WikiCon Australia Day Two. #WikimediaAustralia #Wikimedia #Wikipedia @wmau.bsky.social

Day one of WikiCon Australia 2026 Canberra today, bringing together the Wikimedia Australia and the Australian wiki community. It's great to hold the conference at the NFSA this year. #WikimediaAustralia #Wikimedia #Wikipedia @wmau.bsky.social

This week was all about Anthropic: Their CEO Dario Amodei was in Australia to sign an MOU with the Australian Government. elliottbledsoe.wtf/wtf-now-29/ #Anthropic #Claude #SafeAI

My next weekly round-up about WTF is happening in AI, the arts, technology, marketing, copyright and open knowledge comes out this afternoon. Sign up for free now and you'll get it in your inbox soon. elliottbledsoe.wtf/signup/ See recent round-ups here: elliottbledsoe.wtf/wtf-now/

Here's WTF happened this week: No, it is not an April Fool's joke, Australian copyright law will finally address the problem of orphan works (where the copyright owner is unknown). #Copyright #OrphanWorks #CopyrightLawReform

Woah, the Copyright Amendment Bill 2026 passed the Senate today meaning Australia will very soon have a scheme limiting remedies available when users use orphan works. www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentar... #Copyright #OrphanWorks #CopyrightLawReform

Welcome to the new #SoundsOfAustralia, including the 'Succulent Chinese Meal' quote, the pedestrian crossing sound, the ABC Kimberley Noonkanbah Station native title determination broadcast, the Reading Writing Hotline jingle and more. www.nfsa.gov.au/sounds-of-au... #NFSA #Sound #Archives

Brisbane Multicultural Arts Centre (BEMAC) is now based at the Thomas Dixson Centre. Late last month they ceased operation of the Queensland Multicultural Centre (QMC) which they operated for 13 years. bemac.org.au/bemacs-new-h... bemac.org.au/many-stages-... #MulticulturalArts #PerformingArts

WTF happned this week?! So much! Consultation on a new National Cultural Policy started. Research about recreational reading in Australia was released. Spotify released a feature exploring music through collaborators, samples and covers. #CulturalPolicy #reading #books #music #MusicStreaming

There are a lot of insights in Anthropic's recent research about 80,508 Claude users' hopes for, experiences of and concerns about AI. To help get across it, I have published a briefing on it on elliottbledsoe.wtf. #Anthropic #AIuse #AIresearch

Anthropic have released results open-ended interviews with Claude users about what they want from AI and what they are concerned about. While hopes seem more variable globally, unreliability is almost universally the top concern. #Anthropic #AIuse #AIresearch

Looks like the RASN is going thematic with artisan (visual arts, craft and design), Ausdance Qld (dance), Flying Arts (visual arts), JUTE (theatre), QMusic (music) and Topology (multi-arts). #RegionalArts #VisualArts #Craft #Design #Dance #Theatre #Music #MultiArts #ArtsQueensland

Woah, anyone who did a law degree in Australia in the last 20 years absolutely knows the legacy of Chief Justice Mason. 100 years is a good run but still a huge loss to the law in Australia.

WTF happened this week?! DOGE cuts to National Endowment for the Humanities had no rigour, just subjective decision-making. Anthropic's new Institute consolidates its ethics and research efforts with a public benefit focus. #DOGE #grants #Anthropic #AIethics

It's unusual to see a real estate website focus on arts and cultural infrastructure in regional centres. Sure, it is ultimately about property prices, but it does provide a good overview of recent and current regional art gallery redevelopments. #RegionalAustralia #RegionalArts #VisualArts

Meta acquired Moltbook, the AI agent Reddit.

Well that round-up was HUGE! App stores, AI acquisitions and antitrust cases, oh my! Google is making big worldwide changes to Google Play, Live Nation has settled with the US Department of Justice and AI companies are buying up other AI companies at gusto. #AppStores #AI #GooglePlay #music

This week's WTF now?! round-up is the biggest yet. It covers the significant acqusitions of AI companies recently, the settlement offer in the US Live Nation antitrust case and the Australian Defence contract with Palantir. #AI #antitrust #music elliottbledsoe.wtf/signup/

Since early 2026 there have been more than eight AI acquisitions by Anthropic, OpenAI, Canva, Accenture, MyFitnessPal and more. I've pulled together some of the notable ones. #AI #BigTech #TechAcquisitions

Nothing brings Americans together more than AI threats from China. The USA vs China AI narrative boiled over again with the release of Seedance 2.0. I take a look at the America first AI dream and the unified nationalistic AI front in America. #AI #Seedance #DeepSeek #BigTech #BigContent #Hollywood

The Information Technology Industry Council calls out US Secretary ‌of Defense Pete Hegseth for designating Anthropic a 'supply chain risk'. https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/big-tech-group-tells-pentagons-hegseth-they-are-concerned-about-declaring-2026-03-04/ #AI #Anthropic

Here's WTF happened this week: OpenAI's Department of War contract throws the spotlight on AI and military use in light of the US–Israel war with Iran. #AI #AIandMilitary

Oh fuck, what does it mean for open knowledge if subject experts disappear?

