US officials weighed broader China tech restrictions ahead of trade talks | Spotify’s Daniel Ek invests €600mn in defence start-up | Trump to extend TikTok deadline for third time for another 90 days
And Huawei and ByteDance plan major investments in tech sectors in Brazil.
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Commerce Department officials weighed new export limits on critical technology going to China ahead of recent trade talks in London, adding to the Trump administration’s arsenal if tensions between Washington and Beijing escalate again. The Wall Street Journal
Spotify founder Daniel Ek is leading a €600mn investment in Helsing, valuing the German defence tech group at €12bn and making it one of Europe’s most valuable start-ups. Financial Times
For a third time since taking office in January, President Donald Trump plans to extend a deadline that would require China’s ByteDance to divest TikTok’s U.S. business. CNBC
ASPI
Forging a stronger defence partnership in a time of strategic risk
The Strategist
Oleg Vornik
Arthur Herman’s telling of how US industry stepped up in World War II, building the arsenal of democracy almost from scratch, offers powerful lessons for today. It’s a reminder that government and industry when aligned by a common mission, can move mountains. It also shows what can be achieved when governments invest early in readiness, laying industrial foundations well before a crisis escalates into open conflict. Australia finds itself at a similarly pivotal moment. With rising global instability, we are facing the most challenging strategic environment in a generation. We urgently need to build up our sovereign industrial base, not just to keep pace with threats, but to shape the kind of national resilience that underwrites long-term security.
Taiwan’s accession to Pacific trade pact would uphold economic order
The Strategist
John Coyne
The Indo-Pacific’s economic and security architecture is under strain. Strategic competition, supply chain fragility and the contesting of trade norms demand bold moves—greater efforts in strengthening diplomatic and economic ties and supporting the rules-based order. One such move should be support for Taiwan’s accession into the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) agreement. The CPTPP’s 11 members—including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Vietnam and Singapore—have committed to shared high-standards and enforceable trade norms, enabling increased investment flows and more productive competition between members.
Australia
Australia’s opportunity to lead the AI infrastructure race
The Australian
Bec McConnochie and Peter Corbett
Australia stands at a crossroads in the race to become an AI leader. With a strong international reputation, an abundance of energy resources, and close ties to Asia, we are uniquely positioned to emerge as a global hub for AI infrastructure, with all the economic benefits that entails. But this window of opportunity won’t remain open forever. Other nations in our region, such as South Korea and Singapore, began executing national AI strategies as early as 2019. India, too, is riding this digital wave. Poised to become one of the fastest-growing leaders in AI, India’s AI market is expected to reach $US20bn-$US22bn by 2027. If we don’t act swiftly, we risk falling behind in the development of an industry that will define the next century.
China
Huawei and ByteDance plan major investments in tech sectors in Brazil
South China Morning Post
Igor Patrick
Chinese tech giants Huawei Technologies and ByteDance are planning major investments in Brazil’s cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence sectors, moves likely to deepen US concerns over Beijing’s expanding digital reach in Latin America. The Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reported on Monday that Huawei is set to announce a deal with Dataprev – a state-run technology company that manages the country’s social data systems – to use its data centres. Huawei is also in talks with Edge UOL, a cloud services arm of Grupo UOL PagSeguro, which also owns Folha.
Artificial eyes: Generative AI in China’s military intelligence
The Record by Recorded Future
Inskit Group
The People’s Liberation Army has demonstrated clear interest in using generative artificial intelligence (AI) to support intelligence work, has designed methods and systems that apply generative AI to intelligence tasks, and has likely procured generative AI for intelligence purposes. Both the PLA and China’s defence industry have very likely adapted foreign and domestic large language models (LLMs) to develop specialized models that can effectively carry out intelligence tasks. The PLA and China’s defence industry have created generative AI-based intelligence tools that can reportedly process and analyse intelligence data, generate intelligence products, answer questions, provide recommendations, facilitate early warning, and support decision-making, among other functions.
China's automakers aim for cars with 100% domestic chips from 2026
Nikkei Asia
Cissy Zhou, Cheng Ting-Fang and Lauly Li
Chinese automakers including SAIC Motor, Changan, Great Wall Motor, BYD, Li Auto and Geely, are preparing to launch models equipped with 100% homemade chips, with at least two brands aiming to start mass production as early as 2026, Nikkei Asia has learned. The first of these models to be mass-produced will be the newest versions of existing lines made by a few brands, with more makers to follow, according to people familiar with the situation. These efforts are part of Beijing's ambitious vision for increasing the country's self-reliance in chips amid intensifying tensions with the U.S.
