The Latest Breaking News from TJ Thomson

‘Manners for machines’: how new rules could stop AI scrapers destroying the internet

Australians are among the most anxious in the world about artificial intelligence (AI).

The Conversation · Mar 25

I studied 10 years of Instagram posts. Here’s how social media has changed

Instagram is one of Australia’s most popular social media platforms. Almost two in three Aussies have an account.

The Conversation · Feb 3

Tools like Apple’s photo Clean Up are yet another nail in the coffin for being able to trust our eyes

You may have seen ads by Apple promoting its new Clean Up feature that can be used to remove elements in a photo. When one of these ads caught my eye this weekend, I was intrigued and updated my software to try it out.

The Conversation · Apr 10, 2025

Artists turn AI against itself with tools designed to protect their work and break the algorithm — here’s how they are ‘poisoning the well’

Artists are using a new tool called Nightshade that manipulates the pixels in an image so that it looks fine for humans but turns it into something completely random for AI.

Tom’s Guide · Dec 18, 2023

Data poisoning: how artists are sabotaging AI to take revenge on image generators

Imagine this. You need an image of a balloon for a work presentation and turn to a text-to-image generator, like Midjourney or DALL-E, to create a suitable image.

The Conversation · Dec 17, 2023

Casual, distant, aesthetically limited: 5 ways smartphone photography is changing how we see the world

Smartphones are a staple of modern life and are changing how we see the world and show it to others. Almost 90% of Aussies own one, and we spend an average of 5.6 hours using them each day. Smartphones are also responsible for more than 90% of all the photographs…

The Conversation · Nov 26, 2023

University journalism courses need to teach about cultural safety before students enter the workforce

Content warning: this article contains mentions of racial discrimination against First Nations people.

The Conversation · Jul 18, 2022