Brisbane news live: Talking to AI maps could help solve housing crisis; Highway reopens early; PM meets Pope Leo XIV
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Hopes talking to AI maps can help provide lifeline for housing crisis
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Researchers hope talking to maps may help them find the answers needed to solve Australia's housing crisis.
In an effort to tackle a multi-front crisis, a cutting-edge government-backed housing analytics lab will open this morning.
Studying housing data, the interactive lab aims to find solutions to housing affordability, by looking at areas to build social homes and boost the waning development pipeline.
Researchers will use Map AI, an interactive tool that shows housing data, to find which areas are best to be developed, and how to feasibly redevelop already high-density areas.
'Map AI allows you to talk to your map and ask questions like 'show me property here', so it makes it a lot easier for those who are not data scientists to interrogate the data,' lead of the lab and UNSW professor Chris Pettit said.
'Traditionally planners try to rezone high-density areas around train stations.
'We will use AI to see what value are those properties are and what is permissible to zone, to break down some of those barriers.'
The lab will bring together more than a dozen partners in government and the housing sector, with a focus on NSW, though solutions found can be used across the nation.
State governments in 2023 agreed to begin building a combined 1.2 million homes from mid-2024, with the hope of finishing them over five years.
Less than a year later, the number of approved dwellings is dropping, not rising, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
7.22am
Weather for the week
A sunnier start to the week is forecast for the River City, after a week of intermittent showers.
The bureau suggests the chance of rain in Brisbane isn't high today, but showers will hang around this week.
The top temperatures will remain in the mid-20s degrees for the week.
Here's a glance at the next seven days:
7.21am
While you were sleeping
Here's what's making news further afield this morning:
Former US President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones.
The faithful came in their thousands to see Pope Leo XIV begin his work as one of the world's most powerful spiritual leaders, in a ceremony that combined ancient symbols and modern statecraft.
'Relentless'. That's how family law mediator Jasmin Newman describes the vendetta against her by self-styled child recovery expert Adam Whittington, who came to the public's notice in 2016 when he was involved in 60 Minutes' bungled attempt to extricate Australian children from Lebanon.
A Mexican navy sailing ship on a global goodwill tour struck the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, snapping its three masts and fatally injuring two crew members.
With a $200 million price tag, a grand Sydney mansion is on track to become Australia's priciest property.
As Sussan Ley and Ted O'Brien begin rebuilding a shattered Liberal Party, the right lessons must be learnt from its devastating election loss – with some difficult discussions needed.
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