimic “human beings”. The Australian
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang described artificial intelligence models from Chinese firms Deepseek, Alibaba, and Tencent, as "world class" and said AI was "revolutionising" supply chains, at an exhibition in Beijing on Wednesday. Reuters
A popular AI chatbot website with millions of visitors each month lets users play out detailed, interactive child rape fantasies without any intervention. Crikey
ASPI
We warned about the first China shock. The next one will be worse.
The New York Times
David Author and Gordon Hanson
And if you doubt China’s capability or determination, the evidence is not on your side. According to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, an independent think tank funded by the Australian Department of Defense, the United States led China in 60 of 64 frontier technologies, such as A.I. and cryptography, between 2003 and 2007, while China led the United States in just three. In the most recent report, covering 2019 through 2023, the rankings were flipped on their head. China led in 57 of 64 key technologies, and the United States held the lead in only seven.
Britain brings together cyber and EW. Australia take note
The Strategist
Chris Sheahan
This September, Britain will rename Strategic Command as the Cyber & Specialist Operations Command following emphasis on the cyber and electromagnetic domain within the Strategic Defence Review issued on 2 June, marking deep organisational and doctrinal transformation. While the change is high-level, and doesn’t reflect much restructuring, it is a significant expression of prioritisation and intent. This will hopefully see some level of replication within US and Australian military organisations creating more flexible and adaptable forces in light of the complexity of modern operations.
ASPI Senior Analyst Fergus Ryan talks to Al Jazeera about the risks of including AI in Australia's free trade agreement with China.
World
Louis Vuitton says customers in Turkey, South Korea and UK impacted by data breaches
The Record by Recorded Future
Jonathan Greig
Luxury brand Louis Vuitton said data breaches at its stores in Turkey, South Korea and the United Kingdom exposed the sensitive information of some customers. Last week, Turkey’s Personal Data Protection Board released a notice to the public about the data breach, writing that an investigation into the incident is ongoing. According to Turkish officials, the data breach began on June 7 and was discovered on July 2. Hackers breached the service account of a third party service provider to access a database containing customers' personal data.
Australia
Meta’s warning to Anthony Albanese on AI laws
The Australian
Noah Yim
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has told Anthony Albanese that a pursuit of “overly broad” changes to privacy laws would curtail its attempts to train artificial intelligence bots to mimic “human beings”. Amid fears of AI job replacement and warnings the technology should be treated “alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war”, tech juggernaut Meta has told the Productivity Commission it needs to use data with personal information to authentically replicate how Australians speak and interact.
AI chatbot website with millions of users gives child rape advice
Crikey
Cam Wilson
A popular AI chatbot website with millions of visitors each month lets users play out detailed, interactive child rape fantasies without any intervention. The website, which Crikey has chosen not to name, is one example of a cottage industry of online AI-powered child sexual exploitation providers that is the topic of a roundtable at parliament on Thursday. The spread of generative-AI technologies has unleashed a flood of AI-generated child abuse content online in the past few years. Much attention has focused on the generation of images and videos, but there is growing concern around the impact of AI chatbots.
National roundtable at Parliament House to address rise in AI-facilitated child sexual exploitation
News Today
Children’s safety must be at the centre of how we think about and regulate AI in Australia,” said Sonya Ryan, CEO of The Carly Ryan Foundation. “We welcome this urgent dialogue. Technology is advancing rapidly, and without decisive, child-centred action, we risk failing to protect children from new and emerging threats”. “We are seeing AI generate entirely new types of child abuse material. This is a turning point,” said Jon Rouse.'Urgent' demand to outlaw AI tools being used to generate child sexual abuse material
ABC News
Jake Evans
Former Australian of the Year Grace Tame says there is an urgent national need to act to prevent AI tools being used to create child abuse material, and that the country must criminalise the possession of freely available child exploitation apps. Child safety advocates including Ms Tame will meet at Parliament House today ahead of a new term of parliament to address the rise of AI being used to sexually exploit children, as well as opportunities to use AI to detect grooming behaviour and child sexual abuse material.
NSW CleanTech innovators secure $26m in grants
InnovationAus
Trish Everingham
The NSW government has awarded more than $26 million to 13 clean technology startups aiming to fast-track emissions reduction across sectors like shipping, aviation and agriculture. Announced on Tuesday, the latest round of the Clean Technology Innovation grants will fund cutting-edge solutions, ranging from robotic hull cleaners and drag-reducing aircraft films to next-gen solar and biohydrogen systems. The grants provide companies working on early-stage technologies up to $5 million from $275 million Net Zero Manufacturing Initiative to bridge the gap between research and commercialisation.
