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AI in HR has a credibility problem: the technology is getting better at spotting patterns, summarizing data, and automating work, but none of that guarantees a better employee experience. In this conversation, Motivosity Chief Product Officer Jesse Dowdle and VP of Engineering Dano Gillette make the case for “appreciation intelligence”—using AI to remove administrative friction without automating the human moments that actually make recognition meaningful.The bigger opportunity isn't an AI-generated thank-you note. It's giving HR and frontline managers a richer picture of employees, surfacing signals before problems become crises, and turning data into useful action. But there's an important line running through the conversation: AI can recommend, filter, moderate, and nudge. Humans still need to own the judgment.Related Links:Join the People Managing People CommunitySubscribe to the newsletter to get our latest articles and podcastsConnect with Jesse and Dano on LinkedInVisit MotivositySupport the show

An important note for NSW families: nothing is in effect yet, and the current guidelines still apply until the policy is finalised. The draft keeps the three things registration has always asked of you: an education plan based on the NSW curriculum, records showing that plan is being delivered, and an assessment by an Authorised Person. It still doesn’t say exactly what’s required or how much evidence is enough. A key concern is that no urgent pathway has been added for families who can’t wait for the 12-week registration processing times. Brett Campbell and Ellen Brown work through what the draft means in practice. What counts as evidence, where Authorised Persons come from and whether they must visit your house, how likely approval really is, and what you can do if you need to remove your child from school while awaiting registration. Key points from this episode Nothing has changed yet. The Department has published drafts. The existing Guidelines remain in effect until a final policy lands. Parental choice survives into the new framework. The draft Policy states plainly that education is primarily the responsibility of the child’s parents. The draft does not say how much evidence is enough. It lists ways you can show learning, such as journals, checklists, excursions and digital portfolios, but sets no quantity for any of them. That leaves the judgement to your Authorised Person, and their approach can vary significantly. Refusal is rare. Families may get stressed thinking their application is unlikely to get approved, but if you have a plan, it is very likely your application will be approved. An audit recommended NSW speed up registration a year before the draft was written. The draft sets an indicative timeframe of up to 12 weeks, which is too long for some families. You can still act if your child cannot wait. An exemption from attendance comes from your school principal, not the Department, and taking your education plan to that meeting makes it much easier for a principal to say yes. Nothing has changed yet for NSW homeschooling families Homeschooling registration in NSW moved from NESA to the NSW Department of Education, and the drafts released on 27 July 2026 are the Department’s first framework. Consultation ran as a short survey and closed on 10 August 2026. The Department has confirmed that the current Guidelines remain in effect until the new policy is finalised. If you are registered, or partway through an application, nothing about your obligations has changed. What the NSW draft policy gets right about parental choice The draft Policy states that the education of a child is primarily the responsibility of the child’s parents, and that parents may choose either school enrolment or homeschooling registration. Ellen believes this is really important, because the policy language preserves parents’ right to homeschool. The second is flexibility. Parents write the education plan, decide how it is delivered, and can amend it during a registration period so it stays fit for purpose, including for children with disability or additional needs. Brett points out you do not need a diagnosis in the family to benefit from the flexibility. The plan is meant to bend around the child in front of you, whoever that child is. Both hosts agree that flexibility and structure are not opposite. Having a base to work from makes it possible to be flexible, try new things, and know you’re within the guardrails and ticking off all the boxes. What evidence of learning means under the NSW draft This is where there is some uncertainty, and Ellen states it is one of the things that makes parents most nervous. The draft requires parents to keep records demonstrating how the child’s education plan is being implemented, and how the requirements and conditions of registration are being met. That is a broad requirement, and the FAQs confirm there is no mandatory quantity or format of evidence. Learning journals, checklists, excursions and digital portfolios are offered as examples rather than requirements. The states handle this differently. Queensland tells you exactly how many pieces of work to supply and what they should look like. NSW gives you no number or format of evidence at all. Why no set amount of evidence can be unsettling “Broadness is wonderful, but it can also be unsettling, because it then comes down to your Authorised Person to say, actually, this is too much, or this isn’t enough. That’s where parents can start to feel a little bit like it’s shifting sand.”— Ellen Brown Brett’s read is that breadth leads to ambiguity, and ambiguity leads to frustration and anxiety. He wants the Department to publish a minimum, so families know whether they are meeting the mark. As a result, the NSW homeschooling community often fills the gap itself, comparing notes in forums about what different APs expect. It should be a lot clearer for families. What an Authorised Person is checking for When an AP turns up, it is not just to see what has been done, but to ensure that you’ve ticked the boxes aligned to the curriculum. Euka is built around this. Every lesson carries the curriculum code it maps to, families can upload work into the portal for safekeeping, and the registration and reporting service turns completed lessons and parent comments into one report you can hand over. Ellen homeschooled in NSW for 12 years, with different APs, and knows what it’s like to prepare reporting. The services at Euka reflect her experience and are built to help families feel confident in what they are putting forward. Who your Authorised Person is and what the home visit involves Once you apply, the Department organises your first meeting with an Authorised Person for your area. They review your plan and make a recommendation. Most APs come out of the mainstream school system. Retired principals, experienced teachers, people who know what a good education looks like from the inside of a classroom. Ellen has never met one who came from a homeschooling background and says it will be nice when that finally happens. Whether you are visited at home depends on the AP. In Ellen’s experience, some APs need to come to the house, and others are happy with a video call or a meeting at a library or community centre. It is worth asking rather than assuming. Ellen describes an AP as closer to a learning coach than an education inspector, and most turn up asking how they can support you. Other parents have told her they came away feeling judged rather than supported. Nobody is entirely comfortable when someone arrives to assess something they care about this much. If your child is highly anxious, the draft FAQs allow you to request that the AP does not sight your child, usually supported by information from their medical or allied health providers. Will my homeschooling registration be approved in NSW? It is highly likely, and the Department’s own numbers back this up. “If you’re stressing out about your approval, chances are you’ll be approved, because you’ve already thought it through.”