Welcome to Eureka Street

back to site

Keywords: Google

  • ENVIRONMENT

    Burning truths

    • Julie Perrin
    • 12 July 2024

    In her new Quarterly Essay Highway to Hell, Australian climate scientist Joëlle Gergis pleads in language beyond the careful neutrality of traditional science-speak: ‘We need you to stare into the abyss with us and not turn away.’

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    Is Artificial Intelligence human?

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 11 May 2023
    3 Comments

    Both the resignation of Google AI researcher Geoffrey Hinton and Pope Francis' recent address on technology highlight concerns about unrestricted technological development and the urgent need for informed discourse on the potential of AI to reshape communication, governance, and self-understanding.

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    LaMDA and the (lack of) body

    • Julian Butler
    • 05 July 2022
    3 Comments

    Just over a fortnight ago Google suspended Blake Lemoine, an engineer for Google’s AI organisation, for publicly claiming a computer chatbot he was working on is sentient and thinks and reasons like a human. The publicity surrounding the suspension has raised questions about the development of artificial intelligence (AI), about our shared understanding of what it means to be conscious and sentient.  

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Should women be deacons? The stories behind Motion 54

    • Elizabeth Young
    • 15 June 2022
    3 Comments

      Should women be considered for ministry as deacon? Should Pope Francis authorise such ministry? This topic often raises emotions, and strong views either for or against. This is one of the questions posed by Motion 54 to the Church’s July Plenary Council session, where members will amend and vote on 105 motions, prompted by the question, ‘What do you think God is asking of us in Australia at this time?’ Motion 54 is one to watch.

    READ MORE
  • MEDIA

    Best of 2021: Facebook unfriends Australia

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 11 January 2022
    1 Comment

    Instead of retaining its control of a fruit market, or preserving an oil monopoly, Facebook harnesses another resource: data. Any regulator or sovereign state keen to challenge the way the Silicon Valley giant gathers, monetises and uses that data will face their ire.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    When synodality confronts hierarchy 

    • John Warhurst
    • 14 December 2021
    31 Comments

    Synodality confronts the traditional practice of hierarchy within the church. When the ACBC responded last December to The Light from the Southern Cross report, which promoted synodality and co-responsible governance, it re-stated its position that hierarchy was embedded in the church’s approach to governance. This immediately set up a potential tension between episcopal authority and participation in governance by the People of God. 

    READ MORE
  • ECONOMICS

    Finding a new business model for big tech monopolies

    • David James
    • 09 March 2021
    5 Comments

    Social media companies are adopting a strategy that may go down in history as among the worst corporate mistakes ever. Google and Facebook are now monopolies and, like all monopolies, they no longer see their main interest as serving customers but rather to capture governments in order to protect their market dominance.

    READ MORE
  • MEDIA

    Unfriending Australia: Facebook takes action

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 23 February 2021
    2 Comments

    Instead of retaining its control of a fruit market, or preserving an oil monopoly, Facebook harnesses another resource: data. Any regulator or sovereign state keen to challenge the way the Silicon Valley giant gathers, monetises and uses that data will face their ire.

    READ MORE
  • MEDIA

    Google fights Australia’s proposed news code

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 20 August 2020
    2 Comments

    Google likes playing the equality-for-all card in the news business. This, from a company that behaves, across the provision of its services, monopolistically and ruthlessly.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The iMirror

    • Damian Balassone
    • 24 April 2019

    To google yourself is the gravest of errors / Your screen is replaced by the mirror of terrors.

    READ MORE
  • MEDIA

    What to do about shareable lies

    • Fatima Measham
    • 09 November 2017
    4 Comments

    Last week, executives from Facebook, Google and Twitter had to answer questions about how their platforms were used to influence voters in the 2016 US elections. It is a significant moment. Other media like radio, newspapers and TV have never been grilled like this, though Fox News and The New York Times surely influence voters, too.

    READ MORE
  • MEDIA

    Is Google and Facebook's imitation game doomed?

    • David James
    • 26 September 2017
    3 Comments

    There are very few examples of companies that have been able to genuinely change when confronted with new circumstances. It looks increasingly that Facebook and Google are approaching this situation. The challenge is likely to come from some quarter that is new and surprising, just as the demolition of conventional media came from companies that could have barely been imagined 20 years ago.

    READ MORE