Everything you need to know about Santos' deep-pocketed suitor
The little-known reincarnation of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company's international arm will have the ruler run over it as the Foreign Investment Review Board decides whether the bidding group it leads can buy Australia's second-biggest oil and gas company.
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Perth Now
an hour ago
- Perth Now
AI not a 'straightforward' fix for ailing productivity
Australia has been warned against the "seductive" pull of artificial intelligence as the federal government looks to the technology to help solve its productivity woes. AI is expected to take centre stage during the second day of the government's economic reform roundtable, alongside regulation and competition. Though he recognised its risks, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has previously said AI could be an economic "game changer" to boost Australia's ailing productivity and lift living standards. But Monash University human-centred computing lecturer Jathan Sadowski warned the story was not so simple. "AI changes the nature of work but it doesn't straightforwardly make work more efficient or more productive," he told AAP. "It produces all kinds of new problems that people need to adjust to: they need to fill in the gaps with AI, or they need to clean up the mess after AI does something in not the right way. "A lot of organisations are simply not prepared to do the hard work necessary to implement AI." To use AI well, businesses would have to change their practices so they can complement the capabilities of the technology, which generally requires significant infrastructure work, capital investment and human labour. The technology also works best when it is purpose-built using specific, high quality data for an organisation's specific subject area. This means having lots of smaller scale technologies, which runs counter to the prevailing understanding of AI. "There's this real push towards universal models - something like ChatGPT - it's the one model to rule them all, one solution to every problem," Dr Sadowski said. "It means that you can sell the technology to every market and from the government's point of view means that all you have to do is implement this one solution. "There's something very seductive to that because it tells a good story ... but it doesn't produce good technology." Research about AI's impact on productivity shows mixed results. A recent CSIRO study of 300 employees found one in three did not report productivity benefits, and the majority that did expected the improvements to be better than what was delivered. Analysis published in the US National Bureau of Economic Research showed unclear results at the organisational level and it can also be difficult to disentangle the impact of AI from other factors.
The Age
3 hours ago
- The Age
No phones, no handlers, no nice snacks: day one in Chalmers' VIP lock-up
The catering staff of Parliament House are taking to heart the issues central to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's economic roundtable. As the late lunch break started on the first day of the three-day love-in, the staff rolled out the remnants of the morning's work. A trolley with four large but near-empty hot water urns and a collection of mugs stained by lukewarm coffee. What was noticeable was what was absent from the trolley. No discarded sandwich wrappers. No waxed paper with chocolate muffin remains. Not even a container of half-eaten Venetian biscuits. Traditionally, gatherings of the grand, self-important and policy wonks in federal parliament are catered as if an army is dropping by for a week. But perhaps in a sign of the topic matter, the economic roundtable was focused only on what was necessary to get the collective minds of business leaders, unionists, academics, community groups and politicians thinking. In this case, coffee, tea and some plain biscuits. Loading At one point, Treasurer Jim Chalmers – perhaps getting in some training for running a meeting in the federal cabinet room – told those assembled they could get up and walk around to stretch their legs. But none took up the option, focused as they were on the issues at hand. Without mobile phones (which were left at the cabinet door) or handlers or media managers, it was left to the almost 30 people in the room to work through the agenda put in front of them. And that agenda kicked off with an issue close to the heart of almost every person on the planet, particularly the current occupant of the White House, a discussion about tariffs.
AU Financial Review
8 hours ago
- AU Financial Review
PM and Treasurer have at least admitted the productivity problem
Whatever else the Economic Reform Roundtable achieves, the event has already served a useful purpose. The Albanese government has at least been forced to acknowledge the productivity problem at the heart of Australia's economic malaise. Opening the first day of the summit between the government and business, union and community leaders on Tuesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese admitted how key the productivity challenge is to 'lifting living standards of Australians'. This was echoed in Jim Chalmers' introductory remarks. The treasurer said 'making the economy more productive over time was the best way to lift living standards and make people better off'. Chalmers even claimed that 'in one of the first cabinet meetings after the election we decided to put productivity at the very core of our second term agenda'.
