   
CEO Picks - The best that international journalism has to offer!
 S50Who will write the rules for AI? How nations are racing to regulate artificial intelligence   Artificial intelligence (AI) is a label that can cover a huge range of activities related to machines undertaking tasks with or without human intervention. Our understanding of AI technologies is largely shaped by where we encounter them, from facial recognition tools and chatbots to photo editing software and self-driving cars.If you think of AI you might think of tech companies, from existing giants such as Google, Meta, Alibaba and Baidu, to new players such as OpenAI, Anthropic and others. Less visible are the world’s governments, which are shaping the landscape of rules in which AI systems will operate.
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S48In a crisis, Optus appears to be ignoring Communications 101  Millions of Optus customers are in the wilderness of a nationwide network outage that began at 4am.The initial response from Optus delivered by an unnamed company spokesperson on Facebook and X at 6.47am AEDT told Australians little they didn’t already know, that the network was down, and that the company didn’t yet know what had happened.
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S35Over the past six years, governments proposed launching over one million satellites, but where will they all go?  In September 2021, Rwanda announced that it was planning to launch over 300,000 satellites. Three months later, a Canadian company, having previously launched two dozen CubeSats, said it would launch an additional 100,000. Then, a French company did likewise. And SpaceX, which has already launched around 5,000 satellites, now has plans for over 60,000 more. Before a satellite is launched, a nation state must file its proposed satellite system with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to coordinate radiofrequency spectrum on behalf of the satellite operator, which could be a company, university or government agency.
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S34AI-generated faces look just like real ones - but evidence shows your brain can tell the difference  Films like 2004’s The Polar Express made some viewers uneasy because the characters’ faces looked almost human but not quite, and so they fell into what we call the “uncanny valley”. This is when artificial faces (or robots more generally) look increasingly human and get very close to resembling us while still showing signs of being artificial, they elicit discomfort or even revulsion.Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technology mean that we have well and truly crossed the valley. Synthetic faces now appear as real as genuine ones – if not more so.
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S40Luminous 'mother-of-pearl' clouds explain why climate models miss so much Arctic and Antarctic warming  Our planet has warmed by about 1.2°C since 1850. But this warming is not uniform. Warming at the poles, especially the Arctic, has been three to four times faster than the rest of the globe. It’s a phenomenon known as “polar amplification”. Climate models simulate this effect, but when tested against the past 40 years of warming, these models fall short. The situation is even worse when it comes to modelling past climates with very high levels of greenhouse gases.
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S41How do bacteria actually become resistant to antibiotics?  Antimicrobial resistance is one of the biggest global threats to health, food security and development. This month, The Conversation’s experts explore how we got here and the potential solutions.“What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger”, originally coined by Friedrich Nietzsche in 1888, is a perfect description of how bacteria develop antibiotic resistance.
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S30Extreme weather may help invasive species outcompete native animals - new study  Non-native species appear to be better able to resist extreme weather, threatening native plants and animals and potentially creating more favourable conditions for invasive species under climate change. That’s the conclusion of a new study in the scientific journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.Wildfires, droughts, heavy rainfall and storms are all increasing, and predicted to become more frequent throughout the next century due to human-driven climate change.
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S20British king acknowledges colonial atrocities in Kenya - here's what could happen next  On his official visit to Kenya, King Charles III acknowledged Britain’s colonial era “wrongdoings”. He also paid tribute to Kenyan soldiers who had participated in the first and second world wars on behalf of Britain. His visit coincided with Kenya’s 60th independence anniversary. British colonial rule in Kenya was characterised by injustices. Among these were forceful dispossession of indigenous people’s land, torture, detention and brutal suppression of anti-colonial movements.
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S16Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud following the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Here's what investors need to know  In the fast-paced world of cryptocurrency, vast sums of money can be made or lost in the blink of an eye. In early November 2022, the crypto exchange FTX was valued at more than US$30 billion. By the middle of that month, FTX was in bankruptcy proceedings. And less than a year later, on Nov. 3, 2023, its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, was found guilty of seven counts of money laundering and fraud, following a trial that featured less than a month of testimony and only about four hours of jury deliberation.D. Brian Blank and Brandy Hadley are professors who study finance, executives, firm governance and fintech. They explain how and why this incredible collapse happened, what effect it might have on the traditional financial sector and whether you should care.
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S17Your mental dictionary is part of what makes you unique - here's how your brain stores and retrieves words  The days of having a dictionary on your bookshelf are numbered. But that’s OK, because everyone already walks around with a dictionary – not the one on your phone, but the one in your head.Just like a physical dictionary, your mental dictionary contains information about words. This includes the letters, sounds and meaning, or semantics, of words, as well as information about parts of speech and how you can fit words together to form grammatical sentences. Your mental dictionary is also like a thesaurus. It can help you connect words and see how they might be similar in meaning, sound or spelling.
