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Julian Webb

@julianinoz.bsky.social
779 followers 597 following 415 posts

Law prof at UniMelb; lawyers/legal ethics, digital tech/reg, civil justice, empirical research. HREC Chair, Grampians Health. Recovering legal education geek.Trainee lavender grower, 💙art and books. Dja Dja Wurrung country #firstgen

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Reposted by Julian Webb
The Australia Institute @australiainstitute.org.au · 12/10/2026
New analysis reveals the positive impact this year’s property tax changes have had on those who’d previously been locked out of the housing market. Learn more australiainstitute.org.au/post/turn…
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Julian Webb @julianinoz.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Guy Beringer at the International Conference of Legal Regulators: www.legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/...
legalfutures.co.uk
Legal profession has replaced ethics with 'not acting illegally'
The legal profession has “tried effectively to outsource its soul to its regulators” by substituting acting ethically with the absence of illegality, a City law grandee has warned.
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Reposted by Julian Webb
Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 08/10/2026
we have a policy for the use of genAI at the @aial.ie. we reflect on values key to scientific integrity, such as replicability, and err on the side of not using it blogpost: aial.ie/blog/gen-ai-... pdf: zenodo.org/records/2322...
A flowchart that guides reflective thinking around generative AI in the context of research. It highlights key, interconnected values underpinning scientific integrity, alongside practical and wider socio-political considerations when deciding whether to use generative AI for research.
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Reposted by Julian Webb
The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
NEW The diabolical defending of Manchester City Understanding an aggressive litigation strategy By me, at @prospectmagazine.co.uk (Prospect paywall is down currently.) www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th... #MCFC
What can explain such an aggressive and counterproductive approach? To an extent the answer may be in the facts and the evidence. Perhaps the view was that the only chance of getting out of this was to be unhelpful as well as robust. In respect of an earlier dispute with Uefa, an internal communication at the club apparently said “Uefa doesn't respond to anything other than aggression”. Maybe the view was taken that this would work here too. Maybe the club still thinks it will work in the end, with the league being pushed into settlement on appeal or at the doors of the High Court.

But this does not offer a total explanation. What may work with Uefa may not work with other adversaries. The structure of the league’s investigation and the disciplinary approach meant that aggression would not only be unhelpful, but would count heavily against the club. An appeal on the law or procedure at the High Court in this sort of case only has a remote chance of success. It can be assumed the club was warned of all this.

There is a phrase in football punditry that “the defending is diabolical”. Here diabolical is, of course, a synonym for dreadful. But in its more literal sense, diabolical means bedevilled with wrongful purpose. And the strategy adopted by Manchester City in contesting this matter is also in this sense diabolical. The club will have known that it was unlikely to work, and that it would make things harder, but the club decided to do it anyway.
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Julian Webb @julianinoz.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
1/3 Important UK decision on LPP and regulatory power as EWHC rules that s44B of the Solicitors Act does not entitle the SRA to demand access to privileged docs. www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/huge-bl...
lawgazette.co.uk
'Huge blow' for SRA as High Court rules on scope of privilege
Regulator to appeal 'landmark decision' that anti-SLAPP campaigners allege will leave the regulator 'completely toothless'.
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Reposted by Julian Webb
The Australia Institute @australiainstitute.org.au · 15/09/2026
"We have no climate policy in Australia that is effective" - Dr Kate Dooley, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne. Follow more: #ClimateIntegrity
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Julian Webb @julianinoz.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
*chef's kiss*
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Reposted by Julian Webb
Amy Remeikis @amyremeikis.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Whether or not the digital duty of care is good policy is one thing. But pretending the Coalition is against it because of ‘freedom of speech’ or ‘protecting the press’ is delusional - ESPECIALLY from Sarah Henderson www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/politic...
thenewdaily.com.au
Coalition's leading culture warrior ties herself in free-speech knots
Henderson has made a career out of declaring what she believes free speech to be, seeking to squash views she doesn’t personally agree with.