ACMA revises SMS ID register rules amid industry concern
InnovationAus
Justin Hendry
New rules that will require telcos to block scam texts or warn recipients they come from unregistered senders by the end of the year have been rewritten to account for international entities and non-ABN holders. The communications regulator released the revised draft standard on Monday, in response to concerns legitimate traffic from overseas would be blocked or overstamped as likely scams by the proposed SMS Sender ID Register.
Bunnings boss wants new laws to allow facial recognition in stores
The Australian Financial Review
Tess Bennett
Bunnings managing director Michael Schneider has called for privacy laws to be changed to allow the use of facial recognition in stores to reduce shoplifting and protect staff. In a submission to a Productivity Commission review, Schneider pushed back on a Privacy Commissioner ruling against Bunnings’ earlier use of facial recognition, which found it had breached the privacy of thousands of customers.
COP31 must deliver on climate promises: AI can be Australia’s edge
The Mandarin
Tina Latif
As Australia vies with Turkey to host COP31 next year alongside Pacific nations, our bid must prove we’re serious about closing the implementation gap. With diplomatic efforts stalling and Turkey holding firm, integrating AI into the strategy could differentiate us: not as hype, but as a tool to amplify Pacific voices and drive real-world action on emissions, adaptation, and finance. Nearly all nations have bold pledges, but delivery falters. Permits drag, procurement stalls, emissions data lags, and early warnings evaporate due to underfunded systems.
Why the ACT govt is paying influencers to make Instagram posts about the city
Canberra Times
Lucy Arundell
The authority spent about $32,000 on the new social media marketing project, which included payments to creators, campaign strategy and coordination, and advertising on Facebook and Instagram. The social media posts have already reached more than 179,000 people as of July 14, 2025. Divided by the cost of the program, that's about 18 cents a view. According to the authority, 13 Canberra-based Instagram accounts are involved in the current program with the content creators selected for their strong local followings, consistently high engagement, and "alignment with Canberra's lifestyle and event audiences".
Temu’s local seller program opens fully in Australia
The Times
Local businesses of all sizes across Australia now have a new, low-cost channel to reach millions of online shoppers, as global e-commerce platform Temu’s Local Seller Program becomes fully open to all qualified local sellers. Previously available by invitation only, the program now welcomes any Australian-registered business with locally stocked inventory—offering a simplified path to expand online and grow sales nationwide.
Meta shareholders vs Mark Zuckerberg in $8 billion lawsuit
ABC News
Ahmed Yussuf
Meta has been accused of harvesting user data without consent in a multi-billion-dollar lawsuit by company shareholders against chief executive Mark Zuckerberg. The case dates back to a 2018 scandal, which saw the data of millions of Facebook users accessed by a now-defunct political consulting firm. The firm, Cambridge Analytica, worked for Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
China
Nvidia's Huang hails Chinese AI models as 'world class'
Reuters
Nvidia, opens new tab CEO Jensen Huang described artificial intelligence models from Chinese firms Deepseek, Alibaba, opens new tab and Tencent, opens new tab as "world class" and said AI was "revolutionising" supply chains, at an exhibition in Beijing on Wednesday. Huang spoke briefly at the opening ceremony of a supply chain expo, one day after the AI giant said it would once again be able to sell its highly popular H20 chips in China.
Nvidia boss expects to get first H20 China export licenses soon
Bloomberg
Nvidia Corp. boss Jensen Huang anticipates getting the first batch of US licenses to export H20 AI chips to China soon, formally allowing the company to resume sales of a much sought-after component in the world’s top semiconductor arena. While Washington hasn’t yet granted export permissions, officials assured Nvidia they will move rapidly to do so, Huang told reporters in Beijing at a government-backed conference.
Chinese authorities are using a new tool to hack seized phones and extract data
TechCrunch
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai
Security researchers say Chinese authorities are using a new type of malware to extract data from seized phones, allowing them to obtain text messages — including from chat apps such as Signal — images, location histories, audio recordings, contacts, and more. In a report shared exclusively with TechCrunch, mobile cybersecurity company Lookout detailed the hacking tool called Massistant, which the company said was developed by Chinese tech giant Xiamen Meiya Pico.
BYD has caught up with Tesla in the global EV race. Here’s how.
Ars Technica
Kana Inagaki, Edward White, and Stephen Morris
Until recently, the main advantage Chinese EV manufacturers had over Tesla was that their products were significantly cheaper. But in February, BYD’s founder Wang Chuanfu stood on stage in Shenzhen and unveiled “God’s Eye,” an advanced driver-assistance system that is a precursor to fully autonomous vehicles. A month later, Lian, who now heads BYD’s automotive engineering research institute, was on stage with Wang to announce a new battery charging system capable of adding a driving range of about 470 km in five minutes—a fraction of the time it would take a Tesla to charge to that level.