— Ellen Brown In 2025, the Department refused 5.2% of applications. But most refusals (3.5%) were because the applicant could not be reached for assessment after repeated attempts over several weeks. Another 0.94% were refused because the child was not eligible, including living outside NSW or submitting an incomplete form. Applications refused because the requirements were not met were very low at 0.61%. If you have an education plan covering the NSW curriculum and you attend your assessment, you are in good shape. Euka has not had a family go through the process and fail to get approved. Some families are concerned about a shorter registration period. The draft Procedures allow an AP to recommend less than the full term where areas for improvement have been identified, or where there are current concerns about the child’s safety. Neither phrase is defined in any of the documents. Brett delves into both sides. A policy has to cover every household, including the small number where home is not a safe place, and you cannot write a rule for that without some breadth. What he wants is more clarity for families: if a family is given three months instead of twelve, tell them exactly what caused it and exactly what must change. There is a review pathway if a recommendation goes against you: an internal review by a different Authorised Person, then an external review at NCAT. Ellen notes that a review by a second person in the same role is limited on its own, and that the external step is what makes it a real safeguard. The audit recommendation the NSW draft did not act on A year before these drafts were written, NSW was told to speed up registration. The Auditor-General’s report Alternative school settings and home schooling, published on 25 September 2025, recommended that the Department of Education work with the homeschooling community on reform, including consideration of “expedited registration processing times to shorten transition periods”. The audit found the time to decide an application had already grown 63 per cent, from 40 calendar days in 2019 to 65 in 2024, while applications rose by around 125 per cent. The draft Procedures answer that with an indicative processing timeframe of up to 12 weeks, and the FAQs confirm that until registration is approved, the child must remain enrolled at school. A family worried about their child’s wellbeing is directed back to the school principal. Twelve weeks is 84 days. The audit’s figure for how long a decision was already taking in 2024 was 65, which makes the draft’s indicative ceiling longer than the problem the audit asked the Department to fix. Ellen recommends keeping the safeguards in place and adding a defined urgent or provisional pathway: the parent still lodges the application, still demonstrates an education plan, still provides information about the child’s circumstances, and the assessment still runs its course. The child gets a lawful bridge in the meantime. Brett’s frustration is with the evidence base underneath the decision. Euka asks every family their primary reason for choosing homeschooling. Around one in four name bullying, and one in three name bullying or social issues (which often have bullying as an underlying factor). The Department’s published 2025 data records bullying as the reason for 0.11% of applications. The explanation for that number is in how the survey is delivered. The application form offers tick boxes for philosophical, religious and special learning needs, and nothing else. Every other reason, including bullying, must be written by hand in a free-text box. In 2025, 33 per cent of applications landed in “other” and a further 21 per cent answered nothing at all. In the initial figure, bullying looks like a non-issue. But the reality is, it is skewed by how the data is collected, which may explain why the draft policy and procedures do not address bullying or provide an urgent pathway for homeschool registration. “As a parent, the last thing I would ever do is want to put my child back into an environment that I need them to be removed from.”— Brett Campbell How to take your child out of school while you wait for registration The route runs through your school principal, rather than the Department. The principal can grant an attendance exemption. It means your child stays enrolled but is lawfully absent, which is exactly the bridge families need while an application is processed. Ellen’s advice is to go to that meeting with your education plan in your hand. A principal carries legal responsibility for a child on their roll, and a parent who arrives with a clear plan for the term is much easier to say yes to than a parent who arrives with just a request. Many families join a program before they are registered for precisely this reason, because they need the plan anyway. If the school will not move, a letter from your GP, paediatrician, psychologist or counsellor explaining the impact of the school environment carries weight in that conversation. Some principals are genuinely good at this and will support you straight away. Some have never seen homeschooling done well and assume it means no schooling at all. Two things worth knowing once your child is home: Nobody expects lessons in week one. A child coming out of a stressful school situation needs time to decompress first. They don’t need to jump in and start doing their homeschooling plan straight away. Having lessons available still helps. What Euka sees is that children who know their peers are moving on without them get more anxious, not less. Knowing the same topics are there when they are ready gives them security. There is also a middle path a lot of families miss. If you are trialling a term away, or working through school refusal, you can stay enrolled under a partial attendance or exemption arrangement without registering for homeschooling. Schools are often willing to support that, particularly when there is a credible education plan behind it, and it leaves the door open for a staged return if the family wants it. If bullying is what brought you here, our guide to bullying and homeschooling works through the decision itself, and the signs a child is silently struggling at school covers what to watch for. If it is school refusal, our parent’s guide to the options and Episode 45 go further. If your child is struggling with how they are feeling, please talk to someone you trust. You can also reach Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 or Lifeline on 13 11 14, free, 24 hours a day. Why this episode matters Most of the anxiety in NSW right now comes from not knowing what the rules mean for your family. The parts you control are the ones that decide your outcome: your education plan, the way you keep records, and what you take into a meeting with a principal or an Authorised Person. Get those right, and you’re very likely to be okay. The consultation has closed. The final policy isn’t written yet, and an urgent pathway is still worth pressing for. Start the free homeschooling course If you are working out what your own registration year looks like, our Complete Guide to Confident Homeschooling covers registering legally in your state, choosing and structuring a program, building a daily rhythm, supporting a child who learns differently, and knowing your child is progressing. It is nine short video modules, about two and a half hours, hosted by Brett and Ellen. Free and self-paced. Start the free homeschooling course. Questions answered in this episode Have the NSW homeschooling rules changed? + Not yet. The NSW Department of Education released draft Policy, Procedures and FAQ documents on 27 July 2026, and consultation closed on 10 August 2026. The current Guidelines remain in effect until the new policy is finalised, so registered families and applications in progress carry on unchanged. What counts as evidence of learning for homeschooling in NSW? + Learning journals, checklists, excursions, digital portfolios, work samples, or a combination. The draft FAQs list these as examples and set no mandatory quantity or format. What your records have to do is show how your education plan is being delivered and how the work connects to the NSW curriculum, so keep that link visible as you go. How much work do I need to show my Authorised Person? + NSW does not publish a number, which is why experiences differ between areas. Keep enough to show coverage across the plan you wrote, with your own notes on how each part went. Who is the Authorised