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Reposted by Julian Webb
The Conversation AUNZ @aunz.theconversation.com · 31/08/2026
AI has broken the economic bargain behind the web, and everybody is losing.
theconversation.com
AI is eating website traffic, websites are blocking AI – and reliable information is getting harder to find
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Julian Webb @julianinoz.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
1/2 Just watched The History of Sound for the second time (first time was flying to Europe a few weeks ago, and I was taken enough with it to want to give it a second chance). This time it kind of blew me away, not just the quality of acting and cinematography
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Julian Webb @julianinoz.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
As you'd expect: NT and Qld split from PM’s green data centre plan www.innovationaus.com/nt-and-qld-s...
innovationaus.com
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Julian Webb @julianinoz.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Australia's "disordered and delusionary" thinking on fossil fuels share.google/U6NwqjLZkpwM...
share.google
"Disordered and delusionary thinking:" Ex-ADF chief calls out Australia's climate hypocrisy
Australia's addiction to fossil fuel exports is undermining the "enormous" success of the renewable energy transition and threatening national security, one of the nation's top military experts has warned.
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Reposted by Julian Webb
Law, Technology and Humans @lawtechhum.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
🆕New issue – includes: #MediaTheory➕#AI #Healthcare #patents #consent #fiction➕#Robodebt #DutyOfCare➕#SocialMedia #disinformation➕#copyright #IoT ➕ #MedicalDevices #AssistiveTechnologies➕#AIDS #DataColonialism➕#ScienceFiction➕ #PopularCulture ▶️ lthj.qut.edu.au/issue/view/152
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Reposted by Julian Webb
Ed Newton-Rex @ednewtonrex.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Huge new class action lawsuit filed by big publishers and authors against Google this week over AI training. It accuses Google of taking millions of books / articles provided to them for use only in Google Books, Google Play Books, and Google Scholar, and secretly using them to train LLMs. 🧵 1/4
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Reposted by Julian Webb
Jo Dyer @instanterudite.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Instead of waiting until 2027 for "advice", maybe Labor could follow advice from its own 2020 Senate report that rejected the anti-intellectual & inequitable scheme as creating an "Americanised education system characterised by high levels of private debt". And get rid of it. As promised. In 2022.
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Julian Webb @julianinoz.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
US DOJ now using AI instead of its lawyers to make bad arguments, but look, no sanctions
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Julian Webb @julianinoz.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Sidney Souvlaki!
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Julian Webb @julianinoz.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
‘This was a righteous case. A holy war’: the lawyer who took on Meta and Google – and won www.theguardian.com/media/2026/j...
theguardian.com
‘This was a righteous case. A holy war’: the lawyer who took on Meta and Google – and won
When Mark Lanier and his young client Kaley faced the tech giants in an LA courtroom earlier this year, it seemed a bigger battle than David v Goliath. But they scored a landmark victory, proving that...
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Reposted by Julian Webb
The Time Blawg @thetimeblawg.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
AI and Professional Negligence #AI #GenAI #LegalPractice #LegalTech #ProfessionalNegligence thetimeblawg.com/2026/07/12/a...
thetimeblawg.com
AI and Professional Negligence
AI and professional negligence has possibly been clarified by the UK Jurisdiction Taskforce in their Statement on Liability for AI Harm.
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Julian Webb @julianinoz.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
Here we go again. The role of law firms in sanctifying corporate (mis)conduct really warrants closer examination. They offer a 'fig leaf of independence' but that independence often seems fatally compromised in practice: www.afr.com/companies/pr...
afr.com
Secret Allens review cleared KPMG despite finding misconduct
“Project Magenta” found repeated misconduct but did not seek more evidence on many allegations, “given the credibility” of the partners interviewed.
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Julian Webb @julianinoz.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Pauline Hanson has threatened the SBS, one of our few remaining independent media institutions. Sign the petition here in support of the SBS and to try and secure it's funding for the next five years getup.to/pN2ZWNFaC51PUx
getup.to
Save our SBS!
