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A Big Build or a big bet?

June 14, 2024

By Associate Professor Janet Stanley Published on June 14, 2024 Melbourne’s current long-term strategic land use plan, defined in Plan Melbourne 2017-2050, is grounded on two core ideas. These are that Melbourne becomes a polycentric city based on a series of activity clusters, mainly in the middle suburbs (called National Employment and Innovation Clusters – or NEICs) and Melbourne would be organised into a collection of 20-minute neighbourhoods. The Victorian Government’s Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) is part of the state’s Big Build program.

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Big tech and porn platforms are the real perpetrators behind 'sickening' deepfakes

June 14, 2024

By Dr Gemma McKibbin Published on June 14, 2024 Last week, a teenage boy was arrested and released without charge for allegedly using artificial intelligence (AI) to create and distribute explicit deepfake images of around 50 female students at Bacchus Marsh Grammar in Victoria. While the images have been described as “incredibly graphic” and “sickening” – they are also child sexual abuse. AI-generated deepfakes are a growing problem. Picture: ShutterstockThese events may highlight the growing problem of AI-generated child sexual abuse material (usually created and distributed by males), but it also serves as a wake-up call for us to hold to account the tech companies and AI tools enabling the creation of child sexual abuse material in the first place.

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Your cold house is bad for your mental health

June 14, 2024

By Professor Rebecca Bentley Published on June 14, 2024 Right now, most Australians are feeling the cold, whether you live in wet Melbourne, blustery Tasmania or central Queensland, with its desert-chilled overnights. But each and every winter, the issue of our country’s cold housing gets national attention. Not only is living in a cold home unpleasant and uncomfortable, it also has the potential to impact our health. Australian homes often lack insulation and glazing that help keep indoor temperatures warm.

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These eight tests will help you decide which of your innovation ideas is going to be a winner

June 13, 2024

By Professor Danny Samson Published on June 13, 2024 When it comes to innovation, governments and big businesses, startup entrepreneurs and even individual investors all make choices – place bets – on ‘what will work’ under a cloud of uncertainty. We all try to pick winners, but we don’t all do it well. Google Glasses were greatly hyped but sold poorly and have been discontinued. Picture: Loïc Le Meur / WikimediaIn the case of an organisation that has committed to building and progressing a portfolio of innovation projects and initiatives, it is a matter of prioritising work and investments, choosing the initiatives to take forward and then project managing them in a firm and disciplined way.

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“It is a clarion call to action”

June 12, 2024

By Professor Barry Judd Published on June 12, 2024 The pursuit of a more just Australia at peace with its past requires us to confront truths that have been buried beneath generations-long discomfort and denial, arrogance and indifference. The fundamental importance of truth-telling and justice cannot be denied if our journey towards national reconciliation and meaningful political settlements between Indigenous peoples and Settler Australia are to be successfully concluded and authentic national unity achieved.

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