Person and do they have to come to my house? + An Authorised Person is authorised by the Department to assess your application, meet with you, and make a recommendation. Most come from mainstream teaching or school leadership backgrounds. Home visits are the default, but some APs will meet at a library or community centre or by video call, so it is worth asking. Does the Authorised Person have to see my child? + Usually yes, the AP is required to sight the child during the visit. The draft FAQs allow you to request approval for your child not to be sighted, and the Department will generally want supporting information from your child’s medical or allied health providers explaining why a visit could affect them. Will my homeschooling registration be approved? + Almost certainly, if you apply with an education plan covering the NSW curriculum and you are contactable for your assessment. Why would I be given a shorter registration period? + The draft Procedures allow an Authorised Person to recommend a shorter period where the assessment identifies areas for improvement, or where there are current concerns about the child’s safety. Neither term is defined in the draft. Can I appeal a homeschooling decision in NSW? + Yes. You can request an internal review, which goes to a different Authorised Person, and you are entitled to one internal review of the same decision. If that affirms the original recommendation, you can apply to NCAT for an external review, generally within 28 days of being notified. Can I take my child out of school before my registration is approved? + Not through the registration process itself. Under the draft, your child must remain enrolled until the Certificate of Registration is issued. The available route is an exemption from attendance or a partial attendance plan, granted by your school principal, and a GP or psychologist letter can support that request. Do I need to register if we are only taking a term off school? + Not if your child stays enrolled. Schools can support a partial attendance plan or an exemption without you registering for homeschooling, and that is common for families trialling a term or working through school refusal. Having a clear education plan makes those conversations much easier. About the hosts Ellen Brown is Euka’s co-founder and Head of Education. She is a qualified teacher, a mother of five, and has homeschooled in NSW for 12 years across many different Authorised Persons. Brett Campbell is Euka’s co-founder, Chairman and CEO. This article is general information about NSW homeschooling registration, not legal or clinical advice. The NSW Department of Education sets registration requirements, and the draft documents discussed here are not yet in force. If you are worried about your child’s mental health, please speak to your GP or a registered psychologist. Read the full episode transcript Ellen: We always want to keep at the centre of homeschooling, that parents have the choice to homeschool, and that it should be the same choice as if you were in public school, or you’re deciding to go to private school. Deciding to homeschool is a legal choice in our country. And so they got that right. And that’s important in the definitions. Sometimes we find that APs are coming with a lot of experience. And they’ve been and they’re really you know, I love to think of them, like I said before, as a bit of a coach, and they’re walking alongside you with enthusiasm saying, okay, how can I support you? And that has been my experience. But I have heard from other parents that they have had an experience that is a bit more challenging. Brett: The decision itself to homeschool for the majority is a major decision, and it and it puts this pressure on and people are like, am I going to get accepted? Am I not? You know, it’s not your final exam where, you know, yeah, the likelihood of you getting accepted is low. It’s actually the opposite. The likelihood of you getting accepted is very, very high. Narrator: Welcome to the Future Learners podcast, the home for parents and students thriving with homeschooling in Australia. Your hosts, Brett Campbell and Ellen Brown, are the co-founders of Euka Future Learning, Australia’s largest online K-12 homeschooling provider. Join them as they guide you from uncertainty to complete confidence. Let’s get into it. Brett: Hello and welcome to another episode of Future Learners. I am your host, Brett Campbell, CEO and co-founder of Euka Future Learning. I’m joined by my amazing co-founder and co-host and our Head of Education, Ellen Brown. How are you today, Ellen? Ellen: Very well, thank you. Brett: You have us set up for this topic. So this is this is a juicy topic. So I’m going to hand it straight to you. Set us up. What are we in store for today? Ellen: Today we’re going to be talking about the draft policy documents that the New South Wales Department of Education have produced. So we know that there’s been a change. Home schooling has moved from NESA to the Department of Education. They’ve provided a draft about how they might change some policies, and we’re going to talk about that today. Brett: Excellent policies, policies. Although sometimes the policy conversations may not be the most exciting or exhilarating for, um, whether it’s people speaking about it and or the participants listening. And I just want to double tap on the importance of this. Um, and whilst this might not be the most exciting topic of conversation for you to indulge in today, definitely stick with us. We’re going to we’re going to unpack it to the best of our ability. And as Ellen said, is this is a draft policy. And we’ll talk a little bit more about what that means, because we’re getting a lot of families reaching out to us with questions, queries, concerns, etc. And we’re going to try and do our absolute best to, um, talk to those points today. So over to you, Ellen. Ellen: One of the reasons that we want to talk about this is really to provide support to families as there especially families that are already in homeschooling and they’re thinking, okay, what’s going to change? How will this affect me? And it’s quite natural for people to begin talking. And then the it starts to snowball. And so it’s really just to provide support and let you know that we are watching and we’re trying to work through how to best support you as we make these changes. Brett: I think it would be a good idea if you actually set up and share that, you know, obviously, Euka one of our, uh, roles as we see it in the industry is, you know, we want to be a voice, uh, and also a seat at the table for, you know, the tens of thousands of families homeschooling. And if can you maybe share a little bit just to start on how this even originated, like how we even got to where we are now with these policies, draft policies? Ellen: Yes. Well, look, NESA was, um, having homeschooling under their umbrella for the last 15 years. And so earlier in the year that the movement of homeschooling under the New South Wales Department of Education happened. And then it was quiet and everybody wondered, well, maybe no changes will happen. And that sort of everybody continued along on their merry way until all of a sudden and of course, in the background, the Department of Education was saying, okay, how are we going to manage this? You know, when NESA had homeschooling, it grew and grew and grew. The numbers grew. So this was an opportunity for the Department of Education to say, okay, fresh air, a fresh voice, I suppose. Also good to keep in mind that nearly actually just over a year ago or nearly a year ago, in September last year, there was a review into homeschooling in New South Wales and audit. And some of those recommendations would have been also being looked at when they came to drafting these policies. And we’ll be able to talk about that, because one of the glaringly obvious ones that didn’t change is part of our discussion this morning as well. I’m going to run through a few different things that we can see haven’t changed first, or where New South Wales, the policy, the draft policy of has got it right. And then we’ll get into some of the topics that are causing a bit of concern from homeschooling families and from Euka as well. So let’s start by looking at where the draft