Pauline Hanson has pledged to scrap SBS. The government needs to hear from the rest of us now.
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Reposted by Julian Webb
Milan Markovic @profmarkovic.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
To the extent law students are still boycotting certain firms, S&C should be at the top of the list. It helped broker the Paul Weiss settlement and is now filing frivolous appeals on the President's behalf.
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Reposted by Julian Webb
Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 01/07/2026
NEW BLOG FOR YOU Google's energy consumption numbers in their new climate report are mind-blowing. 2 years ago they flipped from linear to exponential growth, and their climate impact is blowing out, too. A WILD testament to the obscene bloat and waste of GenAI: ketanjoshi.co/2026/07/01/g...
a chart showing google's rising energy consumption - huge, and rising faster than ever beforea chart showing google's rising energy consumption - huge, and rising faster than ever beforea chart showing google's rising energy consumption - huge, and rising faster than ever beforeGoogle's total energy consumption more than new zealand
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Julian Webb @julianinoz.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
They're not even very good at pretending to care, are they
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Julian Webb @julianinoz.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
First disciplinary charges related to UK Post Office scandal www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/sra-cha...
lawgazette.co.uk
SRA charges two solicitors linked to Post Office scandal
Regulator announces first prosecutions, which relate to conduct after scandal was exposed.
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Julian Webb @julianinoz.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
I am also in the weights but definitely not this high, which is probably a *good thing* and if The AI really starts to pester me, I can probably send it round to @jowolff.bsky.social's house
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Reposted by Julian Webb
Nolan Hicks @ndhapple.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
“How much of Musk’s wealth comes from government help? Virtually all of it” www.cnn.com/2026/06/13/b...
cnn.com
How much of Musk’s wealth comes from government help? Virtually all of it. | CNN Business
Elon Musk has many people to thank for becoming the world’s first trillionaire — his companies’ engineers who produced technological breakthroughs, Wall Street investors who were eager to shower him w...
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Julian Webb @julianinoz.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Back in Europe and jetlag means I'm awake and ready to go at 5.00am, a state completely unknown at home! But, heigh-ho, it's a lovely morning and we have a book launch event at lunchtime. Hopefully I'll still be awake then 🙃
Early morning view from the Q-Factory in Amsterdam Oost,  looking across trees, and a sports centre to older buildings silhouetted against a pink-tinged horizon. A line of clouds is  moving from left to right across the image
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Julian Webb @julianinoz.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
1/2 Corporations Act sanctions imposed on Star head of legalhttps://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-17/star-casino-former-ceo-lawyer-money-laundering-scandal-asic/106803886?utm_campaign=abc_news_web&utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_source=abc_news_web
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Julian Webb @julianinoz.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
JFC ... as if we haven't got enough environmental risks to contend with.
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Reposted by Julian Webb
The Conversation AUNZ @aunz.theconversation.com · 17/06/2026
The risks of depending on US-based AI models are becoming clear.
theconversation.com
The US government can shut off access to AI at will. What does this mean for Australia?
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Julian Webb @julianinoz.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
Excellent piece on the meaning and significance of the rule of law by Brad Wendel: open.substack.com/pub/bradwend...
open.substack.com
A Rule of Law Explainer
I was at a conference recently with several sessions dedicated to topics related to the rule of law.
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Reposted by Julian Webb
CAMERON WILSON @cameronwilson.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
NEW: The VIQ Solution scandal has grown to include 13 government agencies. VIQ allegedly secretly used Indian subcontractors to transcribe sensitive legal & government documents. There's now a probe by the privacy commissioner and a call for a forensic audit of the files. www.abc.net.au/news/...
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Reposted by Julian Webb
Tim Stephens @proftimstephens.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
“The average NSW resident is already $20,000 a year worse off because of historical climate change, and economic modelling suggests future global warming will further squeeze household budgets through a double whammy of lost wages and higher grocery bills.” www.smh.com.au/environment/...
smh.com.au
You’re losing $20k a year because of climate change – and it’s predicted to get worse
As well as the cost of extreme weather and natural disasters, longer-term climatic changes are also a drag on economic productivity, the NSW Net Zero Commission says.
