This week the calamity that is Adelaide Writers’ Week continues with Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah being invited to speak at the 2027 event but South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas doubling down on not supporting her attendance this year or next. Also funding cuts to the Victorian small-to-medium arts sector is threatening the peak bodies which has flow-on effects to advocacy and policy.
At the same time, in the tech world, debates about AI hype are taking some of the sheen off the AI bubble. Science fiction author Cory Doctorow has taken to The Guardian to challenge some of the myths around AI while a think tank has cautioned that by all buying into the same AI systems companies are risking their competitive advantage.
Also: online platforms have been tightening safeguards, asserting their principles and redefining their boundaries. OpenAI is adding age prediction on ChatGPT, more regulators are probing xAI over Grok image generation, Meta is pulling back from the metaverse, Bandcamp has banned AI music and TikTok has launched a microdrama app.
What’s been going on?
Here's WTF happened this week:
Premier didn't want Abdel-Fattah at Adelaide Writers’ Week 2026
Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah has been invited to Adelaide Writers’ Week 2027 while it has been revealed that South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas put pressure on the Adelaide Festival Board to remove Abdel-Fattah from the now cancelled 2026 event.