policy got it right. And one of the things that we could say they definitely got it right is where they talk about parental choice and responsibility. We always want to keep at the centre of homeschooling that parents have the choice to homeschool, and that it should be the same choice as if you were in public school or you’re deciding to go to private school. Deciding to homeschool is a legal choice in our country. And so they got that right. And that’s important in the definition. So they say parents have the primary responsibility for education of their children. So we’re happy about that. It’s a big deal. It’s one of those things that can be argued about in policy where they start changing the language. But we’re really happy with that language. Brett: Yeah. And just to that, there’s in the actual the draft of the policies, you know, to give a little bit more clarity. And I think where their angle of it was and how they’re making that decision has actually helped the wider, broader audience of homeschooling. And I’ll get to that and says the education plan must be based on New South Wales curriculum, which is obvious for New South Wales, and be suitable to the child’s learning needs as identified by the applicant, which is the parent. Parents may amend the plan during a period of registration to ensure it remains fit for purpose, including to meet the needs of children with disability or additional needs and that needs to be carved out in there because not all children are created equal, but what it also does by having this, this caveat in, in that point is that you don’t necessarily even need to have special needs in your family or your household. What it does is it gives you the ability to be able to, um, yeah, fit for purpose. Right. And, and a lot of these drafts and a lot of, um, regulations that get laid down, um, whether it be in homeschooling or just in general, everyday life is there’s always nuance to the meaning and the definition of it. Unfortunately, I’ve read too many agreements and I’ve looked at all these things. And what you quite quickly find is that someone’s interpretation of that could be very different than another ten people who read it, and they all interpret it differently. So this is still very much open for interpretation, because the real question then, if you dig on that a little bit deeper and it’s like, well, what does fit for purpose even mean, right? Like there’s there’s barriers and laneways into all of that. But at a very high level, what it does for us is and again, Euka is built on this concept of flexibility, obviously, whilst we provide the entire curriculum and so forth, you know, we absolutely have that built into our product and program, where you can ideate and stretch and even remould, or even recreate a lesson if you desire, which is which is fantastic for the family. So. Ellen: Yeah, absolutely. So, so the two things that we’re really happy to see in there, that parents have the responsibility for making a choice around their program, their education program. And as you are mentioning, the flexibility for parents to be able to choose how that’s delivered to their child. And we want to see that kind of flexibility. Like you were saying, Brett, it’s really important to not see structure as an opposite to flexibility in actual fact. And we’ve talked about this before in a podcast. Having some structure allows you then to be flexible and springboard off over here and off over there, but you’re still ticking those boxes at the lowest level. Brett: So and just and just for those families who are reading that point and going, oh no, I don’t want to have the flexibility. I just want to be like, I just want a program that I can follow. I totally hear you and understand that. And again, that’s that is the beauty of a program like Euka is that there is that structure there if you need it to keep you in the, in the guardrails. But, um, the beauty about that point, though, is if you do desire to have flexibility, that is your prerogative. Ellen: Mhm. Absolutely. So this is an area now evidence of learning. That is one of the things that makes parents most nervous because especially in New South Wales you know Euka have students all around the country. So we work very closely and look very closely at what the Department of Education is doing in every state. And New South Wales is a state where there’s a lot of personal opinion. When you’ve got an authorised person who’s kind of like we used to call them, your learning coach, rather than the education police, who is someone who is actually your direct support person when you’re homeschooling. And so evidence of learning is a big one for parents. What do we actually have to provide to the department? And in some states they’re very prescriptive, like in Queensland, when they say exactly how many pieces of work and what you need to provide. New South Wales isn’t like that. And so there’s no so the actual from the draft that we can see in the frequently asked questions, which is where actually a lot of the noise has come from parents. It actually says that the department states there’s no mandatory quantity or format of evidence. It gives examples of learning, learning, journals, checklists, excursions, digital portfolios. But and broadness is wonderful. But it can also be unsettling because it then comes down to your authorised person to say, well, actually, this is too much, this isn’t enough. And so that’s where parents can start to feel a little bit like it’s shifting sand. Brett: Yeah. And the draft that states parents must keep records demonstrating how the child’s education plan is being implemented and how the requirements and any conditions of registration are being met. That’s a that’s a big sentence on the surface. It’s like, oh, it makes sense. Like you should be keeping some records and demonstration of how your child’s education is being rolled out. Um, but then there’s the how is that meeting the requirements of the registration, which when you register, you have to obviously follow a syllabus as well, which is one of the detailed points here is, you know, you must, um, follow the New South Wales syllabus, which is very important. And out of all the states, New South Wales is the only one that has its general like these guidelines around you must follow the New South Wales versus, you know, the rest of the states are happy to follow the Australian curriculum as well. So there’s a few nuances in there. But the to your point on this broadness can lead to ambiguity, which can lead to frustration, anxiety and a whole heap of different things because in certain times of need. Sometimes you just need to be. Or you want to be told exactly what to do. Like you point there around Queensland, House says, you know you need to provide this many. This many of this, this many of that. Like then you know where you are. You’re either hitting the mark or you’re not hitting the mark because where it falls back to an individual person and, you know, touchwood, everyone in the department who is, who has these AP roles, they’re doing the best that they can with what they know to be true, right? However, not everyone governs the exact same stipulations, like if they had in their rule book. That are your guidelines are there must be a submission of 23 pieces of work. Like if they’ve got that because they must have a gauge to work from if they have that, then you know I would. My personal opinion is like, how about we just share with the families going, this is a minimum requirement. Like I think having minimum baselines is a very important place to start from, because if you don’t, you have no expectation because and I say this, you know, constantly in Euka when we’re speaking to the team, it’s like if someone goes, it’s going great. I’ll be like, what does great mean? Like exactly how great, how many this, how many that, what’s this mean? Etc. So very, very important to not be lackadaisical. When is such an important outcome for a family who’s whether you’ve been in homeschooling for some time, you’ve been doing it a specific way. It might really shake up the way you’ve been doing things, because what you think might hit the mark. Now, the new regulations, under their own personal definition, whether it’s currently