China’s state security agency warns of phishing emails sent by foreign spies
South China Morning Post
William Zheng
China’s top spy agency said foreign agents had sent Chinese military research institutes fake job applications in emails with a Trojan program embedded in them. In a social media post on Tuesday, the Ministry of State Security said they were among thousands of phishing emails sent by foreign spy agencies in recent years targeting Communist Party and government organs, national defence and military industrial units, as well as universities and research institutes. The post did not give details of who had been targeted in the recent attack, but said in one case an expert in shipbuilding technology at a well-known Chinese university had received an email from someone claiming to be a postgraduate student, identified as Wang.
USA
Trump officials weighed broader China tech restrictions ahead of trade talks
The Wall Street Journal
Amrith Ramkumar and Liza Lin
Commerce Department officials weighed new export limits on critical technology going to China ahead of recent trade talks in London, adding to the Trump administration’s arsenal if tensions between Washington and Beijing escalate again. The Commerce Department unit overseeing export controls in recent weeks weighed tougher limits on semiconductors, including cutting off sales to China of a wider swath of chip-manufacturing equipment, people familiar with the matter said. Such a move would have covered equipment used to make everyday semiconductors, expanding beyond existing export limits on equipment for producing advanced chips.
Trump to extend TikTok deadline for third time, pushing decision out another 90 days
CNBC
Jonathan Vanian
For a third time since taking office in January, President Donald Trump plans to extend a deadline that would require China’s ByteDance to divest TikTok’s U.S. business. “President Trump will sign an additional Executive Order this week to keep TikTok up and running,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “As he has said many times, President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark. This extension will last 90 days, which the Administration will spend working to ensure this deal is closed so that the American people can continue to use TikTok with the assurance that their data is safe and secure.”
Minnesota shooting suspect allegedly used data broker sites to find targets' addresses
WIRED
Lily Hay Newman
The man who allegedly assassinated a Democratic Minnesota state representative, murdered her husband, and shot a state senator and his wife at their homes in a violent spree early Saturday morning may have gotten their addresses or other personal details from online data broker services, according to court documents. Privacy and public safety advocates have long argued that the US should regulate data brokers to guarantee that people have better control over the sensitive information available about them.
US Senate passes stablecoin bill in milestone for crypto industry
Reuters
Hannah Lang
The U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed a bill to create a regulatory framework for U.S.-dollar-pegged cryptocurrency tokens known as stablecoins, in a watershed moment for the digital asset industry. The bill, dubbed the GENIUS Act, received bipartisan support, with several Democrats joining most Republicans to back the proposed federal rules. It passed 68-30. The House of Representatives, which is controlled by Republicans, needs to pass its version of the bill before it heads to President Donald Trump's desk for approval.
Obscure Chinese stock scams dupe American investors by the thousands
The Wall Street Journal
David Michaels
Braden Lindstrom had only dabbled in investing when he was encouraged by someone impersonating a financial adviser to buy shares in a small Chinese company listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market. A few clicks later, he was on his way to being scammed out of $80,000. Traders and investigators say it has become an epidemic of fraud, frustrating U.S. regulators who typically can’t get access to evidence in China, even though the companies market their stock to investors in the U.S. Victims are typically recruited through social-media ads or messages on WhatsApp advertising investment advice. Unlike as in many other online scams, they are told to buy shares in real companies, often obscure Chinese firms that fizzled after going public on U.S. stock exchanges.
The definitive story of Tesla takedown
WIRED
Aarian Marshall and David Gilbert
The Tesla Takedown, an effort to hit back at Musk and his wealth where it hurts, seems to have appeared at just the right time. Tesla skeptics have argued for years that the company, which has the highest market capitalization of any automaker, is overvalued. They contend that the company’s CEO has been able to distract from flawed fundamentals—an aging vehicle lineup, a Cybertruck sales flop, the much-delayed introduction of self-driving technology—with bluster and showmanship.
US offering $10 million for info on Iranian hackers behind IOControl malware
The Record by Recorded Future
Jonathan Greig
The U.S. State Department said they were seeking information on Iranian hackers who they accused of targeting critical infrastructure using a strain of malware deployed against industrial control systems. U.S. officials are offering up to $10 million for details on a hacker affiliated with the group called CyberAv3ngers that gained prominence in 2023 and 2024 for a string of cyberattacks on U.S. and Israeli water utilities. Law enforcement agencies eventually tied CyberAv3ngers to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Cyber-Electronic Command, and in August offered a reward for information on at least six Iranian government hackers allegedly behind the effort and placing sanctions on the men.
