Australia is tightening the rules on children’s privacy – here’s how it will work. @tamaleaver.bsky.social talks about the draft Children's Online Privacy Code for @aunz.theconversation.com
theconversation.com/australia-is...
Front cover of the Strategic Examination of Research & Development review report. Purple background with pink title text "Ambitious Australia". The graphics below the text are some curvy, bubble-like shapes with what seems to be a sunset viewed through some drops of liquid. That is, a distorted view of the horizon … a metaphor?
The Government released the final report of the Strategic Examination of R&D yesterday. It's called "Ambitious Australia"🙃
Haven't read much, yet, but it says we should fund the ARC more. Like every single previous review.
Can we got on with it & do that, now?
www.industry.gov.au/publications...
As voice AI becomes embedded in toys and everyday life, how do we help children not just use it, but question & help design it?
www.admscentre.org.au/enhancing-pr...
#AIethics #VoiceAI #CoDesign
Grammarly is no longer a friendly tool to help people become better writers, it is now a full on AI-plagiarism machine. I wrote a blog post showing how Grammarly's Expert review feature (discontinued yesterday) presented fake versions of academics without permission. jilltxt.net/grammarly-ge...
This remains vital to remember: nobody knows if Australian's Under16 Social Media Ban will actually work (ie have a positive impact on under16s) and nobody will be able to judge that meaningfully for years (not days, not months).
Poster stating that AoIR Selected Papers in Internet Research 2025 Ruptures current issue is now available. Includes link to check out the papers online: https://spir.aoir.org/ojs/index.php/spir
#AoIR2026 proposals in, #AoIR2025 papers OUT! AoIR SPIR 2025 Ruptures is now available. Check out the papers of our annual conference online 🔗 spir.aoir.org/ojs/index.ph... 🥳
I love the original Toy Story trilogy but, honestly, making screen time AKA 'tech' the villain for Toy Story 5 has the potential to really alienate kids and parents.
I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think this will be the Toy Story for me.
youtu.be/c51ND9Hdbw0?...
M/C Journal logo
♾️ CFP OUT NOW: M/C Journal '#immortality' issue, edited by Angelique Nairn and Deepti Bhargava. Article submissions due 17 Apr. 2026; issue launch date 17 June 2026. #mcjournal ♾️
journal.media-cultur...
🚨CFP: The ADM+S Generative Authenticity project is hosting a small scholarly symposium on Authenticity, Generative AI and Synthetic Media on 6-7 May at QUT Kelvin Grove (and hybrid node).
Short abstracts due 9 March.
All info and the submission form: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Text from article in the New York Times by Zoë Hitzig: For several years, ChatGPT users have generated an archive of human candor that has no precedent, in part because people believed they were talking to something that had no ulterior agenda. Users are interacting with an adaptive, conversational voice to which they have revealed their most private thoughts. People tell chatbots about their medical fears, their relationship problems, their beliefs about God and the afterlife. Advertising built on that archive creates a potential for manipulating users in ways we don’t have the tools to understand, let alone prevent.
Zoë Hitzig's piece in the NYTimes really hits home why OpenAI's inevitable, but even more intrusive, shift to deploying ads in ChatGPT shows (a) an exploitation of private data that eclipses even social media platforms; & (b) that there really are no new ideas coming out of AI companies at all.
What happens next now that the European Commission has found TikTok in breach of the Digital Services Act? My latest for @techpolicypress.bsky.social press unpicks the process - and what's likely to happen www.techpolicy.press/the-eu-wants...
ICYMI: A new study from @oii.ox.ac.uk and @oxprimarycare.bsky.social, carried out in partnership with @mlcommons.org and other institutions warns of risks of AI chatbots giving medical advice. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Academic folks: I'm looking to try and find one more good, accessible overview article (undergrad level) on the current impact of AI on each of tv, film, music and videogaming for my #WebMedia unit running this (Australian) semester. Recommendations, please?
#AcademicSky
Hot damn. 🔥🔥🔥
Have emailed.
Yep. Just sitting down to dinner. Could chat in about 40 mins if that helps?
One day all Australian animals will merge together to rule the digital landscape as one hideous unclassifiable megabeast. #NotTheAIApocalypse
NB: yes, the image was generated by Al, yes it does have a glaring error in it, yes we thought leaving that error in might provoke people to think about the use of AI for this issue!
Call for Papers: The Landscape of Generative AI in Australia: A Critical Look Forward
Call for Papers: The Landscape of Generative AI in Australia: A Critical Look Forward, themed issue of Media International Australia, edited by @suzesrdarov.bsky.social & me.
Details: journals.sagepub.com/page/mia/cal...
Abstracts due Friday 27th February 2026.
#generativeAI
Huge thank you to my amazing PhD supervisors Tama Leaver @tamaleaver.bsky.social and Crystal Abidin, as well as Eleanor Sandry @zigzaggery.space, and especially all of the friends and colleagues whose support helped me reach this dream milestone. 💖 Excited for what comes next!! ✨
My PhD in Internet Studies was recently conferred by @curtinuniversity.bsky.social, so I'm thrilled to be starting 2026 as *Dr* Rachel Berryman! 🎓🥳 My PhD thesis, "Analysing Virtual Influencers", is now available online - you can download it here: hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937...
🧵Summary below:
There is a tsunami of litigation against the social media companies over their harms to teens. It's a little hard to follow because there are so many suits, but a bellwether case is going to trial this month, and Snap just settled its way out of it: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/t...
So: 2026.
Quite a few of us did spend a lot of 2025 writing "This is the worst. Do not open." on the box.
No one reads the labels.
I apologize for our terrible (possible) export.
Sorry to hear that, and I very much feel your pain.
Watching Haidt (and Twenge) get centred staged while most of Australia's media and communications research got summarily ignored for the past two years was ... is ... not great.
Maybe that's the unofficial slogan to critical AI thinking this year? ;)
The ARC’s processes are back to being farcical, @jasonclaremp.bsky.social
You advocated for a streamlined, efficient, faster ARC, but all that progress has been undone.
How can they claim to fund “innovation” with more than a year between initial proposal & outcomes? It should be 6 months, not 16!