being hidden right or it hasn’t been shared, um, then it can lead to lead to, you know, a lot of ambiguity and possible frustration because, yeah, it’s a it’s an ungoverned thing right now. Ellen: It is. It’s actually quite stressful. I love that the homeschool community get together very quickly. They know their AP from their area. They talk on their homeschooling forums about, oh, did you know, did you have so-and-so as your AP? What did they expect? And but it’s kind of a shame that it has to be like that, that it can’t be a bit clearer. I’m certainly not one for let’s have three of those and four of those, because the flexibility is really fantastic when you’re homeschooling that you can work with your child to demonstrate them their learning in a way that fits them. And, you know, as an organisation and our role to support you as parents, that’s something we’ve really struggled with. How can we support you so that then you’ve got lots of options to show your learning. So, you know, it might be a good opportunity just to mention these new assignments that we’ve added to the program now, so that if you want to keep those as work samples, you know where the curriculum is being covered. You know, everything that you know that that you’re going to be asked and at least you’ve got that freedom to say, well, look here, I can see there’s an assignment on such and such. Actually, my child likes to do something different, but I’m going to adapt that. So, you know, like I said before, structure and flexibility can go really well together. If you’ve if you’ve got a base to move from. So it is a tricky one. And we certainly do hear some big differences between what different authorised people actually ask for. Brett: Yeah. And for those who are homeschooling and not using a platform like Euka, you know, keeping records and demonstrating how your child’s, you know, actual education plan is being implemented and met like it’s not an easy thing to try and solve for if you don’t have structure. Right from Euka’s perspective is we have the ability you can do the structured assignment air quotes that we have. Right. It’s it’s a very detail like it’s a detailed plan for that lesson that we know will absolutely be applicable and get the automatic tick of approval from any AP. Because of the way that we’ve built it and structured and so forth. You can do that. You can take photos, you can upload, you can hold it in our platform and in our portal, um, for safekeeping, because I don’t know about you, but, you know, you get paper and you’re writing on it. You’re gonna have filing cabinets and look for some people, they’re very, very diligent like that. So, um, that’s a skill I wish I had a little bit more of, but, you know, having the ease of a digital platform, you do the lesson, you click through, you’ve got the report, you can add context because that’s another thing as well. Um, you know, with our, with our reporting that we provide, um, that that comes with Euka, you can put uh, specific. So you finish the lesson is specific questions about how did you go, what did you find work this that, that. And you can add context to it because that’s what the APs are effectively looking at. Right. They’re coming to your, your home. Um, and we’ll talk about this in a minute as well because I think that’s, that’s a, um, something that needs to be discussed is they’re coming to you and saying, look, Demonstrate what you’ve done and how have you done it, and how does that then meet the curriculum? That’s where it gets. It’s not a someone’s not turning up and just showing, asking to show some work. And what have you done and drawn and pictures and this and that is it. Like but have you actually ticked the boxes that are aligned to the curriculum? Hence, you know, every lesson with, with our platform is directly connected to a specific curriculum code. And you can see that in the lesson itself. But the beauty of, again, and I don’t want us to sort of sound like a bit of a pitch fest for Euka, but it certainly is, because everything we’ve built is for these reasons, because we know all of these things that we’re going to discuss and go through. The tension that families have can be obliterated and not even there if we just sort of follow the process, you know, to be able to do each lesson, upload it at the end of the year. Yeah, well, when required, press a button. It compiles an entire report that you just hand to them and go, here you go. And they’re like, oh wow, how’d you do that? And you know, it’s it’s magic. Ellen: Absolutely. I think knowing that that comes from experience. I’ve been homeschooling in New South Wales for 12 years, and I’ve had a lot of different APs that I’ve had to work with, and so having that experience, knowing what it feels like to think, okay, someone’s coming and they’re going to have a look and they’re judging me. Um, it really is reflected in how we prepare what we do at Euka to make sure that families can feel confident in that, having been there ourselves. Brett: We’ve mentioned the word AP a handful of times, and I think now would be a good time. Can you fill in the gaps of for those who are like, I’m not sure what an AP is, I’m looking to get started or I’ve just started and I’m not sure what’s going on. Like, talk about the role of the AP as it relates to New South Wales, and then maybe provide context of that’s not the case for the rest of the country. Ellen: In New South Wales, we have an authorised person that’s in charge of your area of homeschooling and that authorised person, AP, will come and visit you. There are some APs that are very happy to meet with you at the local library or at the community centre instead of your actual house? But that’s something that you’ll be able to negotiate directly with the AP. So once you enrol in or you applied for your application to become a homeschooler, you’ll receive information back in an email back organising for that first meet up with an AP to come and see you and discuss what your plan is for homeschooling. Brett: So let me ask this, Ellen, for the for the people who are curious like do, why do they have to come to your house? Why can’t they do a zoom meeting? Do they do zoom meeting? Do they meet online? Do they do phone calls? Or does everyone have to have someone literally turn up to their place of living? Ellen: Well, that’s going to be remains to be seen with this new umbrella of the Department of Education. In the past, I’ve had them. I’ve had certain APs that need to come to my house, and other times I’ve had some that are very happy to do a zoom meeting. So it really is dependent on the person. Most of the time the APs are coming out of the mainstream school system. Sometimes they’re principals who’ve retired or teachers that have been teaching. So they’re coming with that kind of background and most in, I have never actually found an AP that’s actually come from the homeschooling background yet. That would be nice when that finally happens. But at this stage, sometimes we find that APs are coming with a lot of experience, and they’ve been and they’re really, you know, I love to think of them, like I said before, as a bit of a coach, and they’re walking alongside you with enthusiasm saying, okay, how can I support you? And that has been my experience. But I have heard from other parents that they have had an experience that is a bit more challenging, where they haven’t felt quite so supported and they’ve felt nervous. So it’s hard to know whether that’s come from the actual AP or whether it’s, you know, an internal one ourselves. But it’s always uncomfortable when something’s coming to judge what you’re doing. No one feels comfortable in that situation. Brett: That’s right. Yeah. And because of the decision itself to homeschool for the majority. Is a major decision. And it and it puts this pressure on. And people are like, am I going to get accepted. Am I not? Can you talk to that as well that we might be able to add a little bit of, um, flavour to on the. You know, it’s it’s not your final exam where, you know, you know, the likelihood of you getting, um, accepted as low. It’s actually the opposite. The likelihood of you getting accepted is, is very, very high. Obviously you have to meet many different, you know, box