Trump’s Smartphone Can’t Be Made in America for $499 by August
The Wall Street Journal
Wilson Rothman and Ben Raab
When the Trump Organization said it would launch a mobile-phone service, it also said it would sell a $499 T1 Phone beginning in August with some specs that beat the current top iPhone. A press release said the gold Android phone would be “proudly designed and built in the United States.” The question is: how? In April, when President Trump unveiled his sweeping tariffs, we investigated what it would take to make an iPhone in the U.S. Supply-chain experts agreed the U.S. would need years and many billions of dollars to establish the factories and skillsets needed to match China’s output. And even if it were possible, the labor and infrastructure costs would be astronomical, leading to phones whose build costs are many times as high as the iPhone’s.
How the Army is cutting costs and rethinking policy to move faster on new tech
CNBC
Morgan Brennan, Leanne Miller
In western Louisiana, a Black Hawk helicopter ride away from the Fort Johnson military base, sits a vast complex of wilderness that the U.S. Army uses to train soldiers for combat. The expanse, what the Joint Readiness Training Center calls the “Box,” stretches 242,000 acres. It was there that the 1st Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division recently completed a two-week rotation and that the service’s top military official, U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, paid service members a visit. “We immerse our units in the training that’s here. We have a professional opposing force that also has the latest technology, and this is where we learn, adapt and transform. This is our fourth brigade that we have basically brought through here and we are completely changing the technology that they’re using, how they’re organized, and then how they operate.”
Shaping AI standards to protect America's most vulnerable: Tech innovators
Tech Policy Press
Serena Oduro
While the Trump administration’s policies destabilize the lives and livelihoods of many groups in the United States – from immigrants to researchers to current and former employees of the federal government – there is one group finding comfortable footing: the tech industry. From the image of Big Tech CEOs seated front and centre at the inauguration to a raft of executive orders that seek to accelerate adoption of artificial intelligence to the Republican attempt to pass a state AI policy moratorium, tech firms are taking advantage of the moment. In this context, the shift announced June 3 by Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to reform the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s US AI Safety Institute, established under the Biden-Harris administration, to the US Center for AI Standards and Innovation, is unsurprising.
The White House wants you to laugh at its deportation memes
The Washington Post
Drew Harwell
The White House has posted immigrant arrest and deportation videos onto X with song lyrics like “ice, ice, baby” and “hey, hey, goodbye.” The Department of Homeland Security posted a meme on Instagram showing Uncle Sam urging Americans to report all “foreign invaders.” And Vice President JD Vance, told he could do the “funniest thing ever” by deporting a fashion writer who had criticized his clothing choices, responded with a movie clip of Jack Nicholson, nodding and smiling. The Trump administration is increasingly playing its policy of mass deportation for laughs, pushing memes and jokes about the nationwide immigration crackdown to millions of Americans online.
Congress gets into the global tech tax battle
POLITICO
Daniella Cheslow
There’s been a high-stakes global tax fight over tech for a decade, with billions of dollars at stake for leading U.S. companies. The fight is over digital services taxes — fees charged on search engines, online marketplaces and social media services — which more than 30 countries around the world have imposed or approved since 2016. Now, Congress is pushing a very Trumpian way to fight back: a revenge tax. The proposal for the tax, included in the reconciliation bill moving on Capitol Hill, is upsetting U.S. allies, foreign companies and American business lobbyists. And although U.S. tech companies would benefit from the measure, it’s not clear that the industry even wants this solution.
North Asia
Asian minds' should seek coexistence with superhuman AI: scholar
Nikkei Asia
Ryohtaroh Satoh
As an increasing number of experts warn of the impending arrival of artificial superhuman intelligence, a Japanese scholar is proposing that "Asian minds" seek a way to coexist with AI rather than trying to control it. Hiroshi Yamakawa, principal researcher at the University of Tokyo's Matsuo-Iwasawa Lab, further argues that "non-monotheistic" cultures are best suited to embrace this new concept. "Western scholars tend to emphasize 'guardrails' or controlling AI," Yamakawa told Nikkei Asia. "I think this likely reflects, to no small extent, some Western cultures' views of humans as being at the top [of all living things]." In many Asian societies, where non-monotheistic cultures are common, people may be more willing to embrace the concept of AI as equals, or accept that, like nature, it is "beyond human control," Yamakawa said, citing cultural traits like animism and collectivism in parts of East and Southeast Asia as factors that may foster greater trust in AI.