WTF happened this week?: An AI agent went rogue and turned vindictive against a human who rejected its code suggestions and sloppy reporting of the matter reinforces why journalistic ethics are so important in an AI era. #WTFnow #AIagents #OpenSource

My weekly round-up of WTF is happening in AI, the arts, technology, marketing, copyright and open knowledge comes out later today. Expect rouge AI agents, reverse centaurs and a DDoS attack through an archiving website.

Here's WTF happened this week: Chinese AI video has Hollywood scared, Ireland announces basic income for artists, a new Arts & Media Hub is coming to Adelaide and Palestine continues to be a hot button topic in the arts. #AI #AIVideo #ByteDance #Seedance

Happy Lunar New Year! 🐎🧧🎆

Kate Larsen: As we are now governing in a polycrisis; we have fewer people making bigger decisions in situations with greater complexity. #FACT2026

Kate Larsen: Our governance models are were not fit for purpose and is now woefully so. #FACT2026

It is interesting a question (comment?) says Australia is disconnected from this kind of work. Actually, there are many artists and organisations working at the intersection of arts, science and technology: ANAT www.anat.org.au, Science Gallery Melbourne, melbourne.sciencegallery.com, #FACT2026

Ra Smith: It is difficult to be present in times of rapid change and trying to rationalise what we do with that. #FACT2026

Me to everything thing that Caitlin McGrane and Jacina Leong are saying! #FACT2026

It's great that the Toolkit for Qualitative Audience Engagement is interested in and encouraging understanding, consideration and capture of informal data. As an arts marketing consultant I tell organisations often that their public face staff are a crucial source of data. Include them! #FACT2026

Caitlin McGrane and Jacina Leong: GLAMs are collecting formal and informal data about audiences through feedback surveys, evaluation processes, etc as well as chats with front of house (FOH) staff, observations on how and where people linger, etc. #FACT2026

I totally agree that people, time and expertise are needed for any arts digital project (sexy or unsexy!) It is interesting to reflect though that marketing of AI leans heavily into the idea that it can overcome those same barriers with efficiently. We must keep an eye on the hype cycles. #FACT2026

Megan Lawrence: For access and inclusion we need to be thinking more about multi-sensory ways of experiencing collections material. #FACT2026

Do you believe in life after The Intersection of Art and Technology? I can feel something inside me say I really don't think you're strong enough, no

I think the fact that we need a term called 'middleware' to explain software that bridges two or more software systems speaks volumes about the IT realities for so many GLAMs! #FACT2026

Megan Lawrence: The residency allowed me to explore the question of how we might build a useable interface to the Australian Museum's 22 million science specimens? #FACT2026

Janice Falsone: Artist are using technology in really interesting ways to reflect the world back to us. #FACT2026

Janice Falsone: Digital is an important part not a value add for small-to-medium and regional galleries. #FACT2026

Edwina Green: The records and collections we have access to online are not necessarily accurate. #FACT2026

Edwina Green: Seeing ancestoral items in international collections was not possible without this residency. I wanted to steal all the items back! #FACT2026

The AMaGA International Residencies sound like a transformative opportunity for GLAM professionals. amaga.org.au/Web/Web/Even... #FACT2026

OMG totally, George! Too many examples! #FACT2026

Sofia Widmann: Collective intelligence is what is needed when you need to get to new solutions quickly. Museum Booster brings museum leaders together to collaborate. #FACT2026

Hmmm. Yes there are opportunities for other sectors to learn from us, but we don’t have capacity to attend their conferences and sympathise with their vulnerabilities. We need to strengthen our own resilience, gain more active understandings of our policy and political landscape, and act. #FACT2026

There's a lot of discussion about reframing problems as opportunities and partnering with unexpected industries. Of course, an important part of that is ensuring values alignment. How many GLAMs and arts organisations have an ethical sponsorship policy? #FACT2026

Sofia Widmann: Money that used to go into culture is going into defence. #FACT2026

Museums and libraries funding in the US falls into line with Trump, The Washington Post lays off a third of staff and AI caricatures flood the socials.