Good morning. Let’s get into the tech news.
1. The bilby has been sequenced
The University of Sydney has made an incredible breakthrough with the conservation of the Australian bilby, with the entire genome now sequenced by researchers.
Like many native species, the bilby is under threat of extinction by introduced pests, like foxes and cats. The fully sequenced genome will allow researchers to manage the repopulation of the bilby as best as possible, with a greater understanding of what all the bits of its DNA mean.
“The Greater bilby reference genome is one of the highest quality marsupial genomes to date, presented as nine pieces, representing each of the bilby chromosomes,” the University of Sydney’s Professor Carolyn Hogg said.
“It helps us understand what gives bilbies their unique sense of smell and how they survive in the desert without drinking water.”
2. eSafety taps the clock
The eSafety Commissioner has issued a six-month notice to figureheads of the online industry to draft enforceable codes for protecting children online from graphic pornography and high-impact content.
The codes will focus on pornography, but themes of self-harm, eating disorders, and serious illness will also be covered.
“Our own research shows that while the average age when Australian children first encounter pornography is around 13, a third of these children are actually seeing this content younger and often by accident,” eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said.
“And it’s not just porn sites we are talking about here, with 60 per cent of young people telling us they were exposed to pornography on social media. This exposure was often unintentional and happened on popular services including TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat.”
3. NSW network fund misses the mark
The NSW government previously allocated $300 million to improving the state’s regional mobile coverage, by up to 36,000 square kilometres. However, as reported by iTnews, only 700 square kilometres were achieved.
“Deficiencies in project and risk management have contributed to delays in the … implementation of the program,” an audit on the upgrade found.
A revised aim marks 12,279 square kilometres of improved coverage by December, and 60,000 square kilometres by the end of 2028.
4. YouTube now allowing AI spoofing takedown requests
YouTube has rolled out a policy change that will give people more power to request content removal for when videos use AI to simulate an individual’s voice or face. Per TechCrunch, YouTube is directing users to flag such requests as privacy violations instead of ‘misleading’. Takedowns require first-party claims outside of some exceptions – such as if the person being spoofed is a minor, or is deceased. YouTube will make the final call on takedowns, and uploaders will be given 48 hours to act.
5. Amazon eying Perplexity data scraping
Amazon is investigating reports indicating that AI startup Perplexity was ignoring website robots.txt rules on data scraping, per AP. This is a pretty big move, considering Amazon sells web server products to the startup. Amazon spokesperson Samantha Mayowa said “terms of service prohibit abusive and illegal activities and our customers are responsible for complying with those terms,” and that “we routinely receive reports of alleged abuse from a variety of sources and engage our customers to understand those reports.”
BONUS ITEM: Surely there’s a better way to shop for video games. Some sort of website-based page, perhaps?
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— Amazon Video Games (@AMZNVideoGames) July 1, 2024
Have a lovely day.
Image: iStock