Southeast Asia
Singapore aims to ramp up autonomous vehicle use to boost public transport network
The Straits Times
Kok Yefeng
Singapore is poised to make a big push for self-driving vehicles to be deployed across the island in the next five years, to strengthen the public transport network. It is a key plank in Acting Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow’s plan to make public transport more attractive by reducing journey times to work, especially for those living in Housing Board estates farther from the city centre. This comes more than a decade after Singapore first started testing self-driving technology. “It relieves our public transport system of one key constraint, which is manpower,” Mr Siow said. “And it will add to the range of options that people have in HDB estates.”
Pahang plans high-tech zone to attract AI, tech investments — exco
The Edge Malaysia
The Pahang government in Malaysia will establish a high-tech zone in the state, dedicated to attracting companies involved in artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and big data. State Investment, Industrial development, Science, Technology and Innovation Committee chairman Datuk Mohamad Nizar Mohamad Najib said the initiative aims to draw investments from technology firms to the east coast region. “The Pahang High-Tech Zone will be developed in the Kuantan area. Should there be any changes to the location, we will make an official announcement. We also aim to attract talent in the AI sector to be part of the ecosystem and support the growth of start-up companies we are nurturing in Pahang,” he added.
South & Central Asia
8.4 million people affected by data breach at Indian car share company Zoomcar
The Record by Recorded Future
Jonathan Greig
Indian car share company Zoomcar said hackers stole the personal information of 8.4 million users in an incident discovered last week. The Bengaluru-based company reported the incident to the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday, telling investors that the company initially became aware of the breach on June 9. The hacker contacted employees of the company claiming to have breached systems and stolen data. “Based on preliminary findings, the Company determined that an unauthorized third party accessed a limited dataset containing certain personal information of a subset of approximately 8.4 million users,” the company said. The breach includes names, phone numbers, car registration numbers, addresses and emails. The company is investigating the breach but said there is currently no evidence that financial information or passwords were stolen.
Europe
Spotify’s Daniel Ek leads €600mn investment in defence start-up Helsing
Financial Times
Tim Bradshaw and Ivan Levingston
Spotify founder Daniel Ek is leading a €600mn investment in Helsing, valuing the German defence tech group at €12bn and making it one of Europe’s most valuable start-ups. The deal comes as the Munich-based start-up is expanding from its origins in artificial intelligence software to produce its own drones, aircraft and submarines. Helsing is benefiting from a surge of investment in defence groups, as a highly charged geopolitical environment spurs nations all over the world to increase military spending and the war in Ukraine triggers a rethink of battlefield technology.
Danish military using robotic sailboats for surveillance in Baltic and North seas
Associated Press
James Brook
From a distance they look almost like ordinary sailboats, their sails emblazoned with the red-and-white flag of Denmark. But these 10-meter (30-foot) -long vessels carry no crew and are designed for surveillance. Four uncrewed robotic sailboats, known as “Voyagers,” have been put into service by Denmark’s armed forces for a three-month operational trial. Built by Alameda, California-based company Saildrone, the vessels will patrol Danish and NATO waters in the Baltic and North Seas, where maritime tensions and suspected sabotage have escalated sharply since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
UK
Hackers impersonating US government compromise email account of prominent Russia researcher
The Record by Recorded Future
Alexander Martin
Keir Giles, a prominent British researcher on Russia, announced this weekend that several of his email accounts had been targeted “with a sophisticated account takeover” by hackers impersonating the U.S. State Department. In a warning on LinkedIn, Giles — the author of “Russia's War on Everybody” and a consulting fellow at the Chatham House think tank — told his contacts to handle with caution any unexpected emails they received from him. “In our long collective experience with sophisticated account takeovers, there’s a likelihood that anything that the attackers acquired before they were locked out — including, potentially, messages you or others have sent me, may be included in a future tainted data dump,” he wrote. It follows Giles being targeted last year by hackers working for Russia’s intelligence services who impersonated researchers and academics in an ongoing campaign to gain access to their colleagues’ email accounts. Giles’ accounts were not compromised at that time.
Makers of air fryers and smart speakers told to respect users’ right to privacy
The Guardian
Robert Booth
Makers of air fryers, smart speakers, fertility trackers and smart TVs have been told to respect people’s rights to privacy by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). People have reported feeling powerless to control how data is gathered, used and shared in their own homes and on their bodies. After reports of air fryers designed to listen in to their surroundings and public concerns that digitised devices collect an excessive amount of personal information, the data protection regulator has issued its first guidance on how people’s personal information should be handled. It is demanding that manufacturers and data handlers ensure data security, are transparent with consumers and ensure the regular deletion of collected information.
