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Reddit, Kick to Be Included in Australia’s Social Media Ban 

The Reddit app is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken, July 13, 2021. (Reuters)
The Reddit app is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken, July 13, 2021. (Reuters)
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Reddit, Kick to Be Included in Australia’s Social Media Ban 

The Reddit app is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken, July 13, 2021. (Reuters)
The Reddit app is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken, July 13, 2021. (Reuters)

Popular social media website Reddit and streaming giant Kick will be added to a list of websites banned for under-16s in Australia from next month, Canberra said Wednesday.

Australia will from December 10 force social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to remove users under the age of 16, slapping hefty fines of up to Aus$49.5 million (US$32 million) if they fail to do so.

Streaming platform Kick and online forum Reddit will also be included in the new legislation, Minister for Communications Anika Wells said Wednesday.

"Online platforms use technology to target children with chilling control," Wells told reporters.

"We are merely asking that they use that same technology to keep children safe online," she said.

"We want children to have a childhood and we want parents to have peace of mind."

There is keen interest in whether Australia's sweeping restrictions can work as regulators around the globe wrestle with the dangers of social media.

On paper, the ban is one of the strictest in the world.

But some experts are concerned that the law will be merely symbolic.

So far, platforms like Roblox, Discord and WhatsApp will not be banned, but streaming site Twitch is under review.

But Wells said the list of banned platforms was not static and could change.

And eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said while age restrictions were one "really potent solution" to stopping social media harm, they were not a quick fix.

Social media companies have previously described the laws as "vague", "problematic" and "rushed".

A Kick spokesperson said: "Australia represents a small share of our global audience, but Kick was built here and we'll keep backing our local creators."

"We'll continue engaging constructively on these new rules to support fair outcomes: protecting online safety without compromising privacy or limiting the creative freedom that drives Australia's creator economy," they added.

Kick came under scrutiny in France after a 46-year-old man died during a 12-day livestreaming marathon on his channel that showed him enduring abuse and humiliation dished out by other participants.

The government said earlier this year social media giants will not be required to verify the ages of all users, but must take "reasonable steps" to detect and deactivate underage ones.

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Technology

Saudi Arabia Reaches One Million Citizens Trained in AI Through ‘SAMAI’ Initiative

The initiative drew nationwide participation, with more than one million registrants. (SPA)
The initiative drew nationwide participation, with more than one million registrants. (SPA)
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Saudi Arabia Reaches One Million Citizens Trained in AI Through ‘SAMAI’ Initiative

The initiative drew nationwide participation, with more than one million registrants. (SPA)
The initiative drew nationwide participation, with more than one million registrants. (SPA)

The Saudi Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, and the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) celebrated on Sunday the "One Million Saudis in AI SAMAI" initiative as it surpassed one million citizens trained and certified in AI.

The unprecedented milestone reflects public awareness and coordinated government efforts under Saudi Vision 2030.

The initiative drew nationwide participation, with more than one million registrants, 52% female and 48% male, while employees accounted for 70% of participants and students 30%.

The milestone underscores the joint investment of the three entities in people as the engine of national development, reinforcing the Kingdom’s role by building citizens’ capabilities and advancing their digital skills.

Technology

DeepSeek Researcher Pessimistic over AI's Impact in Startup's First Public Appearance since Success

The Deepseek logo is seen in this illustration taken on January 29, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
The Deepseek logo is seen in this illustration taken on January 29, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
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DeepSeek Researcher Pessimistic over AI's Impact in Startup's First Public Appearance since Success

The Deepseek logo is seen in this illustration taken on January 29, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
The Deepseek logo is seen in this illustration taken on January 29, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) developer DeepSeek made its first public appearance in almost a year after it became a global sensation, fielding a senior researcher who told a government-organized internet conference that he was pessimistic about AI's future impact on humanity.

Chen Deli took the stage alongside the chief executives of five other companies including Unitree and BrainCo at the World Internet Conference in the city of Wuzhen, in the eastern province of Zhejiang. The six companies together are known in China as "six little dragons" for AI, Reuters said.

Asked about DeepSeek's global success and how its open-source approach would encourage the progress of AI, Chen said he believed that AI could be a great aid to humans as it improved over the short term, but that it could threaten job losses in 5-10 years as it becomes good enough to take over some of the work humans perform. AI firms needed to be aware of these risks, he said.

