Countdown to historic Australian space launch
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Australia may be hours away from a major milestone in spaceflight.
Engineers in Queensland are prepping what will be the first orbital rocket, made by an Australian company, to launch in the country.
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News.com.au
12 hours ago
- News.com.au
Ethical questions raised over Hungry Jack's AI drive-through
The trial of an AI drive-through at a Sydney fast food restaurant has exposed how easily entry-level jobs could be replaced by software, raising ethical questions for businesses. Hungry Jack's confirmed it was testing a 'new digital voice-activated customer ordering system' at its St Peters restaurant to gauge its 'effectiveness'. Currently, it is only being used at the single franchise in Sydney's inner west but the company anticipates the trial would be 'rolled out to additional restaurants in the coming months'. 'Every 15-year-old just lost their job,' one person commented on a viral TikTok video which brought the virtual assistant to wider attention. Daswin De Silva, a professor of AI and analytics at La Trobe University, has been closely monitoring how industries and workforces were changing amid the rise of automation. He said the 'disturbing' use of conversational bots for low-level employment like a Hungry Jack's drive-through attendant raised questions about corporate ethics – something the federal government is being urged to consider when it comes to AI. 'The physical labour they are replacing is negligible compared to potential revenue generation capacity of such a large franchise organisation,' Professor De Silva said. 'This potentially will be receiving a huge backlash and … I'm assuming they'll have to roll this back because this is a very community embedded organisation. 'And if you're using AI for the least effort to job in your very large supply chain, that's something that will be judged harshly in the court of public opinion. 'That's not ethical, (or) a responsible business practice.' Discussion around the future of work has been back in the headlines in recent days after the boss of AI agent developer Anthropic predicted bots could wipe out half of white-collar jobs in America. Professor De Silva said it was important to take the musings of tech bosses with a grain of salt, but added he had seen evidence white-collar jobs in Australia were being affected. McDonald's signals an AI makeover McDonald's recently revealed it would be looking to give its 43,000 stores (there are an estimated 1,053 in Australia) a technology makeover. 'Our restaurants, frankly, can be very stressful,' the fast food giant's chief information officer Brian Rice told the Wall Street Journal in March. 'We have customers at the counter, we have customers at our drive-through, couriers coming in for delivery, delivery at curbside. That's a lot to deal with for our crew,. 'Technology solutions will alleviate the stress.' The fast food chain has been using Google Cloud since 2023 in a setup known as 'edge computing' in a bid to streamline processes in their stores. They say the technology will help with maintenance of key kitchen equipment like McFlurry ice cream machines along with progressing AI-powered drive-thrus and robotic deep fryers. McDonald's has made no mention of whether those advancements could come at the cost of blue-collar jobs typically taken up by teens enjoying their first start in the workforce. The fast food chain is one of the largest employers in Australia with an estimated 105,000 employees. Fast food rivals trial AI It comes after McDonald's ended its test of AI chatbots at drive-throughs in 100 locations around the US in July last year. The burger chain removed the AI-based order systems, giving no public reason for ending its test run, according to Restaurant Business. But it came amid reports of a string of mistakes with diners' meals – with customers saying they often received things they didn't order. Some of the mistakes included adding nine sweet teas to one customer's order and giving another customer an ice cream cone with bacon on top. Just months later, KFC Australia began trialling AI drive-through technology in five restaurants across the country, including South Penrith, Wetherill Park, Mt Druitt, Minto, and Frenchs Forest. Its name was Kacy, but despite the personification, the chain assured no jobs were being replaced by the technology. It appears to still be up and running, according to users on TikTok. 