Middle East
AI companies should be wary of Gulf spending spree
The Wall Street Journal
Asa Fitch
A handful of Middle Eastern countries have emerged as some of the world’s biggest spenders on artificial intelligence. The companies benefiting from the windfall should be wary—as should their investors. Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar are in splash-out mode, spending billions of dollars on data-center projects with Microsoft and OpenAI, as well as chip purchases from Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and others to fuel their AI ambitions. Their aim is to seed domestic AI industries rather than ceding the technology entirely to foreign tech companies. Many see it as a point of national pride to develop Arabic-language AI models locally. AI investments also fit into longstanding economic diversification efforts.
Foreign business formation in UAE increases significantly, creating unprecedented demand for IT talent
Associated Press
According to recent reports, foreign business formation in the United Arab Emirates has doubled in 2024, creating exceptional opportunities for IT professionals and driving demand for technology talent acquisition services in the region. The remarkable influx of international companies establishing operations in the UAE has generated a surge in demand for skilled IT professionals, from software developers and cloud architects to cybersecurity experts and data scientists. This growth is supported by groundbreaking policies allowing full foreign ownership in free zones and easy business registration processes.
Iran plunged into an internet near-blackout during deepening conflict
NBC News
Kevin Collier
Iran plunged into a near-total internet blackout Tuesday as Israel continued to bombard the country. Two companies that track global internet connectivity, Kentinc and Netblocks, told NBC News that Iran’s internet connectivity plummeted around 5:30 p.m. local time, limiting Iranians’ ability to access and share information with the outside world as the country becomes more deeply involved in conflict. The drop appears to be a result of a decision by Iran’s government, rather than Israeli strikes on infrastructure. Fatemeh Mohajerani, a spokesperson for Iran’s government, said it had restricted internet access in response to Israeli cyberattacks.
Iran orders officials to ditch connected devices
POLITICO
Toaneta Roussi and Dana Nickel
Iran’s cyber command ordered top officials and their security teams to avoid IT equipment connected to telecom networks in a sign they fear digital disruption from Israel. The news was reported by the Fars news agency on Tuesday, which is affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Israel and Iran have clashed militarily since Israel launched Operation Rising Lion last Friday, targeting Tehran’s nuclear capabilities. Explosions were reported Tuesday in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, as Iranian state media claimed a new wave of missiles had been launched toward Israel.
Gender & Women in Tech
Women are lagging behind on AI but they can catch up
Financial Times
Isabel Berwick
Women are more likely than men to be in jobs at risk of being automated, but are also 25 per cent less likely than men to have basic digital skills, separate studies show. The findings, from the International Labour Organization and the UN respectively, highlight an urgent challenge for women across the world. The artificial intelligence-driven industrial revolution ought to offer a unique opportunity for everyone to shape the future of work, but many women are already behind. A 2024 Danish study of 100,000 workers found “a staggering gender gap in the adoption of [OpenAI chatbot] ChatGPT: women are 20 percentage points less likely to use ChatGPT than men in the same occupation”. The researchers found the gap persisted when people in the same workplaces were compared, and when the study controlled for different task mixes.
Big Tech
The battle for TikTok Is at the forefront of a deeper geopolitical trend
The Diplomat
Shweta Singh
After years of mounting scrutiny over TikTok’s data practices, in 2024 the Chinese video platform was threatened with a forced sale in the United States or a nationwide ban. With the deadline looming on June 19, China-U.S. tech rivalry has entered a new and more aggressive phase. TikTok vowed to fight forced divestment, claiming it would “trample” free speech. But what started as a controversy over data privacy now has global implications. This conflict is about more than just an app. It represents a shift in the balance of digital power – one that could redefine how nations view national security, economic sovereignty, and the internet itself.
Meta introduces advertising to WhatsApp in push for new revenues
Financial Times
Cristina Criddle
Meta is introducing paid advertising to WhatsApp, as the Big Tech group cashes in on the world’s most popular messaging service. On Monday, WhatsApp, which counts 200mn businesses among its more than 3bn monthly active users, said it would roll out the feature globally over the next few months. The ads will appear in the Status section of the messaging service, visible through the Updates tab on the left of the app screen, so keeping them separate from the main chat conversation area. “This was a longtime request that we had from businesses, and they care about preserving people’s personal spaces,” said Nikila Srinivasan, vice-president of business messaging at WhatsApp.
