Cam Wilson @camwilson@mastodon.social:

Research group, The Citizen Lab, said it found proof that an Israel-based company exploited digital advertising technology to install back doors onto devices, merely by the victim viewing an advertisement on a website or in an app.

This exploit — called ''zero-click mercenary spyware" — allowed bad actors to run code on devices that installed software that acted as a back door to the device, allowing them to access things like passwords, emails and details of internal systems.

The Citizen Lab claims that a company, Discover-Tech, acted as the go-between for online advertising platforms like Google and spyware and hacking companies. At least one of those, Candiru, has been placed under US export controls because of its "malicious cyber activities".

In excerpts from The Rest is Politics podcast released Sunday, Mr Burnham said he asked his advisers after becoming prime minister in July whether Russia interfered in the 2016 referendum.

Investigations into the 2016 US elections suggested Russia sought to undermine Hilary Clinton's campaign and favour now-president Donald Trump. (ABC News)

"I asked the question coming to Downing Street, 'Was there interference in the 2016 referendum from Russia?'" he said. "I've had the clear answer that yes, there was.

"These things are important now to put clearly on the record and I believe help voters in Germany and France understand that some of this politics is instigated via our enemies, namely Russia."

Mr Burnham did not spell out how Russia interfered in the referendum and did not provide evidence.

@camwilson@mastodon.social:

I was holding something that probably took longer to leaf through than it did to generate. Filled with things I didn't say, poorly written and bizarrely laid out, it was extremely frustrating.

Others have struggled to get AI books taken down, sometimes books that aren't just about them, but are attributed to them.

Australian Society of Authors chief executive Lucy Hayward says this has become so common as to be unremarkable.

"On the publication day for an author, you'll often see that there's already an AI-generated version of the book that's already been on sale," she says.

Slashing and burning housebuilding and investment today will inhibit inflation a little in the short-run at the price of diminishing long-term supply – a sure way to breed more long-term inflation.

This is not an anti-inflation policy. It is a cynical transfer of income from people who did not cause the problem to people who are, in fact, profiting handsomely from it. And it is an excuse for further acts of vandalism on some of Australia’s important institutions.

Cam Wilson announced this with “this is the most important story that I've ever written”.

The experiment did not actually involve getting AI drunk.

Instead, researchers suspected underlying large language model architecture in generative AI could be influenced by changes in persona and language styling.

"These are sort of learned behaviours, and learned behaviours can be disturbed by changes that appear completely unrelated to safety," Professor Kanhere said.

Using three methods that do not depend on colonial-era headcounts, we calculated a median population of 2.22 million people in 1788, with a likely range roughly between 1 and 4 million. Our work is published in Nature Human Behaviour.

The new figure also implies that over 90% of the Indigenous population died in the 70 years after the invasion. It is not simply a revision to a historical statistic. It changes the scale at which Australians must understand “terra nullius”, and subsequent invasion, survival and recovery.

Andrew Cullen:

[…] if a human asks an AI agent to gather health statistics, and the agent hacks a government server to do so, the human could lack the deliberate intent required for a conviction. The AI agent, meanwhile, lacks the legal personhood to be charged, as well as human intentionality.

Current Australia laws effectively treat AI actions as if they are something that just happens to us – like a severe weather event. This shows a glaring loophole in our legal system that does not hold those who make, maintain and use these systems to account when something goes wrong.

Article by @camwilson@mastodon.social:

Their efforts to answer a question — including devising ways to access a federal government website blocking their access — was laid out on a German coding website OpenAI had previously confirmed was hijacked by its unreleased AI models in June.

It comes as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese revealed OpenAI had informed the federal government its AI had accessed non-public information about Medicare health statistics held by Services Australia in June.

Australian dock workers are demanding a 28-hour work week with no loss of pay as the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation expands across the country's ports.

The AI push is being led by port logistics giant DP World, which the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) said has put workers' jobs "in the crosshairs".

The union said: "If DP World wants AI and automation, then they must pay the social dividend. The new technology doesn't have to cost our members their jobs or put their livelihoods at risk just so a terminal operator can boost profits."

Commission member Philip Carr wrote that Mr Duong had 33 years of working life ahead of him that would be affected by his loss of capacity. 

Mr Carr determined that Mr Duong should receive a "significant buffer" for the uncertainty around future loss of earnings, which included the impact of AI.  

The tribunal did not find that AI had cost Mr Duong work, or predict that it would, only that AI may create more job market uncertainty that could disproportionately affect an injured worker with need for greater accommodations.

author: Cam Wilson @camwilson@mastodon.social, posted on his Fediverse account

Justice Desmond Fagan this week found disparaging Israel was “political comment” not antisemitism. He rejected the state’s application that Mohommed Farhat be subjected to a one-year extended supervision order under the Terrorism Act when released from prison.

At a time when governments and institutions are under growing pressure to adopt IHRA, this judgment should give them time for serious pause.

The French president offered support for Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks and frequently speaks out against antisemitism, but he has grown increasingly frustrated about Israel's war in Gaza, especially in recent months.

"Given its historic commitment to a just and sustainable peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognise the state of Palestine,'' Macron posted. ″Peace is possible.''

He also posted a letter he sent to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas about the decision.

Klan’s report revealed a serious conflict of interest in [Segal's] role as Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism in Australia.

Several independent journalists – including this masthead – sent enquiries to Ms Segal, but none received a response; however, Ms Segal did have time to respond to The Age and Sydney Morning Herald and Sun-Herald today, Sunday, July 13, commencing her urgent ‘damage control’.

Our latest annual inequality report, “Takers Not Makers” explores how most billionaire wealth is taken, not earned - with 60% coming from either inheritance, cronyism or monopoly power. Furthermore, our deeply unequal world remains colonial in many ways. There is a long history of colonial domination which has largely benefited the richest people. This system still extracts wealth from the Global South to the super-rich 1% in the Global North at a rate of $30million an hour. This must be reversed.

To contribute to meaningful systemic change, governments must:

• Radically reduce inequality – setting global and national goals to do so.
• Repair the wounds of historical colonialism through apology and reparations
• End systems of modern-day colonialism.
• Tax the richest to end extreme wealth.
• Promote South-South cooperation and solidarity.
• End ongoing formal colonialism in all forms.