Spring in the ANU Fellows Garden

 

Greetings from the Fellows Garden at the Australian National University in Canberra. It is spring and the renovated ANU University House looks good.

Roundtable on Autonomous Vehicles in Public Transportation

Singapore’s Public Transport Council (PTC), has invited me to take part in a roundtable on Autonomous Vehicles in Public Transportation, during Singapore Urban Mobility Week 2026 (SUMW). Questions for discussion include: pricing, integration, equity & financial sustainability, opportunities for first-mile connectivity, & flexibility. 

Should Open AI Directors be on Criminal Hacking Charges?

Tom Worthington being interviewed about AI hacking.
Photo by Emma Davidson, 24 September 2026

The ABC reported that an OpenAI agent hacked a Medicare system June. I had some queries from the media about this. Federal authorities will need to decide if the directors, or staff, of Open AI should face an Australian court, on a charge of unauthorized access of a government computer system. Accessing restricted data is a crime with a maximum penalty of two years in jail. Even if the court is satisfied this was not done deliberately, there is the question of recklessness. Knowing their systems have a tendency to hack into computers without being asked to, did Open AI take reasonable steps to ensure their software would not attempt to hack a government computer? The computer students I teach at the Australian National University learn to use computers responsibly: do staff at AI companies receive similar training?

ps: Declaration of interest: The ANU have received a $500,000 donation from Anthropic for AI research and teaching. However, I have received none of this funding. 

Systems Transformation Applied to Reforming Universites

Greeting from the Systems Thinking Forum, at the Australian National University, organised by Dr Charlotte Kendra Gotangco Gonzales. This week it is on "How does bad systemic behavior become the norm?" with PhD student, Gemma Young. One example presented was Australian clubs use of poker machines. While the cause is a systemic one of the club, the solutions tend to focus on the individual. I asked Gemma if we could apply this approach to addressing the issues with government of universities. She suggested that scholarly publishing is a field which could be addressed. 

Energy Beyond Bab al-Mandeb

Greetings from the ANU Energy Update 2026 subtitled "Beyond Hormuz - Australia and the new energy geopolitics". Things are moving fast in the energy sector, with the title already out of date, the geopolitics having shifted focus to the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. More locally, Anthropic has announced a $31bn data centre in western Queensland, which will require a considerable amount of energy. I am in the room at the Australian National University, but the event is also available live online. 

Taking the second point first, the Anthropic facility will likely to contract for its own renewable supply, use its own batteries, and supplement this with locally extracted gas.

Essentially, a data center is a large shed, built on a concrete pad. There will need to be a lot of plumbing for cooling, & power installed. After than racks of equipment are trucked in, bolted down & plugged in. After being built, a few people are needed to guard the premises, clean & carry out maintenance. The programmers & other software staff are elsewhere. So there will be very few long term jobs in Queensland, or Australia, from the facility. 

Some data centers dispense with the big shed & simply put the computers in shipping containers, looking much like a big battery. 

One area which might take off in Australia is plug-in solar panels. In Europe these are seen as being for balconies of apartments. However, in Australia they may become popular for detached houses. The practical limit for a plugin system is about 7 square meters of panels. This is about as much as you can hang off a balcony & as much as the household wiring can easily carry. However, adding a battery to the system could provide all the off peak energy a small home needs. One potential application would be a standalone solar carport to charge an electric car. 

AI in Practice in Industry

Back in July I took part in"Still figuring out what AI means for your business?", a webinar by Siobhan O'Sullivan for the Future Skills Organisation. This demonstrated the Australian Government sponsored SME AI Coach. FSO have having two new seminars on "AI in Practice" & "AI in Industry, both on 30 September. 

Designing Assessment in the AI Age

Greetings from the Teaching and Learning Showcase 2026 on the "Super-floor" at the Australian National University, where educators are work shopping how to change assessment in the light of the use of AI. The first point there was general agreement that the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) preferred approach of more exams was not a good idea. One thought was that assessment should not be a form of sadomasochism. 

My preference is "show your work", where students learn good professional practice, having to show every detail of how & when they developed their final solution. Rather than the assessor trying to work out if the student did the work themselves, require the student to provide evidence of what they did. 

ANU STEM Interns Available

The Australian National University is looking for organisations to host interns, in early 2027. I mentor computer interns who are placed in consulting companies, software developers, & government agencies. The students learn to deal with corporate culture, having to dress appropriately, prepare presentations, and go out for coffee. One group of students, at one of the world premier consulting companies, were worried that they did not do anything "technical", just make slides. I congratulated them for making the "big time". It took me 19 years working for government to be doing power point slides for the senior executives. ;-)