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S52S43S21Israel-Hamas war: there is an important difference between a humanitarian pause and a ceasefire  The Labour Party leader, Keir Starmer, has come under fire from members of his own party for refusing to call for a ceasefire in the Hamas-Israel war, instead pushing for a humanitarian pause in the conflict. As a result, 50 Labour councillors have quit the party. The controversy raises the question of the difference between a humanitarian pause and a ceasefire. The conflict began in the early morning of October 7 2023 when armed Hamas fighters launched a surprise attack against Israel, killing at least 1,400 Israelis and taking more than 200 civilians hostage.
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S4426 years ago, Howard chose fossil fuels over the Pacific. What will Albanese choose?  Hot on the heels of trips to Washington and Beijing, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is now in the Cook Islands for the Pacific Island Forum. There, he will aim to strengthen relations with Pacific countries and reaffirm Australia’s place as a security partner of choice.But to do that, he’ll have to repair a historic split from when former prime minister John Howard met with Pacific leaders on the same island, Aitutaki, a quarter of a century ago to defend his choice to expand Australia’s fossil fuel industries.
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S26How to know if your employer is serious about helping you find purpose in your work  Paychecks are important, of course, but many people also want their work to “matter”. Whether this means helping people in your local area, or contributing to a global cause like reducing waste and fighting the climate crisis, 70% of respondents to a 2020 survey said their personal sense of purpose is largely defined by their work. Organisations often use the promise of “purpose” at work to attract and retain employees. They may offer you the opportunity to personally contribute to doing some lasting good beyond just completing tasks and earning a wage. This could include positive social or ecological outcomes inside and outside the organisation, such as reducing carbon emissions or creating decent jobs in economically deprived communities.
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S51The Conversation wins a Telstra business award for producing journalism that builds community  Journalism is a competitive industry, with no shortage of reporters willing to use dirty tactics to win scoops and pump up circulation or ratings. But in spite of such lapses, most journalists also take seriously their role as a trusted source of information and custodians of a vital public service. Increasingly this is under threat. With so much more media now consumed online, attention-seeking has become an end in itself. In a recent book, “Traffic”, Ben Smith, the former editor of Buzzfeed, describes the dodgy things his publication did to win audiences, such as publishing deliberately offensive and procative opinions and stolen intimate photos. In a world in which everything is measured in clicks, talk of quality journalism sounds pretty glib.
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S25S63Take a Bite Out of Bubblegum Jupiter  While this multi-hued orb looks like a delectable gumball from a quarter machine outside your grocery store, it’s actually the gas giant Jupiter in ultraviolet disguise. This week NASA is celebrating Jupiter’s opposition in the night sky (when the Sun and the planet are opposite each other in relation to Earth) by publishing a fascinating UV image of the Jovian giant. Courtesy of the Hubble Space Telescope, this photo takes a candy-colored departure from what the planet usually looks like in visible light because the image showcases ultraviolet data that’s usually imperceptible to the naked eye. Because our eyes can’t see UV, experts process the image using colors in the visible spectrum assigned to certain UV filters (in this case, Blue: F225W, Green: F275W, and Red: F343N), which captures the complex science at work while also creating a truly otherworldly image.
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S5815 Years Ago, a Cult Sci-Fi Classic Revived a Dying Genre  Everyone, whether they show it or not, goes through a goth phase. Movies are no exception. Every few years, there’s a new wave of dark, Gothic-with-a-capital-G movies about the aesthetics of heavy eyeliner and lace veils as much as they’re about the macabre. The 2000s saw one of those goth revivals. And, 15 years ago, one movie took the trend to an entirely new level, blending in Victorian nostalgia and adding a bizarre yet perfect element: opera. Repo! The Genetic Opera, directed by Saw II, III, and IV’s Darren Lynn Bousman, is technically a rock opera, but it’s really a rock musical, a classic opera, a body horror dystopia, a social satire, and a tragedy all at once.
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S70The Lessons Israel Should Have Learned in Lebanon  If Israel is going to have any strategic success against Hamas, it needs to do three things differently from conflicts past.We are a month into Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza. The ferocity of Israel’s response to the murder of more than 1,400 Israeli citizens has been such that international concern for the Palestinians of Gaza—half of whom, or more than 1 million, are children under the age of 15—has now largely eclipsed any sympathy that might have been felt for the victims of the crimes that precipitated the war in the first place.
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S18Engineered 'living materials' could help clean up water pollution one day  As a team of materials scientists, we’re working on an engineered “living material” that may be able to transform chemical dye pollutants from the textile industry into harmless substances.Water pollution is both an environmental and humanitarian issue that can affect ecosystems and human health alike. We’re hopeful that the materials we’re developing could be one tool available to help combat this problem.
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S37I've had enough of Sad Bad Girl novels and sensationalised trauma - but I'm hungry for complex stories about women  Stories about flawed young women have been favoured by the publishing industry for some time now. Bad Girl novels proliferated in the wake of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train, while Sad Girl novels have evolved from the comic haplessness of Bridget Jones in the 1990s, to more sobering ground with Sally Rooney’s introspective bestsellers. Sad Bad Girl novels combine the best – or should I say the worst? – elements of these narratives. Titles like My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh, Luster by Raven Leilani and Animal by Lisa Taddeo all feature disaffected or disturbed young women acting out, or wilfully sabotaging their lives.