Huawei tops China smartphone market for first time in years
Bloomberg
Benicia Tan
Huawei Technologies Co. took the top spot in China’s smartphone market for the first time in more than four years, a comeback fueled by new designs and software that appealed to users in a slowing market. The hardware giant held on to a roughly 18% share of the market in the June quarter, while other leading competitors like Vivo and Oppo slumped, according to IDC data. The Shenzhen device maker showed greater resilience than rivals as overall shipments in China fell 4% to 69 million units.
China's Baidu to bring its driverless cars to Uber globally
Consumer News and Business Channel
Arjun Kharpal
Baidu has struck a partnership with Uber to deploy its autonomous cars on the ride-hailing giant's platform outside the U.S. and mainland China. The first deployments are expected to happen in Asia and the Middle East later this year. The two companies said the multi-year partnership will see "thousands" of Baidu's Apollo Go autonomous vehicles on Uber globally.
Chinese AI firm MiniMax targets $4 billion-plus valuation in Hong Kong IPO, sources say
Reuters
Kane Wu, Liam Mo and Che Pan
Chinese AI startup MiniMax has filed confidentially for a Hong Kong initial public offering, targeting a valuation of over $4 billion in the flotation, which could happen before the end of this year, three people with knowledge of the matter said. MiniMax could raise HK$4 billion to HK$5 billion in the IPO, one of the sources said.
China vows to regulate 'irrational' competition in EV industry
Reuters
China's cabinet on Wednesday pledged to regulate what it called "irrational" competition in the country's electric vehicle industry, vowing to strengthen cost investigation and price monitoring, according to state broadcaster CCTV. The cabinet meeting, presided by Chinese Premier Li Qiang, was held as a two-year price war in the world's largest auto market only intensifies.
USA
US Army soldier pleads guilty to hacking telcos and extortion
TechCrunch
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai
Former U.S. Army soldier Cameron John Wagenius pleaded guilty to hacking telecommunication companies and attempting to extort them by threatening to release stolen files, the Department of Justice announced on Tuesday. According to the DOJ, Wagenius, who went online with the nickname “kiberphant0m,” conspired to defraud 10 victim companies by stealing their login credentials, using brute force attacks and other techniques, and then used Telegram group chats to transfer the stolen credentials and discuss hacks.
US launches probe into Brazil's trade practices, digital payment services
Reuters
Andrea Shalal and Jasper Ward
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Tuesday he had launched an investigation into Brazil's "unfair" trading practices, a week after President Donald Trump threatened a 50% tariff on imports from Latin America's largest economy. Trump's trade war, launched since starting his second term in January, sets tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners, aiming to reorder the global economy and end decades of what he calls discrimination against the United States.
Microsoft, US national lab tap AI to speed up nuclear power permitting process
Reuters
Stephen Nellis
Microsoft and a U.S. national laboratory on Wednesday said they are partnering to examine how artificial intelligence could be used to speed up the process of compiling the documents needed to secure permits for new nuclear power plants. Microsoft, opens new tab and the Idaho National Laboratory said they will tap Microsoft's AI technology for generating engineering and safety analysis reports that are a standard part of the application process for construction permits and operating licenses for nuclear facilities in the United States.
ASML says it may not achieve 2026 growth as chipmakers face US tariff uncertainty
Reuters
Nathan Vifflin and Ozan Ergenay
ASML, opens new tab, the world's biggest supplier of computer chip-making equipment, warned on Wednesday that it may not achieve revenue growth in 2026 as chipmakers building factories in the U.S. await clarity on the potential impact of tariffs. Uncertainty in tariff talks has spurred chipmakers in the U.S. to delay finalizing investments, CFO Roger Dassen told journalists on a media call.
Southeast Asia
Vietnam's public security ministry takes stake in internet firm FPT Telecom
Reuters
A majority stake in Vietnam's FPT Telecom, one of the country's largest internet providers, has been transferred to the Ministry of Public Security from a state-run investment corporation in an effort to boost national cybersecurity, the ministry said on Wednesday. Vietnam's State Capital Investment Corporation previously held 50.17% of FPT Telecom, while FPT Corp, opens new tab, Vietnam's largest private tech company, had a 45.66% stake but retained control of the unit, according to FPT Telecom's financial statements for last year.
Europe
Italian cybersecurity firm Exein sees defence boost as it closes funding round
Reuters
Italian tech firm Exein said on Wednesday a pick up in European defence spending was supporting its domestic growth, as it closed a funding round aimed at global expansion. The startup, which provides embedded cybersecurity on small devices including chips, is planning to expand its range of products as countries and businesses move away from cloud-based systems because of data sovereignty concerns and rising costs, its Chief Executive Gianni Cuozzo said.
