Melbourne-born academic Tristan Buckmaster says he was maybe just one month away from solving the Navier-Stokes equation, a maths problem so difficult there was a million-dollar prize on offer for anyone who could.
But just as the New York University professor and his collaborator, a mathematician affiliated with AI company Anthropic, were closing in on a solution, OpenAI claimed a breakthrough of its own.
Today we speak to Tristan about his dispute with Open AI and the future of mathematics.
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Dr Tristan Buckmaster, Professor of Mathematics at New York University
Oct 15
15 min
It was meant to be the biggest ASX listing since the privatisation of Telstra, but last week the initial public offering for Firmus was dramatically pulled before a single share was traded.
The co-founder of the AI startup, Oliver Curtis has since lashed out - blaming Australians for failing to support people prepared to take a risk.
Today, columnist at the Australian Financial Review Mark Di Stefano on whether he could be right or if it's an early sign of a bursting AI bubble.
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Mark Di Stefano, Australian Financial Review columnist
Oct 14
15 min
The US president says he’s still deciding whether to livestream the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 unarmed US soldiers in a 2009 shooting.
It comes as Tennessee officials grapple with the aftermath of the botched execution of death row inmate Christa Pike last month.
Today, law and capital punishment expert, Austin Sarat, on what these two cases say about the future of capital punishment in the US.
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Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College
Oct 13
16 min
The US President has eased sanctions on the Kremlin, clearing the way for a lucrative deal to import Russian diesel.
Trump says the move will help bring down fuel prices for Americans, as rising living costs weigh on his standing in the polls ahead of the midterm elections.
But for Ukrainians, the deal is a bitter betrayal.
Today, Russian foreign policy expert Matthew Sussex from Deakin University on what Trump hopes to gain from doing business with Vladimir Putin.
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Matthew Sussex, Associate professor at the Centre for Future Defence and National Security at Deakin University.
Oct 12
14 min
With the military campaign failing to force Iran to backdown, Donald Trump has been turning up the economic pressure, hoping to cripple the country’s economy and force an end to the war.
But despite Iran’s currency plunging to record lows, the regime is showing little sign of capitulating.
Today, an expert on Iran’s economy Djavad Salehi-Isfahani on how long the regime and the Iranian people can hold on.
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Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, Professor of Economics at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Oct 11
15 min
In the United States, they’re calling it the 'Mamdani effect' - a surge in support for democratic socialist candidates.
And here, the Greens are hoping for their own Zohran Mamdani moment, with the party’s think tank pitching an Australian version of the New York mayor’s plan for publicly owned supermarkets.
Today columnist, author and academic Waleed Aly on whether the Greens have found a winning formula, as support for One Nation continues to grow.
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Waleed Aly, co-host of The Minefield on ABC Radio National, a lecturer in politics at Monash University.
Oct 8
16 min
An electric car is now being sold every 100 seconds, with sales roughly doubling in the second quarter of this year and outstripping petrol and diesel cars for the first time in August.
But as motorists look to escape soaring fuel costs, partly due to the Iran war, do we have the chargers needed to sustain the rapid surge?
Today, ABC energy reporter Daniel Mercer on the plans for a mass rollout of EV infrastructure and who should pay for it.
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Dan Mercer, ABC energy reporter
Oct 7
15 min
In the US, the case has ignited a national debate over consent, with some asking whether this could be a new #MeToo moment.
At Cornell University, protests have erupted after a woman identified as Jane Doe alleged she was sexually assaulted by seven male students who belonged to a campus fraternity.
Today, New York Times journalist Hurubie Meko takes us through the case, and we speak to Chanel Contos, founder of Teach Us Consent, about why the outrage is now crossing borders.
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Hurubie Meko, New York Times reporter and Chanel Contos, Teach Us Consent founder
Oct 6
16 min
Donald Trump has told voters to ‘pretend’ he is on the ballot at the midterm elections which are now less than a month away.
But that’s not useful for some Republican candidates who’ve been trying to distance themselves from the President, given his declining polling numbers.
Today, staff writer at the Atlantic magazine, David A. Graham on whether there’ll be a blue wave come November with the Democrats taking control of the House and the Senate.
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David A. Graham, The Atlantic magazine staff writer
Oct 5
15 min
A plan for a data centre metres from homes and a school in Lane Cove has been shelved after residents of the Sydney suburb fought back and won.
But it’s just one proposal among many, as demand for AI drives a boom in data centre construction across Australia.
Today, we hear from a Lane Cove resident, and ask the ABC’s national AI reporter Cam Wilson just how many data centres we could end up with.
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Sasha Titchkosky, Lane Cove resident and Cam Wilson, the ABC’s national AI reporter
Oct 4
14 min
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