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S19S46S38S33S49S22ADHD drug shortages are affecting patients in the UK - here's why they're happening  Millions of people in the UK who take drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are facing difficulties getting their prescriptions filled due to shortages. These shortages are currently affecting four of the five types of medicine licensed in the UK to treat ADHD. Certain products and dosages may be more affected than others.This severe disruption in supply is taking a toll on many peoples’ mental health and wellbeing and negatively affecting their daily life. Fortunately, it’s expected these shortages will be resolved by the end of 2023.
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S28Boom in space tourism threatens to boost the amounts of space junk and climate emissions  Commercial companies are increasingly becoming involved in transporting astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), as well as other activities in orbit. Some, such as Houston-based Axiom Space, eventually want to build their own space stations in orbit, where commercial astronauts could make extended stays.This could also provide more money and opportunities for science to be carried out in low Earth orbit. But it also raises a host of safety concerns, because it will add to the already troublesome issue of space junk. There are also implications for the environment, because rockets produce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.
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S23Longer sentences? Overcrowded UK prisons are already failing society  The UK government plans to impose tougher sentences on those convicted of serious crimes, it announced via this year’s king’s speech at the state opening of parliament. Political pundits reacting to the speech on the BBC immediately questioned the rationale behind potentially putting more people in prison, when UK prisons are struggling to accommodate those already under their purview.The England and Wales prison watchdog has said that one in ten prisons in those two countries should be shut down because of overcrowding and inhumane regimes. Similar concerns have been voiced over prisons in Scotland and in Northern Ireland.
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S36How unionization is empowering Jamaican domestic workers to demand decent work  In thousands of households across Jamaica, domestic workers do the work of cooking, cleaning, gardening and caring for children, the elderly and people with disabilities. While this work is essential to the functioning of the economy and to the well-being of many Jamaican families, domestic workers often experience low pay, poor working conditions and informal work arrangements. Due to their isolation in the home, they’re also vulnerable to sexual harassment and abuse.
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S61S54These Photos Are "Pure Fiction"  Talia Chetrit wants you to know that her partner, Denis, doesn't normally bottle-feed their son while wearing a Gucci bondage harness. Nevertheless, she understands the confusion. Chetrit is a photographer who has often made herself and her family the subjects of her work, which would seemingly situate her in a lineage of diaristic artists such as Sally Mann and Elinor Carucci. But she told me recently, when I visited her studio, in upstate New York, that she considers all of her work "pure fiction."Chetrit, whose first solo museum show in the United States is now on view at the Wadsworth Atheneum, in Hartford, Connecticut, has had what appears at first glance to be a peripatetic career in photography. In addition to her self-portraits and pictures of her family, she has done moody, telephoto street photographs, optically tricky still-lifes, and slick fashion shoots. She has even dived into heady conceptual waters, exhibiting photos that she made in high school, which take on poignant layers of meaning in retrospect. Ultimately, however, her disparate work is part of a unified quest to pick apart and play with photographic conventions and, by extension, to poke holes in our expectations of what an image can reveal or hide.
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S42The rise and fall of antibiotics. What would a post-antibiotic world look like?  Antimicrobial resistance is one of the biggest global threats to health, food security and development. This month, The Conversation’s experts explore how we got here and the potential solutions.These days, we don’t think much about being able to access a course of antibiotics to head off an infection. But that wasn’t always the case – antibiotics have been available for less than a century.
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S27Frontotemporal dementia: we discovered a brain fold that may delay onset of symptoms  Few people had probably heard of frontotemporal dementia until earlier this year, when the family of actor Bruce Willis announced the 68-year-old had been diagnosed with the condition.Frontotemporal dementia is a rare disease – thought to account for only one in every 20 cases of dementia. Symptoms usually develop in a person’s late 50s, first affecting their behaviour, personality and language ability. Unlike other forms of dementia, memory only becomes impaired in the late stages of the disease.
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S56Preparing to Fly in "Puffling"  A girl is peering out of her foggy car window, surveying the dark, quiet roads that signal a town that has gone to sleep. Outside, the only colors that appear are from hazy yellow and orange street lamps. She is searching for baby puffins, or "pufflings," in the night sky, as they drop from cliffs into the town. The teen-ager looks around for any flurries of whiteâas the birds' bright stomachs can be spotted against the dark. During their peak migration time, the bird species outnumbers the human population on the craggy Icelandic archipelago of Vestmannaeyjar. She is one of the young people on Vestmannaeyjar who, during a couple of weeks in the summer, carry baby puffins that are still getting used to flying, from land to sea, where they belong.The tradition has a long history. When electricity was introduced to Vestmannaeyjar, puffins, who navigate using moonlight, became confused and followed the artificial lights inland rather than out to sea. Jessica Bishopp's meditative short documentary, "Puffling," which was produced by Alice Hughes and Gannesh Rajah, shows the increasingly vital rescues against a backdrop of local environmental concerns, such as losses in biodiversity.
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