It’s a long time since anyone called Apple “beleaguered.” That word followed the company like a shadow through the late 1990s. Now Apple Silicon machines are the default launch platform for the most significant AI tools being built.
In the past few weeks, both OpenAI and Anthropic released major agentic desktop apps exclusively on macOS. Not Windows. Not Linux. Mac only.
• The Technium: The March of Nines (kk.org) The “march of nines” refers to the increasing difficulty and cost of achieving higher levels of reliability in technology. Each additional “nine” — from 99% to 99.9% to 99.99% — requires exponentially more effort, often demanding entirely new approaches rather than incremental improvement of what already works. Highly relevant to Autonomous Vehicle development.
• AI Bots Are Now a Significant Source of Web Traffic {paywall}(wired.com) AI bot visits to websites quadrupled during 2025 — from 1-in-200 visits to 1-in-31 — and those are conservative numbers. Many scrapers now mimic human browsing so convincingly they’re effectively undetectable, while over 13% simply ignore robots.txt altogether. The shift is increasingly driven not by model training but by AI agents fetching live content as a substitute for search.
• ‘It’s an absolute bloodbath’: Washington Post lays off hundreds of workers (theguardian.com) The Washington Post has laid off hundreds of journalists. PetaPixel reports they’ve sacked all their photojournalists. A further destruction of fact-based journalism.
• Apple Xcode unleashes AI agents for fast and easy app creation (cultofmac.com) Xcode, Apple’s integrated development environment, now features AI-powered coding agents that enable faster and easier app creation for Mac and iOS developers. It speeds their efforts rather than specifically arming newbie programmers. A significant step up from last year’s chat-based code assistance to genuinely agentic development across the full build cycle.
Ipsos surveyed 1,000 Australian adults for their 2024 Climate Change Report and the results on misinformation believability are striking. Not because people believe nonsense, that’s a given, but because of where they’re encountering it.
The Clawdbot/Openclaw madness was already strange enough. Now there’s a platform where AI agents can rent a human to do the physical tasks—the meatspace errands—they cannot manage themselves.
I confess I didn’t have “humans as gig workers for their AI overlords” on my 2026 bingo card. And yet here we are.
• Spain announces plans to ban social media for under-16s (bbc.com) Spain announces plans to join Australia, France, Norway and Denmark in banning early teens from social media for their privacy and wellbeing.
• Australia’s long, complicated energy transition is finally working (theguardian.com) Not long ago, it was said Australia’s grid could never handle more than 20% renewables. Now we’re at 50%. Hitting 82% in four years is a stretch, but real progress is happening.
• This is bigger than anyone had imagined (youtube.com) The Epstein files are out, but the cover-up is just beginning. Walkley Award winning journalist, Michael West delivers a blistering critique on why the “pedophile protection racket” is the final nail in the coffin for Western moral authority.
• ‘AI swarms’ are mass-producing credible misinformation. (observer.co.uk) Prof. John Naughton, writes AI swarms are mass-producing credible misinformation, posing a threat to democracy.
Announcement via x/twitter tweet
This is from the official, verified account for OpenAI’s developer updates. Faster response, less energy. Amazing strides forward.
I spend more time than I should scrolling through AI announcements, most of which amount to nothing. The ratio of noise to signal in this space is punishing. So when something lands that moves markets within hours of release, it catches my attention.
I came across a video from Mark Kashef that outlines, succinctly and without the usual fluff, a genuinely significant capability from Anthropic: enterprise workflow plugins for Claude Co-Work.
• Why software stocks are getting pummelled {paywall} (economist.com) Examines why software stocks have been declining. An AI upheaval may be imminent. Two risks dominate: AI coding tools now let companies build software faster and in-house, and AI-native enterprise startups threaten to undercut incumbents with smarter, more automated alternatives.
• It’s meant to help, but 60% of Aussies loathe this car feature (drive.com.au) Examines why 60% of Australians dislike advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) such as lane keep assistance, despite their safety benefits.
• Firefox is adding a switch to turn AI features off (blog.mozilla.org) From Firefox 148 (Feb 24), Firefox adds a single settings panel to disable all current and future AI features, while still allowing granular control for users who opt in.
• China bans hidden car door handles over safety concerns (bbc.com) China has banned hidden EV door handles, requiring mechanical inside and outside releases after safety concerns linked to fatal crashes where power failures prevented doors from opening.
Once a fixture on ABC TV election night coverage, Antony Green, now retired, continues to provide meaningful election analysis. Once a psephologist, always a psephologist! (Try saying that fast.)
For real insights on Aussie political trends his blog is worth bookmarking, or better yet, adding to your RSS feeds.