UK
Reddit starts verifying ages of users in the UK
BBC
Dearbail Jordan
Reddit has introduced age verification on its UK site to stop people aged under 18 from looking at "certain mature content". The social media platform brought in the measures to comply with new rules under the UK's Online Safety Act which require sites that show adult material to introduce "robust" age checking techniques. Reddit, known for its online communities and discussions, said that while it does not want to know who its audience is: "It would be helpful for our safety efforts to be able to confirm whether you are a child or an adult."
How a British private equity firm became a $100bn tech success
Financial Times
Alexandra Heal
When €19bn software group Visma last month chose London as the venue for its future initial public offering, it signalled a success for the UK capital in more ways than one. The decision was an obvious boost for the UK’s beleaguered capital markets, where IPOs have become vanishingly rare — let alone ones of multibillion-pound tech companies. However, it was also a milestone for Visma’s British backer, Hg: the London-headquartered private equity firm that has quietly built itself into a specialist software investor and is on track to surpass $100bn in assets under management this month.
New AI voice tool trained to copy British regional accents
BBC
Zoe Kleinman
A new AI voice-cloning tool from a British firm claims to be able to reproduce a range of UK accents more accurately than some of its US and Chinese rivals. Because much of the data traditionally used to train AI products with voices comes from North American or southern English speaking sources, many artificial voices tend to sound similar. To combat this, the company Synthesia spent a year compiling its own database of UK voices with regional accents, through recording people in studios and gathering online material.
Middle East
Drones hit DNO oil fields in north Iraq in latest attack spree
Bloomberg
Khalid Al Ansary and Rakteem Katakey
Two oil fields operated by DNO ASA in northern Iraq were attacked by drones on Wednesday, a third such hit on energy installations in the region this week. Two drones attacked the Peshkabir field in the Kurdish region around 6am local time, Kurdistan Counter Terrorism said in a statement on its Facebook page. Another drone hit the Tawke project about an hour later, it said. There was some damage but no people were injured, the organization said.
Big Tech
Google says ‘Big Sleep’ AI tool found bug hackers planned to use
The Record by Recorded Future
Jonathan Greig
Google said a large language model it developed to find vulnerabilities recently discovered a bug that hackers were preparing to use. Late last year, Google announced an AI agent called Big Sleep — a project that evolved out of work on vulnerability research assisted by large language models done by Google Project Zero and Google DeepMind. The tool actively searches and finds unknown security vulnerabilities in software.
Mark Zuckerberg’s $150 million job offers are spreading panic
The Sydney Morning Herald
Parmy Olson
Nothing says talent war like a $US100 million job offer. Mark Zuckerberg has been on a hiring blitz for AI’s most revered scientists, sending them cold emails and offering them roles in his new Superintelligence Labs division whose goal is nothing less than to build artificial-intelligence software that’s smarter than humans. You might wonder why the Meta chief executive officer, whose company already prints money from clever ad targeting and recommendation software, needs to build godlike AI, but you’d be underestimating the hottest prize in tech, which Alphabet’s Google and OpenAI have been vying to win. Zuckerberg is now coming from behind with a viable shot at getting there first.
Trial begins as Meta investors try to recoup $8 billion over privacy claims payout
Reuters
Tom Hals
Facebook's board was not trying to protect founder Mark Zuckerberg in 2019 when it agreed to pay a $5 billion regulatory fine to resolve claims over its privacy practices, but was instead focused on growth, a former company director testified on Wednesday. Jeffrey Zients, White House chief of staff under President Joe Biden and a Meta Platforms, opens new tab director for two years starting in May 2018, was the first defendant to take the stand on Wednesday in the $8 billion non-jury trial before Kathaleen McCormick, chief judge of the Delaware Chancery Court. Facebook changed its name to Meta in 2021.
Artificial Intelligence
OpenAI preps ChatGPT agents in challenge to Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint
The Information
Stephanie Palazzolo
As OpenAI tries to turn ChatGPT into a core application for white-collar work, it’s developing agent features that could make its customers less dependent on productivity apps from Microsoft. In the latest example, OpenAI has developed features that let ChatGPT customers quickly create and edit presentations and spreadsheets that are compatible with PowerPoint and Excel directly in the chatbot without using the Microsoft apps themselves, according to a person who has used the new features.
‘Everything is becoming more split’: the global AI divide
The Australian Financial Review
Adam Satariano and Paul Mozur
“Everything is becoming more split,” Wolovick says. “We are losing.” Artificial intelligence has created a new digital divide, fracturing the world between nations with the computing power for building cutting-edge AI systems and those without. The split is influencing geopolitics and global economics, creating new dependencies and prompting a desperate rush to not be excluded from a technology race that could reorder economies, drive scientific discovery and change the way that people live and work.
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