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Reposted by Julian Webb
The Conversation AUNZ @aunz.theconversation.com · 07/06/2026
Australia’s proposed digital duty of care will ask social media platforms to actively prevent harm.
theconversation.com
Australia wants social media to be ‘safe by design’. What does that actually look like?
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Reposted by Julian Webb
Colin James PhD @colinj51.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Australia's High Court is considering a verdict in its first ever climate case with real implications for fossil fuel producers across the country. theconversation.com/should-emiss...
theconversation.com
Should emissions from coal burned overseas be considered in Australian mine approvals? For the first time, the High Court will decide
For the first time, an emissions and climate impact case has arrived at Australia’s High Court. The stakes couldn’t be higher.
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Reposted by Julian Webb
The Conversation AUNZ @aunz.theconversation.com · 26/05/2026
The resignation of Paul Brereton reflects flaws in how we set up our integrity agencies. Here are 3 ways to ensure these bodies are truly independent.
theconversation.com
We need a new anti-corruption commissioner. Here’s how to pick the right one
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Julian Webb @julianinoz.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
1/2 An insufficiently supervised junior lawyer submits erroneous material to the court - twice. Criticised for 'almost entirely outsourcing the thinking process' to AI: www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/pinsent...
lawgazette.co.uk
Pinsents refers itself to SRA over AI failures
Judge says junior lawyer 'almost entirely outsourced the thinking process' to artificial intelligence in 'embarrassing' incident.
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Reposted by Julian Webb
Amy Diehl, Ph.D. @amydiehl.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
Reviewers in two groups were given identical resumes for Emily Clarke and James Clarke and told they had used AI. Emily's was 2x as likely to raise doubts about competence. "She can't even write a CV herself." But James "just needed a bit of help." fortune.com/2026/05/10/i...
fortune.com
AI generated identical resumes for a man and a woman: Hers was more likely to be labeled 'weak,' while his got a 97% approval rating | Fortune
“If people believe they will be judged more harshly for using AI, they are less likely to adopt it—regardless of their capability."
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Reposted by Julian Webb
Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 21/05/2026
Chucked this into translate for y'all - I think it shows nicely that even Norway, with 100% clean grid power, data centres can still cause massive problems. In this case, lots of new power demand with little new power production, which will significantly increase our power prices:
Consumption increased in several sectors, but little new production was
commissioned. In 2025, mild weather resulted in lower heating demand than the previous
year. Power consumption nevertheless ended at the same level as in 2024, with a total consumption of 13
This was due to increased consumption in several sectors — especially data centers, where
consumption increased by 1 TWh in 2025. At the same time, only about 0.6 TWh of new power
generation was commissioned, which is on par with recent years. The power year 2025 thus
fits into a trend where power consumption is increasing, while little new production is being
added.Data centers will require large amounts of power and network capacity
Introduction and summary
Al, cloud services and digitalization require large amounts of power
Data centers are currently among the sectors with the fastest growing demand for power and
network capacity globally. Over the past five years, power consumption for data centers
globally has increased from around 250 TWh in 2020 to nearly 500 TWh in 2025. [1 Over
the next five years, the IEA expects power consumption to double again, to nearly 1 ,OOO TWh
in 2030. [3] In Europe, ENTSO-E expects power demand for data centers to increase from
around 90 TWh in 2024 to over 130 TWh in 2030. By 2035, they estimate that power
consumption could reach 200-250 TWh. [4] In recent years, several Westem countries have
introduced measures to try to manage this development.
Data centers will dominate consumption growth in Norway going
forward Norway is an attractive country for establishing data centers, with a high share of
renewable energy, relatively low power prices, a cool climate and political stability. In 2000,
there was only one data center in Norway. [51 Today, there are over 100 registered data
centers. [6] In 2025 alone, data center power consumption in Norway increased by over 1 TWh,
to 3 TWh. By 2030, we estimate that consumption could increase by a further 5 TWh. The data
center industry is probably the sector with the greatest potential for increasing power
consumption in Norway in the coming years. However, how much growth will actually be is
very uncertain. The growth could also be higher than our estimates.