'Wealth shift' from people to tech companies Greg Sadler, chief executive of AI safety advocates Good Ancestors, said recent research found four in five Australians were concerned about negative outcomes from AI. He said AI was already outperforming humans at some tasks, and asserted that the majority of Australians found the technology 'scary'. 'Impressive AI agents are already being used and will be widely adopted. That could have significant impacts on entry-level jobs, from drive-throughs to medicine and law,' he said. 'AI replacing jobs could result in a significant wealth shift from countries like Australia to a small number of companies, mostly in California or Hangzhou. 'Australian businesses face commercial pressure to adopt AI. A problem they face is that AI can still be unpredictable, and leading AI labs push responsibility for harms onto businesses deploying AI. 'Because AI is a 'black box', Australian businesses have limited ability to manage its risks.' Professor De Silva said responsible uptake of AI could put Australia on the path to increased productivity, and help solve issues historically beyond human reach like global hunger and climate. But he said the avenue taken by Hungry Jack's, and other fast-food outlets around the world, only undermined trust in something that has a 'bad reputation'. 'And this only reinforces this, so large organisations who have … large revenue have a corporate social responsibility to make sure that the community is part of their organisation.' Less job adverts since Chat GPT Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei last week claimed rapidly improving AI could see US unemployment rate balloon to 20 per cent in 'a couple of years or less'. 'Most of them (workers) are unaware that this is about to happen. It sounds crazy, and people just don't believe it,' he said. Professor De Silva said there was evidence that less software engineering and programming jobs were being advertised online post the release of Chat GPT in 2022. 'There is a significant drop in the number of software engineering or programming jobs that are being advertised. 'So this is sort of evidence to these predictions that are being made by some of the CEOs of the AI companies.' He said software jobs were among the 'first victims' of the AI boom but replacing physical labour with robots was much further off due to exorbitant costs. Costs for energy and subscriptions would also keep many small and medium Australian businesses from using AI bots instead of humans, Professor De Silva predicted. Aussies use AI but don't trust it Research compiled by KPMG released in April showed that although 50 per cent of Australian used it regularly, the country ranked low when it came to optimism and trust of AI. Professor Nicole Gillespie, chair of trust at Melbourne Business School at the University of Melbourne, said believing AI was safe to use was crucial to wider acceptance. 'Yet our research reveals that 78 per cent of Australians are concerned about a range of negative outcomes from the use of AI systems, and 37 per cent have personally experienced or observed negative outcomes ranging from inaccuracy, misinformation and manipulation, deskilling, and loss of privacy or IP,' she said. Newly minted Industry, Innovation and Science Minister Tim Ayres told an AI conference on Tuesday that Australia must 'lean in' to help shape the digital future. 'Core to this national interest is also using the digital economy and AI adoption as foundational to future productivity growth,' he said. 'AI adoption is not a future task for firms and government – it is well and truly underway. The Australian challenge is to lean in to adopt AI to lift productivity and living standards, deliver investment in infrastructure and capability and protect our security. 'To realise the opportunities where we can, and regulate where we must.' Professor De Silva, however, had a different opinion: 'It's probably safe to be a follower'. He pointed to the difference between AI regulation in Europe compared to the deregulation of the sector in Donald Trump's America, where he said 'all bets were off'. 'We have to be cautious, not being not being the first mover in this case, it's advantageous because it's got a huge potential negative impact. 'And we don't want to be the victims of that negative impact if it's done wrong.'
News.com.au
14 hours ago
- News.com.au
Lunch Wrap: ASX climbs, uranium stocks catch fire on Meta's nuclear move
