‘Dirty bomb': Huge warning on AI
Big tech is promising AI will revolutionise every aspect of modern life, from how people find information to how they do their jobs.
The promise has been heard in capitals across the world, with governments scrambling to figure out how to reap the economic benefits of early adoption while also not knowing what they are dealing with.
Jobs are top-of-mind, but the challenges stretch far beyond which roles could be stamped out in the relentless march of technological progress.
Alastair MacGibbon is the chief strategy officer at CyberCX – a Canberra-based cybersecurity firm that helps government and businesses thwart threats from hostile states to private hackers.
Among the biggest challenges of AI, according to Mr MacGibbon, is hostile governments waging informational warfare. CyberCX chief strategy officer Alastair MacGibbon says authoritarian regimes could push alternate realities on Western users. CyberCX Credit: Supplied
'The concept of AI models developed outside of the West being used in the West is highly problematic,' he told NewsWire.
'This is why I was so concerned about DeepSeek because with AI models, one can distort truth.'
China's DeepSeek model wiped a trillion dollars in value off US tech titans when it launched in January.
Nvidia alone suffered a $600bn blow.
The disruption was largely because DeepSeek is free and open source, unlike its American rivals, meaning anyone with an internet connection can use it.
While DeepSeek is backed by Chinese hedgefund High-Flyer, the platform is riddled with code linking it to the government.
NewsWire earlier this year also confirmed DeepSeek had a deeply embedded bias that persisted even when the model was downloaded and run offline. China's DeepSeek wiped hundreds of billions in value off tech stocks when it launched in January. Nadir Kinani / NewsWire Credit: News Corp Australia
It repeatedly refused to answer questions about the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.
Mr MacGibbon said Beijing could tweak history and make it seem as though the massacre did not 'even happen'.
'Why wouldn't you ideologically want to poison the knowledge base of the world?' he said.
'More broadly, AI models are increasingly being trained on data that was AI generated, and you're sort of getting this weird sort of beigeness of truth that is being reflected in AI results.
'So imagine what an AI model that's trained by or developed in a totalitarian, revisionist regime will do for truth.
'It should scare people considering the role we see AI playing this generation.'
Even Western models can get things wrong.
Elon Musk's Grok repeatedly misidentified a photo of a severely emaciated girl in Gaza, telling users on X it was taken in Yemen in 2018.
The photo was taken by a photographer for Agence France-Presse in August this year.
The news agency swiftly corrected Grok, which conceded it was mistaken.
But Western models have guardrails that block users from using them for harm, such as bomb-making.
Mr MacGibbon said AI developed by non-Western countries could drop those safeguards, either by shoddy work or by design.
'It's easy enough to get around the guardrails of the semi-responsible Western AI companies, who vary from marginally responsible to marginally irresponsible in terms of their guardrails about social harm and their responsibility,' Mr MacGibbon said.
'Imagine people who want to cause harm and dissent.
'So the combination of truth no longer being the truth, and the ability to give you access to how to … throw sand in the gears of the West.
'I don't think that's at all beyond the realms of the madness of these regimes.'
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ABC News
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NCR Atleos Cashzone ATMs linked to Australian illegal tobacco trade and fraudster
The sign is covered in black grime, the bent ramshackle corrugated roof wouldn't be out of place atop an outback shanty and the registered owner is a jailed fraudster. The Bowen Hills Tobacconist and Gift shop on the edge of Brisbane's inner city hardly seems the kind of place that a $3 billion multinational financial corporation would be doing business — especially when the store's product line includes illegal cigarettes. But New York Stock Exchange listed NCR Atleos's placement of one of its green Cashzone ATMs inside the shop is fuelling the sale of the contraband smokes. It's not clear what due diligence has been done by NCR, which describes itself as having the world's largest ATM network and whose chief executive Tim Oliver boasts in corporate brochures that the company works to the "highest ethical standards and in compliance with all laws, rules and regulations". But the tie is the latest found in an ABC investigation examining how private ATM suppliers are oiling the illicit tobacco trade, an underground market where stores often push cash sales. "From a financial crime aspect, cash makes it difficult to follow the money," said Doron Goldbarsht of Macquarie University's Financial Integrity Hub. Previously the ABC revealed Melbourne-based Next Payments, whose biggest investor is investment bank Macquarie Group, and Queensland-based atm2go have been providing multiple machines to illegal business operators. Even a $17 million cannabis kingpin had atm2go machines and told of feeding drug cash into them. The revelations have sparked industry concern with companies pulling out of sector. In July, finance company EFTEX, which processes payments for thousands of ATMs, sent out a client notice, saying it would stop handling transactions for machines in tobacconists or other high-risk environments. Next Payments also said it would remove 40 ATMs from suspected illicit tobacco stores, while atm2go has also started quietly pulling its machines. But the ABC has also found Atlanta-based NCR, which says it has 8,000 machines in Australia and New Zealand, has provided its Cashzone ATMs to outlets in Queensland and the Northern Territory linked to illegal trade. The company refused to answer questions about its ties to Australia's illicit tobacco trade. "We do not have any input," NCR's public relations team told the ABC. Private ATM companies and store owners can earn fees based on machine transactions. The ATM in the Bowen Hills store, for instance, costs $2.90 for a customer to withdraw cash. The illicit smokes on sale include 20 cigarette packs of Double Happiness — lacking any required health warnings — for only $15. The store's listed owner is company Mido Jorj Pty Ltd. That company's director and shareholder is Brisbane-based Mido "Joe" Jorj, who was handed a 12-month jail sentence in NSW after pleading guilty in 2005 to offences including obtaining money by deception. He was also locked in a separate dispute about Centrelink payments, according to tribunal records. Now 49, Jorj was earning special benefit payments but failed to alert Centrelink when he had started a contracting business that earned about $14,000 in mid-2004. He was ordered to pay back money, according to an Administrative Appeals Tribunal ruling. Jorj, whose previous name is Mohammad Alrikabi, refused to answer queries when contacted by the ABC. He's listed also as the owner of a nail salon and another tobacconist on Brisbane's bayside, while previously having other businesses such as a kebab shop. A Cashzone ATM has also been in the NT-based Darwin 24-7 Store, which earlier this year was caught selling illegal vapes and required to pay a $15,000 fine. Store manager Usman Mughal confirmed the business had been caught with illegal vapes and paid the fine earlier this year, after having received a warning. He said the sales had been a mistake and such products were no longer sold. The store had an ATM installed — a security mortgage for the machine is registered with regulators — but Mr Mughal said they did not load the machine with cash. Another CashZone ATM, charging $3.10 a withdrawal, was also in operation at a Toowoomba store selling illicit cigarettes. The illicit tobacco trade has blossomed amid ever rising taxes on legal tobacco products. Commonwealth duties on a 20 pack of cigarettes alone are $28 while the ABC has found illicit packs available for only $8. The cheap outlaw operators put pressure on the likes of Robert Rodie, who has owned a legitimate tobacco store in Deception Bay north of Brisbane for almost 30 years. He said his gross trade is down almost 70 per cent since 2022 and he produced a list of more than 40 times he has contacted authorities, saying little if anything was done. He laughed at the notion of needing an ATM in his store. "Definitely not. No," he said. He thought that ATMs were in illicit stores simply to avoid financial records of sales. "All ATMs should be banned from any tobacconist … even legitimate ones," he said. Regulators are eyeing private ATMs. Even Queensland's fines collection agency is examining the trade, the ABC can reveal. The State Penalties and Enforcement Registry (SPER) has started demanding information from private ATM operators to trace ownership of cash moving through the machines. While the involvement of SPER might seem strange, it has so far reaped $6 million in fines from illicit tobacco operators. "To ensure debts are paid, officers will seize cash collected by these businesses where they refuse to pay, whether that be in on-site safes, bank accounts or deposited in ATMs," a SPER spokesperson said. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has flagged that he had asked bureaucrats to look at private ATMs but no solid detail has emerged yet. Overseas authorities have introduced regulations around the use of private ATMs. Canada for instance, which has prosecuted illegal tobacco operations using such machines, introduced laws requiring records to be kept even of how the cash was transported to ATMs. But in Australia, private ATM owners and the source of cash put into them do not come under anti-money laundering laws. Next Payments rejected that private ATMs represent a money laundering risk. Yet the Financial Integrity Hub's director Dr Goldbarsht warned a potential money-laundering problem lies with any dirty money loaded into the machine. If an innocent person unwittingly withdraws dirty money, that person's bank account ultimately credits the same amount cleanly into the private ATM cash-loader's bank account. The cash's original source does not come under the same level of scrutiny that occurs if criminals try depositing certain amounts of cash in various ways directly into a bank. "Private ATMs make it more maybe an opportunity for criminals to launder money because they are not regulated," Dr Goldbarsht said. "If you have cash, which is proceeds of crime, or what we call dirty money, and if you own such an ATM, then you can actually deposit your dirty money into the ATM," he said. "It helps to integrate this dirty money into the legitimate financial system." Dr Goldbarsht pointed out other industries in Australia are coming under anti-money laundering laws, such as real estate agents. Private ATMs could represent a serious problem, he said. "Criminals will look for ways to clean their money," he said. "If you're closing one door, they will come from the window from a different place. "To close this gap, we need to amend the legislation … we just need to change the wording there. "All ATMs should be regulated."
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Since reaching its peak in 2022, inflation has continued to ease. At the moment, headline inflation is at 2.1 per cent. The "trimmed mean" measure of inflation, which is the Reserve Bank of Australia's preferred measure of underlying inflation, also declined from 2.9 to 2.7 per cent. Between 2022 and 2023, the RBA lifted interest rates 13 times. It coincided with a period where Australians were more financially stressed than they were at any time before or during the pandemic, according to an Australian National University survey of about 4,000 people. The most recent look into Australia's mental health system by the National Mental Health Commission found more people were finding it difficult on their current incomes. Between 2020 and 2024 financial stress almost doubled from 17.1 per cent in November 2020 to 34.6 per cent by January 2024. Financial stress often occurs when people find it difficult to keep up with living expenses. The signs can include: The report also found more people were delaying or not seeking mental health care because of the cost. Ms Hammond, who is an osteopath, was not immune she said she saw her income fall by about $1,200 a month. Her situation was complicated by being self-employed, and demand for appointments started to wane. It led to her having to make a decision she did not want to, and forgo her retirement safety net earlier this year. "As a sole trader trying to prioritise putting money aside for super has been a challenge," she said. "At least we will have combined superannuation, but I'm way behind compared to what [my partner's] at. Monash University's Anthony Harris, who runs its Centre of Health Economics, said the cost of living crisis has not been helped by more than a decade of flatling real wages. "It's been a period when real wages have been falling for maybe a dozen years. So there has been quite a ratchet down in people's real income," Professor Harris said. 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It has been described as a disconnect between people's perception and the reality of their financial position. Dr Gainey explained major financial shifts often can have longer term impacts on people's relationship with money. "So I think with things like money dysmorphia a part of it is that no matter what position we're in financially, there are always people who can look to have more," Dr Gainey said. "So I think going through kind of a stressful period like that then makes people a bit more sensitised to [questions like], 'do they really have enough?'