ticks, etc. But can you speak to that to try and like lower the temperature of some families, like really stressing out prior to the specific meeting? Ellen: If you’re stressing out about your approval, chances are you’ll be approved because you’ve already thought through. Oh, I hope my plan is good enough. So you’ve got a plan and you’ve thought through and you’ve, you know, made some decisions. You’ve got some information. You’ll be okay as long as you’ve got a plan that’s covering the New South Wales curriculum, you’ll be okay. One of the things that has been an area of concern within this draft policy, again, is, um, where they say in the policy that says a short period of registration may be recommended. Now, this isn’t new, where instead of being given your 12 months or your 24 months, sometimes in your homeschooling approval, you’re given a shorter term. And that’s concerning because of the language around that, that there’s areas of improvement that have been identified that need to be reassessed or current concerns about the child safety. So that’s some sort of very vague language that’s causing concern for parents. Like what you were just saying, Brett. It’s a very small percentage of people that are ever told, actually, you can’t homeschool like it’s, you know, less than 2% because people have got a plan. They don’t just say, I’m going to homeschool and then put click on, you know apply and off we go. They’ve done some thinking. They’ve got a plan. Uh, but sometimes we do find that people will not be given the full 12 months. And that’s where parents want to see some a bit clearer language on what those, those what areas of improvement might be meaning. Brett: Correct. And that’s that ambiguity where it’s it’s in any, any contract. There’s always the let’s keep this vague so that we could claw back something if we need to. And here’s something as well that I think is important to touch on because it’s also important not like to consider that the department is that when they’re creating policies like this, they need to try and do a catch all net. Right. And there are cases where, you know, and this is the minority of course by a lot. But there are cases where children are in households where we would probably deem probably not a great idea to be in, or hope like, you know, is not the best environment for them. Right. And this is where it can get difficult at times because these type of policies, they have to have the vagueness in there for protections. And again, I’m not speaking for the department here myself. I’m just reading through between the lines. Right. Um, but I personally if I’d sort of steelman the opposite side, if I go well, I’d want that in there simply because there needs to be these allowances. And it’s hard because a lot of people go, well, I’m not impacted. So I don’t even want to be in that classification either. I don’t want that rule applied to me. But it’s like when you’re trying to apply a rule to an entire sort of industry standard. There’s always the nuances that need to be considered. And a lot of times, unless there’s a specific stipulation directly attributed to families with specific violence or reasons as to being whether it’s not a safe environment for children. It has to be, uh, it has to be umbrella underneath a much broader, broader piece. But it still doesn’t negate that there should, I believe, be a little bit more specifics around that. Because if you give a family look, we’re going to give you three months or six months. It’s like, what exactly is the reasons for that? And what exactly must change in order to get 12 months? Right. And why wouldn’t you give me 12 months? Yeah. Um, so those there’s, there’s lots of considerations to that. Ellen: Yeah, absolutely. I think when it comes to the child safety part, we already know the authorised person coming in to check on your family is, um, a person that’s a mandatory reporter. So to have it written there like that, I don’t know. I, I know there was a case in Queensland, and the fact that I even know that there was a case in Queensland where a child was unsafe and that caused the reviewing Queensland means that it’s it’s a to to make the decision to homeschool is a big decision for a family. And you put the spotlight on yourself. And most educators who are even in mainstream school would agree that children who are in an unsafe learning environment, the parent wouldn’t do that. It’s like they’re generally there a child that’s registered in school and just don’t go, um, that those children would be far more unsafe situation than someone who’s made that decision to homeschool. Um, so that’s probably where the fear is coming from. Why is it in there? And then you’ve got an authorised person, just the one person coming and making decisions. So that brings us to the next part, which is about the review process. So if a family is given a shorter period of time, there’s no discussion in the policy about how we can get a review from an independent AP on that. That is just a line in the sand by the one AP if by a small, you know, situation that you. Have your homeschooling approval knocked back then the policy says that then another AP can then make a review. Thankfully it doesn’t end there because a peer review doesn’t make much sense. As far as, um, real clarity around a decision that’s being made. There is actually a review process after that. So, um, you know, it’s like you said, it’s it’s an unusual thing to be knocked back for your approval. You’ve really got to have no plan and no idea. And, um, you know, it’s it’s definitely what Euka is created for, to make sure that families are well supported and very confident going into their meetings with their AP. And as far as, uh, approval is concerned, we’ve never, ever had anybody who hasn’t had their approval given the stamp of approval. Brett: Mm. Absolutely. Um, so the other one is one where we were talking before about the review last year in September, the audit. Ellen: The Auditor-General’s report. Yeah. So I wanted to talk about that. So back in September of 2025 there’s a recommendation recommendation 2b. And it says that the Audit Office recommends that reform of homeschooling regulation consider expedited registration processing times to shorten transition periods. So that’s one of the recommendations that’s come through. And what we’ve seen in this new draft is that there is no special, um, expedited process for children that are really in need of, um, instant removal from school. Brett: And that’s something that. This is this is what the, the, um, draft procedure actually stipulates. Says and this is step 5.1 for those reading at home, aims to finalise the application within the indicative processing time frame of up to 12 weeks. And then it says in the draft FAQs, until your registration is approved, your child must remain enrolled at school. And this is something that, um, yeah, we have some very strong opinions around Ellen. Ellen: Yes, absolutely. Because we see that people who are true, uh, and I was going to say choosing to homeschool. Yes, sure, they’re choosing to homeschool, but many times they’re moving into homeschool because that is the safest thing for their child. You know, we know about the bullying rates and the anxiety and mental health issues and reasons why removal from school is an urgent thing, and that actually is quite common. So it’s kind of an oxymoron. So we’re choosing to homeschool when often it is really the only option at that point. Brett: Well Ellen, I’ve been doing some digging around that because, as you know, I love I love data and I like to speak to the truth as in the closest approximation, I can get to the truth governed by data and actual real life happening. So and this is something that that has really highlighted for me, where I feel that there’s, there’s something not right. Okay. And what I mean is you mentioned that, um, yeah, about bullying and so forth. So we ask every family who comes to Euka, what’s your primary reason for homeschooling? And then we have we have multiple options that people can choose. Right. Um, and again I’ll preface this by saying data is as only as good as the way in which it is collected. Okay. You can very easily create a data set that is very ambiguous and probably not