NEW: Internal gov emails reveal AI giant's Anthropic interest in up to 5GW of training capacity in NSW alone. That's 3+ times Australia's data centre capacity. This figure, from informal discussions, show the potential demand for data centre build out. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-26/claude-maker-anthropics-massive-data-centre-plans-nsw/107075532
NEW: AI music is going to be banned from Australia's top music charts unless it can prove that it was "substantially human-made" This comes weeks after a song with AI vocals became Australia's most played song https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-25/ai-generated-music-to-be-banned-from-aria-charts/107072642
In what might be a first: A tribunal cited AI's potential for job market disruption as a reason justifying a bigger pay out to injured man, as it considered his lost future earnings. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-22/ai-disruption-compensation-court-payout/107062772
Crazy part of this story: WA Police say they consulted with Aboriginal Legal Service. ALS says this comprised an email, sent two days before the trial's launch, asking for a 20 minute meeting that never happened
NEW from Andy Burns & I: An Australian-first live facial recognition trial by police has prompted racial bias concerns. Police say testing shows it's not an issue. Experts say the tech is not trained on First Nations people and could lead to further over policing https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-11/ai-police-face-screening-trial-sparks-privacy-concern/107009644
South Australia will hold a royal commission into "AI the policy development around it", Premier Peter Malinauskas says.
NEW: A Melbourne man asked his AI assistant OpenClaw to book a gym class. It found a exploit in the gym website, got around booking restrictions and kicked someone off the waiting list to move him up a spot It's the first known Australian case of AI agents autonomously hacking! https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-10/ai-assistant-hacks-gym-website-aus-cyber-attack/107007986