ASX climbs as uranium glows Meta's nuclear deal lights up local energy stocks Aussie GDP stalls, Virgin preps for ASX liftoff The ASX was up 0.77% by lunchtime AEST on Wednesday, with green lights flashing across the screen and uranium names doing the heavy lifting. It's a decent showing, especially given the backdrop of Trump's latest tariff thunderclaps, and a local GDP print that disappointed. Overnight, US job openings jumped from 7.2 million to 7.4 million in April, helping the Dow rise 0.5%, the Nasdaq pop 0.8%, and the S&P 500 inch within 3% of its record high. Nvidia kept rocketing, up another 3%, while Broadcom hit record highs. Back home, it's uranium stealing the spotlight this morning, thanks to a surprise power move from Meta. The tech behemoth behind Facebook and Instagram has inked a 20-year deal to source nuclear power from an Illinois plant to fuel its ravenous AI data centres. That has lit a fuse under Aussie uranium stocks, pushing the energy sector higher today. Paladin Energy (ASX:PDN) surged 7.5% to sit near the top of the ASX 200 by late morning. Deep Yellow (ASX:DYL) was up 5% and Boss Energy (ASX:BOE) gained 6%. If you're wondering how AI, social media, and nuclear energy ended up in the same sentence, welcome to 2025. The big tech firms are scrambling for reliable, clean energy to power their server farms, and uranium's looking more attractive by the day. Meta joins Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet in the nuclear club, signalling that longer-term demand for the yellowcake isn't speculative any more. This is where things stood at around lunch time, AEST: In the large caps space, IDP Education (ASX:IEL) staged a bit of a rebound, up as much as 8% after Tuesday's near-50% nosedive on immigration policy jitters that rattled its revenue pipeline. Over in retail, Mark McInnes has added a cool $2 million to his salary as he steps up as executive deputy chair of Lovisa Holdings (ASX:LOV), while John Cheston takes over as global CEO of the $3bn fast fashion jewellery chain. LOV's shares jumped 8.5%. And finally, Virgin Australia's finally prepping for its long-awaited return to the ASX boards, with a $685 million IPO priced at $2.90 a share. If all goes to plan, the airline will be wheels-up on June 24 with a market cap of $2.3 billion. Soft GDP And finally... to the Aussie economy, and it's not exactly firing on all cylinders. The ABS said GDP grew just 0.2% in the March quarter, missing forecasts of 0.4% and well down from 0.6% the quarter before. Annual growth is crawling at 1.3%. It's not a technical recession, but it sure feels like the engine's idling. The RBA has already cut rates twice this year with inflation finally easing, but assistant governor Sarah Hunter didn't sugarcoat things yesterday. She said global uncertainty – read: Trump's tariffs – could weigh heavily on local activity if it drags on. ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for June 4 : Security Description Last % Volume MktCap JAY Jayride Group 0.002 100% 627,513 $1,427,889 CDE Codeifai Limited 0.011 57% 1,966,163 $2,282,222 CRN Coronado Global Res 0.150 43% 22,611,899 $176,027,642 ARV Artemis Resources 0.007 40% 1,850,608 $12,642,647 EPM Eclipse Metals 0.021 37% 55,456,751 $42,987,285 ADN Andromeda Metals Ltd 0.015 36% 72,521,214 $41,946,774 EEL Enrg Elements Ltd 0.002 33% 1,500,000 $4,880,668 MTB Mount Burgess Mining 0.004 33% 2,116,123 $1,055,108 SFG Seafarms Group Ltd 0.002 33% 290,025 $7,254,899 GED Golden Deeps 0.024 33% 1,280,670 $3,188,263 PGD Peregrine Gold 0.145 26% 211,856 $9,757,490 BM8 Battery Age Minerals 0.061 24% 2,016,281 $5,972,699 LCL LCL Resources Ltd 0.008 23% 4,749,503 $7,766,283 MIO Macarthur Minerals 0.018 20% 138,888 $2,994,983 RML Resolution Minerals 0.018 20% 2,995,660 $7,886,803 AJL AJ Lucas Group 0.006 20% 140,000 $6,878,648 ATG Articore Group Ltd 0.195 18% 757,686 $46,981,502 SHN Sunshine Metals Ltd 0.013 18% 12,808,152 $22,964,093 GPR Geopacific Resources 0.020 18% 2,004,888 $54,101,911 REZ Resourc & En Grp Ltd 0.020 18% 482,890 $11,417,865 FAR FAR Ltd 0.450 17% 41,752 $35,579,563 BNL Blue Star Helium Ltd 0.007 17% 1,536,106 $16,169,312 NAE New Age Exploration 0.004 17% 384,602 $7,978,197 Coronado Global Resources (ASX:CRN) has locked in a $150 million loan deal with Oaktree to help ride out low coal prices and keep its liquidity plan on track. CRN will get $75 million upfront, with the rest available over the next year. The three-year facility is backed by receivables and inventory, and comes at a fixed rate below its current high-yield debt. The cash will support day-to-day operations while it finishes expansion projects at Mammoth and Buchanan. Andromeda Metals (ASX:ADN) has also secured credit approval from Merricks Capital for a $75 million debt facility to help fund the development of its Great White Project. The loan runs for 78 months, with repayments kicking off a year after the project is built, and wraps up with a 50% bullet at the end. It's not a done deal yet, and first drawdown depends on Andromeda locking in the rest of the funding needed to give