Sky, ITV and Channel 4 join forces in fightback against big tech’s ad market dominance
The Guardian
Mark Sweney
Sky, ITV and Channel 4 join forces in fightback against big tech’s ad market dominance. The TV streamers are pooling their advertising services to make it easier for small companies to run campaigns. Sky, ITV and Channel 4 are to fight back against the social media companies Facebook and YouTube by pooling their streaming advertising services to make it easier and more affordable for millions of small businesses to run ad campaigns. The project is an attempt to break big tech’s stranglehold over the UK’s £45bn ad market. Google and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, have increasingly dominated the UK ad market and now hoover up two-thirds of the £45bn spent by brands annually.
Artificial Intelligence
OpenAI wins $200 million U.S. defense contract
CNBC News
Jordon Novet
OpenAI has been awarded a $200 million contract to provide the U.S. Defense Department with artificial intelligence tools. The department announced the one-year contract on Monday, months after OpenAI said it would collaborate with defence technology startup Anduril to deploy advanced AI systems for “national security missions. Under this award, the performer will develop prototype frontier AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges in both warfighting and enterprise domains,” the Defense Department said.
Conspiracy theorists are building AI chatbots to spread their beliefs
Crikey
Cam Wilson
Conspiracy theorists are creating and training their own artificial intelligence models to create chatbots that help spread their extreme beliefs, as tech companies grapple with fears that the new technology is prompting delusions in some users. Once created, these chatbots will tell users about disproven links between vaccines and autism, and even assist them in trying to convince others by writing social media posts and letters for them. Many in online conspiracy communities are wary or even paranoid about AI, which fits into existing narratives about surveillance, censorship and control by governments and technology companies.
Social media flooded with racist comments after Air India crash, but Indians are speaking out
ABC News
Angelica Silva
In the wake of the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad that killed 241 people, social media was flooded with racist comments mocking the victims. Comment sections on news stories about the crash were filled with stereotypes and caricatures about the passengers being Uber drivers, delivering butter chicken and running 7-Elevens. The sheer volume of racist comments against Indians online is not new. It was an ongoing phenomenon in countries like Australia, the US and Canada, said Sukhmani Khorana, an associate professor in media and migration at the University of New South Wales. Dr Khorana said those posting the comments were "harking back to orientalist and colonial stereotypes. They are dehumanising Indians by saying the loss of a couple of hundred doesn't matter, given there are so many around the world," she said.
Italy regulator probes DeepSeek over false information risks
Reuters
Alvise Armellini and Elvira Pollina
Italy's antitrust watchdog AGCM said on Monday it had opened an investigation into Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek for allegedly failing to warn users that it may produce false information. DeepSeek did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. The Italian regulator, which also polices consumer rights, said in a statement DeepSeek did not give users "sufficiently clear, immediate and intelligible" warnings about the risk of so-called "hallucinations" in its AI-produced content. It described these as "situations in which, in response to a given input entered by a user, the AI model generates one or more outputs containing inaccurate, misleading or invented information."
Research
AI's energy appetite: Lessons from leading hyperscalers on sustainable procurement
Johns Hopkins University
James O’Brien
The rapid expansion of computation demand for artificial intelligence (AI) has created unprecedented push for data centers and the energy they use. In particular, this is driven by large hyperscalers, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, Meta, and Microsoft, who have also made commitments to achieve net zero emissions. The exponential growth of AI demand in the past few years is not only putting strain on electric grids but also on these clean energy commitments. This capstone paper examines the sustainable energy procurement strategies of each of the four aforementioned hyperscalers to assess the pros and cons of various approaches. Drawing on case studies and industry reports, this research examines: how hyperscalers procure clean energy, potential roadblocks to sustainable procurement, and possible pathways forward.
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.
Trump's tech bros: The tragedy of Elon Musk
Financial Times
Murad Ahmed and Joe Miller
When Donald Trump re-entered the White House, Elon Musk came with him as his ‘tech bro-in-chief’, tasked with rebooting the government machine. But five months on, Musk’s ambitious plan to cut $2tn from the annual government budget has failed, and his relationship with the president has ended in a bitter break-up. Could the world’s richest man come to regret his time in politics? Murad Ahmed speaks to Joe Miller, the FT’s Washington correspondent, about how and why Musk’s time in DC came to an abrupt end, and to Stephen Morris, the FT’s San Francisco bureau chief, about what this means for Musk’s business empire.
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.