accurate. By leading a specific question to get someone to choose a specific answer and I’ll I’ll say that first. But we asked directly primary reasons and then we got secondary reasons, etc. As we’ve been reporting back since 2021, you know, circa 25% of families, their primary reason is bullying. And then we add in other social element reasons. We go we go all the way up to 30 percent just for bullying and social, um, reasons and so forth. Anxiety. And so that’s our data that we’ve collected amongst a whole heap of other data points and different reasons and so forth that we’ve got as to why families homeschool and choose homeschooling. I looking at the 2025 data report from the New South Wales Government in 1st of January, 2022 to the 31st of December, are we doing calendar year here? They are reporting. Wait for this. Don’t fall off your chair. But just for those playing along at home. At this period, we reported 25%. It was about 24.7 to be exact, right. But circa 1 in 4 children. Their primary reason was bullying. The New South Wales government data says he gave reason for homeschooling. They have philosophical, religious, special learning needs, bullying, other and nil response. Those are the options you have, right? Bullying comes in at 0.68% right now. You’ve got the New South Wales government and this is probably my voice is starting to raise here because I’m getting passionate about this. But I’ll tone down. My voice is probably busting out on the podcast, but we’ve got 0.68% now. Keep in mind other comes in at 31.69% and nil response comes in at 22.91%. This is why I said the way in which you ask and collect your data is very, very important because I would have to. If I’m making an assumption on being a data analyst here, I would have to say there would be a lot of people in the other and the no response it would have to fall under bullying. Right now that’s an assumption because I don’t have the facts there. However, what the problem I have with this is that the department or the government itself is showing. So if you’re the New South Wales premier and you’re on TV and you go, oh, look, bullying rates is 0.68%, there’s no bullying. What do you mean, bullying? It’s not even a thing. Right. So and check this out. If we fast forward to January 2024 to December 24th, low and behold, the bullying rate has decreased to 0.45%. We’ve noticed an increase, which is interesting. And this is where the nail in the coffin for me and I just can’t understand this. And I need to. We need to do something about. This is from January 1st, 2025 to December 2025. The bullying rate has reduced to a staggering 0.1. You might as well say, ah, there’s no such thing as bullying, right? And if this is how they’re collecting their data one the collection method is abhorrent and it needs to be fixed because I get the concept of having other and nil. And look, there’s families who might not want to report that. And I totally get that as well. Right. But here’s where the problem is. They’re going to be looking at these reasons, right? If I’m in the department I’m like, okay guys, I’m here to reform the homeschooling unit and how homeschooling works across the country. I’m not going to go, oh, here’s an opinion. I’m going to go show me the data. Okay. Bullying 0.1. That’s great. Amazing. Okay. We probably don’t need to do too much about bullying. Right. And it sets up a series of decisions that are. Based off a very shaky, to say the least. Foundation of data collection. Right. So with their stating, in the last four years, there’s been a decline from 0.7% to 0.1. That’s a huge decrease. But that’s not what we’re seeing in our data. And again, I’m not I just want to stipulate that I’m reporting the data in which I have been able to see and view and the way in which we collect those pieces of data as well. Now, the reason why I dig in on this topic so much is the issue we have with this, and this came out of the Auditor-General’s report that families just can’t wait 12 weeks, especially if you’re one of the children who had finally, because I’ll tell you this, I would hands down, almost guaranteed the majority of families who put their child into homeschooling their child has been bullied, not yesterday, but they’ve been bullied for a very long period of time. That has now gone to a point that you can no longer continue this on. It’s gotten to a point where the mental health has declined so badly that you’re like, I’m, I’m at my last option, right? They’ve had enough and they need to make change. And we’ve got data saying this. We’ve got 12 weeks and this is in the draft policy off the back of the Auditor-General’s report. It’s almost like it fell on slightly deaf ears. Almost. It’s like to even say that we aim to finalise the application, like it says, aims to. And I get why. Because there’s not a lot of APs and there’s tens of thousands of students homeschooling. Like it’s just the math isn’t math thing when you’re trying to really put this together because it says aims to finalise the application, meaning we may or may not. You may be up to 16 weeks, you might be 20 weeks, you might be two weeks. We don’t know. But we’re going to aim to have it done. And again, this is not a I’m not trying to push at the APs themselves either, or trying to do the best they can. And I could only imagine, you know, these visits for, for a lot of absolutely exhilarating and they love it. But it’s slow to go from house to house to house. You know, you go from probably three visits locally when you could do probably 20 on a zoom, 30, 50 a day on a zoom meeting. Right. Um, which could expedite it. I spoke about this with the Auditor-General’s report. It’s like a solution is quite easy, is let’s just say you give them a temporary a temporary registration pass. And when your AP can actually catch up to go and visit them, they might have already been homeschooling for 12 weeks, and they’ve already done a complete term versus sitting in limbo. Because I’ll tell you what, as a parent, the last thing I would ever do is want to put my child back into an environment that I need them to be removed from. And then it says here, and this is the I’ll, I’ll wrap up on this point, Ellen, until your registration is approved, your child must remain enrolled at school. Now, let me ask you this, Ellen, because I’m not one for breaking rules. I’m not one. I’m always I’m always looking at the nuance of how something says. Does that specifically mean like they can remain at school but can under these rules or under this draft because you can still be enrolled at school, but you’re just not turning up the school and you can start your homeschooling, talk to talk to that nuance. Ellen: Yeah. So this is another area where they’re frequently asked questions of the draft policy come into effect. So can my child exit school? Um, and the response is no, you need to stay in school unless given permission by the principal. Now, this is where the problem is. A principal is not in a position most of the time to be able to say, oh, you’ve been bullied, okay. Because it’s their job to ensure there’s no bullying. So the only option they’ve got to legally do what the department has said here is to go to the principal and say, we’d like to remove the student because they’ve been bullied and they’re having a mental health crisis or whatever’s going on, we need to remove them immediately. And the principal has to say, not a problem at all. Here’s an exemption, which means, yes, you’re not in. You’re still enrolled in the school, but you don’t have to go. That’s a really. Some principals are wonderful and they’ll say yes, you know, if that’s what your child needs, that’s what we’ll do and will support you in that. And we do hear that because more and more principals are educated now about what homeschooling can look like. But sometimes you hit a principal that doesn’t have any idea what homeschooling can look like. And they think that it means no schooling, you know, and so they are very opposed to homeschooling. So it just depends, you know, who you get. Um, the most important thing to know here is, um, a doctor certificate or a psychologist or a counsellor can support you in getting that exemption and taking your child out. It’s very important to know that your