Stage 1A+ the green light Tyro Payments (ASX:TYR) has just teamed up with GapOnly to shake up how Aussies pay for pet care. From early 2026, it will power real-time insurance claims and payments at the vet, meaning pet owners can sort bills and insurance in one go. It won the gig after a competitive tender. Pointsbet (ASX:PBH) has got a sweeter deal on the table. Japan's MIXI has bumped up its takeover offer to $1.20 a share, up from $1.06, which gives the bid a 44.6% premium to where PointsBet last traded before the first offer. That values the company at around $402 million. If shareholders don't back it, MIXI said it was ready to launch a takeover bid at the same price, aiming to grab just over half the company. ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks for June 4 : Code Name Price % Change Volume Market Cap CR9 Corellares 0.002 -33% 100,000 $3,016,820 EDE Eden Inv Ltd 0.002 -33% 7,181,943 $12,329,643 PIL Peppermint Inv Ltd 0.002 -33% 1,390,677 $6,828,269 BRX Belararoxlimited 0.059 -30% 1,949,252 $13,253,417 PRM Prominence Energy 0.003 -25% 4,125 $1,556,706 QXR Qx Resources Limited 0.003 -25% 880,918 $5,241,315 BEL Bentley Capital Ltd 0.009 -25% 53,972 $913,535 TAS Tasman Resources Ltd 0.019 -24% 278,672 $4,603,565 ERA Energy Resources 0.002 -20% 800,005 $1,013,490,602 MGU Magnum Mining & Exp 0.004 -20% 5,673,700 $5,608,254 TEM Tempest Minerals 0.004 -20% 703,564 $3,672,649 TMX Terrain Minerals 0.002 -20% 1,712,757 $5,621,392 1AD Adalta Limited 0.003 -17% 166,003 $1,929,668 AZL Arizona Lithium Ltd 0.005 -17% 1,691,614 $31,621,887 GGE Grand Gulf Energy 0.003 -17% 3,691,128 $8,461,275 NUC Nuchev Limited 0.160 -16% 57,936 $27,804,468 EQX Equatorial Res Ltd 0.120 -14% 100,000 $18,402,349 FGH Foresta Group 0.006 -14% 31,182 $18,570,345 TMS Tennant Minerals Ltd 0.006 -14% 2,609,911 $6,691,233 VAR Variscan Mines Ltd 0.006 -14% 556,072 $5,480,004 IIQ Inoviq Ltd 0.445 -14% 991,715 $57,490,893 BYH Bryah Resources Ltd 0.013 -13% 11,769,405 $13,049,303 5EA 5Eadvanced 0.530 -13% 39,215 $9,136,299 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT Blue Star Helium (ASX:BNL) has completed the sixth and final well in its development drilling program at the Galactica helium project in Las Animas county, Colorado. Language tech company Straker (ASX:STG) has launched a new integration with AI automation platform n8n. Core Energy Minerals (ASX:CR3) has received regulatory approval for its maiden aircore drilling campaign at the Cummins uranium project in South Australia. LAST ORDERS Red Metal (ASX:RDM) has secured two collaborative drilling grants from the Queensland government totalling $400k, for drill testing on the Gulf and Three Ways projects in Northwest Queensland. The company reckons the area is prospective for oversized copper mineral systems, sitting within the northern extensions of the Mount Isa formation. Solar technology company ClearVue (ASX:CPV) subsidiary OptiCrop has secured its first commercial project, a greenhouse installation for ground-source heat exchange technology which will net $80k. It's a big milestone for the company's ambitions to expand into the agricultural technology and sustainable greenhouse sector, following CPV's acquisition of the ROOTS Sustainable Agricultural Technologies' IP and assets late last year. At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Blue Star Helium, Straker, CoRed Metal and ClearVue are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.
The Australian
15 hours ago
- The Australian
Vital Signs: Compumedics
Vital Signs is a podcast series focused on investing, hosted by Senior Health and Biotech journalist Nadine McGrath. In this episode Nadine chats to Gordon Haid, the Global Neuro-Imaging Business Director of Compumedics (ASX:CMP), a medical device company focused on diagnostic tech for sleep, brain and blood flow monitoring. Founded in 1987, Compumedics' strategy was initially focused on developing its core competency, Sleep Diagnostics. The company even set up Australia's first ever fully computerised sleep clinic. Today, Compumedics has evolved into one of the world's leading suppliers of medical technology for sleep, neuro diagnostics and ultrasonic blood flow monitoring, with products distributed to clients around the globe, helping millions of people who suffer from debilitating sleep, neurological and other healthcare problems. This podcast was developed in collaboration with Compumedics, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing. The interviews and discussions in this podcast are opinions only and not financial or investment advice. Listeners should obtain independent advice based on their own circumstances before making any financial decisions.