Lack of network capacity may become the limiting factor for growth. Today, there
are a large number of data center players who want network connectivity.
Statnett's connection register shows 120 cases from data center operators who want to connect
to the transmission grid. In addition, there are operators who want to connect to the regional
grid. In the transmission grid, reserved and queued capac…
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Reposted by Julian Webb
Tom Williams, tech journo 👨‍💻 @its-tom-williams.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
It seems like more and more Australian are having the experience outlined in the new Guardian story down below. Here's our @information-age.bsky.social piece from last year:
ia.acs.org.au
Kobi refused a doctor's AI. She was told to go elsewhere
Unregulated AI scribes raising privacy, security concerns.
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Reposted by Julian Webb
The Legal Wire @legalwire.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
thelegalwire.ai
China Drafts First Unified AI Law to Consolidate Fragmented Rules - The Legal Wire
China's State Council has confirmed in its 2026 legislative work plan that Beijing is accelerating work on its first comprehensive AI law, moving beyond the patchwork of sector-specific rules covering algorithms, deep synthesis, and generative content. The law will address data, algorithms, computing power, cybersecurity, and IP rights. The move reflects intensifying US-China competition and
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Julian Webb @julianinoz.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
1/2 🇬🇧 British Political Spectrum Quiz My result: Progressive Liberal Economic: collectivist Social: progressive Sovereignty: strongly cosmopolitan Military: leaning anti-interventionist Authority: libertarian Constitutional: strongly reformist Take the quiz: quiz.jmoxley.co.uk
quiz.jmoxley.co.uk
British Political Spectrum Quiz
Find out where you sit on the British political map across six dimensions.
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Reposted by Julian Webb
Frank Pasquale @frankpasquale.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
“We started to be required to use AI to write our code, and were given virtually no time to understand and solve the problems ourselves. We became more code reviewers than code authors. And no matter how much we produced, we were expected to do more.” www.dialecticsofdecline.com/p/ai-is-dest...
dialecticsofdecline.com
AI Is Destroying The Career I Once Loved
What happens when there's nothing left to lose?
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Reposted by Julian Webb
David Kluft @dkluft.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
#LegalEthics Tidbit: If the court sanctions lawyers for misusing #AI, but only warns pro se parties for doing it, should a lawyer acting pro se get a sanction or a warning? A CA lawyer representing herself in federal court filed a... (cont.) storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us... #law #lawsky
storage.courtlistener.com
Order – #47 in (PS) Geddes v. Loancare, LLC (E.D. Cal., 2:25-cv-02955) – CourtListener.com
Order
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Julian Webb @julianinoz.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
1/3 New UK Upper Tribunal decision. Solr has cited fake authority AND admits uploading client docs to ChatGPT. Tribunal views this as breach of confidentiality and privilege obligations. Tribunal would have referred to SRA & Info Comm'r, had the solr not self-reported. www.iclr.co.uk/document/202...
iclr.co.uk
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Colin James PhD @colinj51.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
This week: High Court of Australia case brought by two retired school teachers Wendy and Tony in a David and Goliath battle for climate against Mt Pleasant Coal Mine owners Mach Energy. www.econetworkps.org/sustainable-...
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Julian Webb @julianinoz.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
1/3 Research by Tech Policy Design Institute points to overwhelming public support for national AI regulation and its importance in reducing the big AI trust deficit in Aus: techpolicy.au/earning-trust
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Julian Webb @julianinoz.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
So, just to confirm, we're not only dealing with AI slop, but human slop about AI: arstechnica.com/ai/2026/05/i...
arstechnica.com
Influential study touting ChatGPT in education retracted over red flags
The retracted study on ChatGPT in education was already cited hundreds of times.
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