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#australia
Stories connected through a shared idea, actor, technology or theme.
AI-generated political ads intensify transparency concerns in VictoriaThe Guardian reported that Fix Victoria spent up to A$100,000 in August on social-media political advertising featuring AI-generated images. The campaign and related groups echoed opposition talking points, while disclosure loopholes made it difficult to identify who was financing the material.→AI-generated faces and voice cloning enter Australian sextortion campaignsABC reported that overseas criminal groups are using fake accounts, AI-generated characters, face-swapping and voice cloning to target Australian young men. South Australia Police said men made up three of four sextortion victims, while eSafety data cited in the report found that two in five adolescents had seen non-intimate images turned into sexualised fakes.→Australian retailers invest in agentic shopping, but mass adoption remains distantABC reported that Wesfarmers, Bunnings, Woolworths and Coles are investing in AI agents that can help customers search, compare and navigate purchases. The systems remain assistive or in beta, and retailers still face high costs, integration limits and privacy concerns before autonomous shopping becomes routine.→Australia says proposed datacentre standards will require renewable power backed by firmingBowen told Guardian Australia that new datacentre standards will require 100% renewables backed by firming, while state-owned power providers may apply to prove that non-renewable supply is cheaper. The federal government expects the rules to be debated in parliament next year as electricity demand from datacentres is forecast to rise sharply.→Australia bans wholly AI-generated tracks from official music chartsARIA said wholly AI-generated tracks will be ineligible for its charts, while AI-assisted recordings can remain eligible when they are substantially human-made. The rules respond to growing concern about synthetic music, unauthorised training data and the effect of generated tracks on artists’ livelihoods.→Sharon AI accepts the first phase of a US$950 million Australian AI-cloud contractSharon AI says the acceptance completes a milestone in a five-year agreement with an initial value of about US$950 million and covers NVIDIA GPU clusters across Australian data centres. It also says it has secured 212 MW of AI-factory capacity, including 120 MW under multi-year take-or-pay contracts; the customer and independent contract details were not identified in the release.→