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If you’ve ever done an online shop with Woolworths in Australia or New Zealand, chances are you’re familiar with “Olive”: the supermarket’s AI chatbot that can help with refunds or missing items in a delivery.
From later this year, Olive will do far more. It will be able to plan meals, interpret handwritten recipes and even place suggested items directly into your online shopping basket, with your permission. (A launch for NZ is yet to be announced.)
But as Uri Gal explains, as AI increasingly moves from helper to decision maker, it can change consumer behaviour in ways that are difficult to detect – and likely to be even harder to reverse.
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Liz Minchin
Executive Editor + Business Editor
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Uri Gal, University of Sydney
Starting later this year, Woolworths shoppers will able to use AI to plan meals and even add items to their carts. It’s convenient – but with potential hidden costs.
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Ali Mamouri, Deakin University
Narrative control is a central battleground in times of conflict. It’s having a profound impact on the violence in Iran.
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Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
The debate over the government’s hate speech bill has left the opposition leader wedged on multiple fronts by a significant number of her own colleagues.
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Amy Thunig-McGregor, University of Technology Sydney
Sometimes the bravest and most important thing you can do is cook dinner and gather with the people you love.
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Stephen Goldsmith, Swinburne University of Technology
We can help adolescents face their own Upside Down with care.
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Euan Ritchie, Deakin University
The Victorian fires burned though diverse environments across the state. Native animals suffered through heat and smoke, including thousands of dead flying foxes.
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Paul McGreevy, University of Sydney; Rimini Quinn, University of Sydney
You can’t spot an aggressive dog just from its looks or breed. Genetic testing could better predict which dogs will bite.
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Margaret Murray, Swinburne University of Technology
Sure, smoothies are great, but what if you want to make something else with your trayful of mangoes?
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Politics + Society
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Justin Bergman, The Conversation; Digital Storytelling Team, The Conversation
There’s a recipe for autocracy: six steps tried and tested by some of the world’s most notorious leaders. How many has Donald Trump ticked off?
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Milad Haghani, The University of Melbourne
Bull bars were designed for use in remote and rural areas but are now everywhere. This is putting pedestrians at risk.
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William Gourlay, Monash University
Why two of Africa’s most bitter rivals – Ethiopia and Eritrea – are on the brink of war again.
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Business + Economy
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Susan M Park, University of Sydney
The new strategic reserve may provide the West with greater access to key minerals. But China still dominates the processing of many of them.
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Environment + Energy
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Richard Morris, Lincoln University, New Zealand
The viral idea that polite prompts waste electricity is an exaggeration. But it reflects a growing awareness of AI’s enormous infrastructure costs.
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Science + Technology
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Graham H. Pyke, Macquarie University; Amy-Marie Gilpin, Western Sydney University; Kit Prendergast, University of Southern Queensland; Curtin University
If the governments of Australia can invest millions into the honeybee industry, they surely have the resources to support native pollinators.
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Writers week
"Your story on Adelaide Writers Week refers to Randa Abdel-Fattah as having confirmed that she made a public comment that 'Zionists have no claim or right to cultural safety'. Most Jewish people consider themselves to be Zionists as they support the self-determination and statehood of the Jewish people in their historic homeland. I am curious as to what action people think would have been appropriate by the board if they had invited someone to the festival who had previously made a statement that Indigenous Australians or gay people (or members of any other minority group) 'had no claim or right to cultural safety', with the festival being held soon after
a massacre of people in that minority group in Australia? Many of the calls for academic freedom and freedom of speech seem to ignore (or at best gloss over) the duty of care owed by universities, the boards of different organisations, and others."
Pnina Levine
"Louise Adler is to be highly commended for her brave stance in resigning from her position due to the interference of the board, which succumbed to political pressure, to exclude the Palestinian-Australian writer. Very well done, absolutely brilliant to observe your courage. You are an unbiased citizen of the world and I love you for it."
Ray Harrop, Bermagui NSW
Shakespeare’s ghost writer?
"I’m a trained actor and a lifelong Shakespeare enthusiast and I agree absolutely with the view of your two academics about the improbable link between the death of Shakespeare’s child Hamnet and the play Hamlet. As your writers point out, Shakespeare could write of the reality of grief as he does so hauntingly in King John (it brings me to tears every time). How, then, to account for this wonderful speech appearing in King John, one of his very worst plays? I have waited patiently for some researcher to discover that most of this feeble piece, by his standards, is a collaboration and that Shakespeare was brought in to add some much-needed quality to it. Any
thoughts?"
Graham Williams
We'd love to hear from you. You can email us with your thoughts on our stories and each day we'll publish an edited selection.
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