The Weekly Cybers #67
Labor wins the election, but until we know more we’ve got plenty of AI news from around the world.
The Weekly Cybers #67 | 9 May 2025
Welcome
It’s too soon after the election to do anything other than speculate, given that the new group of ministers has only just been announced, so we won’t.
However there’s been some news on Australia’s social media age restrictions, the planning for which grinds on regardless.
There’s also a lot of AI news from around the world, from a judge in Arizona allowing an AI-generated avatar of a dead man to give evidence, to Chinese company Baidu wanting to create an AI translation app for your pets.
Labor retains government, so what do we know?
Well, we don’t know exactly who’s in charge yet, but at the time of writing Labor Caucus had at least chosen who will and won’t be a minister.
Curiously, Ed Husic has been dumped from cabinet. He was until now the Minister for Industry and Science, and has a solid track record of working on technology policy. Will Labor’s factional brawling take priority over effective government?
It’s now up to prime minister Anthony Albanese to assign portfolios. That’s likely to happen on Sunday or Monday, and they’ll all be sworn in on Tuesday.
Earlier this week, treasurer Jim Chalmers had said that embracing technology will be a core tenet of Anthony Albanese’s re-elected Labor majority government, particularly what he called “the AI opportunity”.
As James Riley noted at InnovationAus, there’s a huge opportunity for whoever is appointed Minister for Government Services.
“Anyone paying attention to the positive impact that Victor Dominello had in NSW as Minister for Customer Service — the same portfolio by another name — will see that opportunity,” he wrote.
Can you help eSafety figure out age restrictions?
The eSafety Commission has opened a consultation on how to implement the age restrictions for under-16s.
They want to hear from “those with expertise, insights and lived experience” in areas including the technology itself, the impact on “protective factors that support and build resilience for young people and families, as well as possible impacts on privacy and digital rights”, the possible circumvention of the restrictions, and how best to communicate the changes.
One might ponder whether this sort of consultation should have happened before the legislation was written and passed into law.
Expressions of interest close just nine days from now, on 18 May, and of course the whole system is meant to start on 11 December.
Google’s ID idea may not be helpful here
Google is planning to allow users to store ID documents such as driver licenses and passports in its Google Wallet app.
But as the Guardian reports, “While the proposed system will likely offer benefits for adults who have access to identification, it will probably be less useful for identifying teenagers without ID documents, raising questions about how helpful the technology would be for the ban.”
Sixteen-year-olds may well not have a license or a passport, but I’m sure that the technology trial currently under way will deliver all manner of clever and reliable ways to determine someone’s age, right? Right?
NZ and China hop onto the age restrictions bandwagon
Echoing the arguments we’ve heard in Australia, New Zealand’s prime minister Christopher Luxonsaid has proposed age restrictions, with laws modelled on Australia’s approach.
“This is about protecting our children. It’s about making sure social media companies are playing their role in keeping our kids safe,” Luxon said.
It’s only a draft at this stage, and it’ll be introduced to parliament as a private member’s bill rather than a government bill — which means it’ll be easier to dump later — so watch this space.
Meanwhile, China’s internet now has a minors mode, a subset of the internet for under-18s which contains only suitably wholesome content. All smartphones and other devices will need to have a single-click setting for parents to activate minors mode and set usage time limits.
Oh, and in the US the state of Virginia is having a go.
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Also in the news
- A pro-Russian influence operation had been targeting Australia in the lead-up to the election with an attempt to “poison” AI chatbots.
- Apparently the Department of Home Affairs has let staff use Signal since the covid lockdowns, although anything relating to official decisions had to be documented. Which I’m sure happened.
- “Football Australia is set to use AI camera technology and NBN connectivity at key venues to automatically capture and stream matches in 4K,” reports iTnews.
- From Cyber Daily, “Vodafone owner TPG has sent its first ‘direct-to-mobile’ text message in Australia using an LEO satellite.”
- Indie creative agency Paper Moose has unveiled a new AI tool that pre-tests creative concepts, avoids human focus groups, and “champions good marketing science”. So good luck with that.
- auDA, the .au Domain Authority, is hunting for an independent chair and appointed and elected non-executive directors. Applications close 25 May.
Elsewhere
- Apple announced its plans to integrate AI search into its Safari browser and iPhones, resulting on Google’s value dropping US$125 billion, or some 7.3%.
- A judge in Arizona has accepted AI video testimony from a dead man, so that’s where we are now.
- AI systems are built on English, but it’s primarily the English of mainstream America, reports The Conversation, not the kinds spoken by most of the world. Conversely, some AI models are learning the art of Aussie slang.
- Avoiding AI is hard but our freedom to opt out must be protected, argues RMIT University Vietnam’s James Jin Kang.
- A new AI-powered troll-spotting algorithm has found that some Reddit users just love to disagree. So have Reddit users.
- Meanwhile, “Baidu is seeking a patent for a method of using machine and deep learning to translate animal sounds into human language.”
- I’m posting this one for the headline, which is magnificent. Could eye-scanning crypto orbs save us from a bot apocalypse? (gift link).
- Finally, some history from the Lowy Institute’s The Interpreter: Undersea cable control: The information dimension. “Historical lessons [show] how control of undersea communication networks offers advantage beyond mere disruption.”
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: My good friend Snarky Platypus and I have produced the pilot episode of Another Untitled Music Podcast, and a second pilot will appear very soon. Yes, it’s about music. Look for it under that title in your podcast app of choice and let us know what you think.
Inquiries of note
It’s a little early for this.
What’s next?
Word is that parliament won’t sit until July, after the traditional winter break, rather than as soon as all the MPs and Senators are confirmed — although we’re bound to start seeing some policy announcements before then.
DOES SOMETHING IN THE EMAIL LOOK WRONG? If there’s ever a factual error, editing mistake, or confusing typo, it’ll be corrected in the web archives.
The Weekly Cybers is a personal look at what the Australian government has been saying and doing in the digital and cyber realms, on various adjacent topics, and whatever else interests me, Stilgherrian, published every Friday afternoon (nearly).
If I’ve missed anything, or if there’s any specific items you’d like me to follow, please let me know.
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This is not specifically a cyber security newsletter. For that that I recommend Risky Biz News and Cyber Daily, among others.