"In the next 10-20 years, AI could take over the rest of work (humans perform) and society could face a massive challenge, so at the time tech companies need to take the role of 'defender'," he said.

"I'm extremely positive about the technology but I view the impact it could have on society negatively."

Since it made global headlines in January after releasing a low-cost AI model that outperformed leading US models, DeepSeek representatives have only made one public appearance when its founder and CEO Liang Wenfeng met Chinese President Xi Jinping at a televised meeting with local entrepreneurs in February.

Neither Liang or the company have commented publicly on their success and they have skipped major Chinese technology conferences in the country in the months since.

Since the company's stunning breakout, the Chinese government has positioned DeepSeek as a symbol of the country's technological capabilities and resilience against US sanctions, as the technology rivalry between the two nations intensifies.

While DeepSeek has not released a major model upgrade since January, the company's subsequent announcements have continued to draw significant attention.

In September, it unveiled an upgrade to its V3 model, which it described as its latest "experimental" version that is more efficient to train and better at processing long sequences of text than previous iterations.

The company has also emerged as a key player in China's efforts to build its own AI ecosystem and advance the domestic chip sector.

Chinese AI chip companies including Cambricon and Huawei have developed hardware compatible with DeepSeek's models.

In August, DeepSeek's announcement of an upgraded model optimized for Chinese-made chips prompted a surge in domestic chip stock prices.

Technology

Musk Plans Tesla Mega AI Chip Fab, Mulls Potential Intel Partnership 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks at the 27th annual Milken Institute Global Conference at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles on May 6, 2024. (AFP)
Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks at the 27th annual Milken Institute Global Conference at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles on May 6, 2024. (AFP)
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Musk Plans Tesla Mega AI Chip Fab, Mulls Potential Intel Partnership 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks at the 27th annual Milken Institute Global Conference at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles on May 6, 2024. (AFP)
Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks at the 27th annual Milken Institute Global Conference at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles on May 6, 2024. (AFP)

CEO Elon Musk on Thursday said Tesla probably will have to build "a gigantic chip fab" to make artificial intelligence chips and publicly mused the EV maker could work with Intel.

Tesla is designing its fifth-generation AI chip to power its autonomous ambitions, and Musk at the company's annual meeting laid out potential manufacturing plans.

"You know, maybe we'll, we'll do something with Intel," Musk said to a cheering crowd of Tesla shareholders. "We haven't signed any deal, but it's probably worth having discussions with Intel."

Struggling US chipmaker Intel has its own chipmaking factories, but has lagged far behind Nvidia in the AI chip race. The US government recently took a 10% stake in Intel, which needs to find an external customer for its newest manufacturing technology. Intel shares popped 4% in after-hours trading on Musk's remarks.

Intel declined to comment.

Musk scored an important victory on Thursday as shareholders approved a $1 trillion pay package over the next decade, endorsing his vision of morphing the EV maker into an AI and robotics juggernaut.

Musk has teased the AI5 chip before and reiterated that Tesla was also partnering with Taiwan's TSMC and South Korea's Samsung. The AI chips power Tesla's autonomous driving systems, including the Full Self-Driving software. Tesla is currently on its fourth-generation chip.

A small number of AI5 units would be produced in 2026, with high volume production only possible in 2027, Musk said in an X post on Tuesday, adding that AI6 will use the same fabs but achieve roughly twice the performance with volume production mid-2028.

"Even when we extrapolate the best-case scenario for chip production from our suppliers, it's still not enough," he said on Thursday.

"So I think we may have to do a Tesla terafab. It's like giga but way bigger. I can't see any other way to get to the volume of chips that we're looking for. So I think we're probably going to have to build a gigantic chip fab. It's got to be done," he said.

Musk, who often talks about his vision for the company in abstract terms, did not offer details of how such a fab would be built, but he said that it would make at least 100,000 wafer starts per month. A wafer start is the measurement of the output of a semiconductor wafer plant.

He did say the chip would be inexpensive, power-efficient and optimized for Tesla's own software. This chip would probably consume about a third of the power used by Nvidia's flagship Blackwell chip, at 10% of the cost to make, Musk said.

"I'm super hardcore on chips right now as you may be able to tell," he said. "I have chips on the brain."