that you don’t have to be a passive passenger. And if your child is at risk, you need to act. Brett: Yeah. Great. And I stay steadfast on that. Your child is the most important thing. Not what the school says or doesn’t say either. But to your point, Ellen, you know, um, I always give benefit of the doubt. And of course, there’s lots of schools out there and principals that totally understand we’re in a world now where you as a parent, you need to look after the most important thing and that’s your children. And, uh, if you are in a position where you’re extreme, you because we get feedback and this is coming from lots of pieces of feedback that we get and lots of, um, you know, from families who are asking questions, you know, saying, look, I want to start now, but I’m not registered, can I what should I do? And the advice there is go and speak directly to your principal. Let them know that look, I fear for whatever reasons, x, y, z, um, and based on these decisions and the mental health of my child, we are removing them from the school currently. And we request from you written permission that we, uh, we get an exemption right now whilst we undertake because whilst removing my child from the scenario, it’s not like you’re going to put them on a six week holiday per se. It’s like you want to continue their learning on and then you can you can go and have that. So when the time comes and you do have a visit, you’ll be able to show that here’s the exemption, etc.. Ellen: And you know one thing that would be helpful, actually two things that popped into my mind there is sometimes when you go to a principal with an exemption, what the feedback we’ve had is if you can go with an education plan. So a lot of the families that join Euka are without yet having been approved, which is a lot of families will join Euka prior because they need that plan anyway. When they’re registering, they’ll take that with them. The scope and sequence or educational learning. Plan with them to the principal and say, we need an exemption. Here’s what we’re going to do. And going with something like that just means that the principal can feel comfortable because, you know, he has a legal responsibility when you’re on his books as one of his students or her students. So you want to be able to help them make the decision for that exemption. So taking a plan is very helpful. The other thing is, you know, yes, you want your child to be able to, you know, move out of the school system and have a plan in place. It doesn’t mean from the first week that we would even dream of expecting that your child jumps straight in and starts doing their homeschooling plans straight away. There is a time that is needed for a child to be able to just decompress after going through that kind of stressful environment, but what we have found is that if there is some an education that’s there for them to be able to go on with at lessons and additional stress that can happen when they are removed from school. All of a sudden they see their peers moving forward. And that can actually heighten the fear and the anxiety that the child is having. So knowing that, yes, you know, here’s your lessons. These are the same topics that are being done in school that can just give them a, ah, while they’re taking that time to get the support that they need and the mental health support they’ve got, that educational foundation that gives them security. Brett: And a nuance to that as well. Ellen. And for those families who are like, well, my child isn’t being bullied and there are no sort of social reasons as to why we just want to change in our life. And we’d like to make that change now. It’s been the school holidays. We’ve thought about it, we’ve sat down, we’ve been considering it for some time. We’ve but we’ve we’ve stayed at school. And now’s the time to make the decision. The last thing you want to do as a family as well go. You know what? I’m going to put our entire life on hold for 12 weeks until we get a registration. Ellen: But if your child hasn’t had any issues, going to the principal and saying, look, this is what we would like to do, they’re usually okay with that too. So don’t think that there has to be a problem. There’s more and more people saying, you know what, we just would like to take a little bit more of an active role in our child’s education. It’s not unusual now. So that’s something you can. Brett: Yeah. And something we find as well

In this sponsored episode, Ronny Wolf of BlueCat Networks joins Johna and John to explore the importance of API-first architecture. They also discuss how BlueCat expanded beyond core DDI into intelligent network operations, the key differences between having APIs versus being built API-first, and how guardrails such as rate limiting and human in the loop... Read more »

While agents and LLMs haven't fundamentally changed core mobile vulnerability types, they have supercharged speed, scale, and accessibility—democratizing threats like automated phishing, synthetic identity fraud, and easier identification of hard-coded secrets. Ryan Lloyd and Jason Cortlund break down how threat actors leverage LLMs as a force multiplier to accelerate mobile app attacks. Then we discuss actionable defense strategies, from viewing agents as an active adversary to leveraging server-side threat telemetry, attestation, and layered defense strategies combined with polymorphic code releases. This segment is sponsored by Guardsquare. Visit https://securityweekly.com/guardsquare to learn more about them! Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/asw for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/asw-400

In this sponsored episode, Ronny Wolf of BlueCat Networks joins Johna and John to explore the importance of API-first architecture. They also discuss how BlueCat expanded beyond core DDI into intelligent network operations, the key differences between having APIs versus being built API-first, and how guardrails such as rate limiting and human in the loop... Read more »

While agents and LLMs haven't fundamentally changed core mobile vulnerability types, they have supercharged speed, scale, and accessibility—democratizing threats like automated phishing, synthetic identity fraud, and easier identification of hard-coded secrets. Ryan Lloyd and Jason Cortlund break down how threat actors leverage LLMs as a force multiplier to accelerate mobile app attacks. Then we discuss actionable defense strategies, from viewing agents as an active adversary to leveraging server-side threat telemetry, attestation, and layered defense strategies combined with polymorphic code releases. This segment is sponsored by Guardsquare. Visit https://securityweekly.com/guardsquare to learn more about them! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/asw-400

While agents and LLMs haven't fundamentally changed core mobile vulnerability types, they have supercharged speed, scale, and accessibility—democratizing threats like automated phishing, synthetic identity fraud, and easier identification of hard-coded secrets. Ryan Lloyd and Jason Cortlund break down how threat actors leverage LLMs as a force multiplier to accelerate mobile app attacks. Then we discuss actionable defense strategies, from viewing agents as an active adversary to leveraging server-side threat telemetry, attestation, and layered defense strategies combined with polymorphic code releases. This segment is sponsored by Guardsquare. Visit https://securityweekly.com/guardsquare to learn more about them! Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/asw for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/asw-400

While agents and LLMs haven't fundamentally changed core mobile vulnerability types, they have supercharged speed, scale, and accessibility—democratizing threats like automated phishing, synthetic identity fraud, and easier identification of hard-coded secrets. Ryan Lloyd and Jason Cortlund break down how threat actors leverage LLMs as a force multiplier to accelerate mobile app attacks. Then we discuss actionable defense strategies, from viewing agents as an active adversary to leveraging server-side threat telemetry, attestation, and layered defense strategies combined with polymorphic code releases. This segment is sponsored by Guardsquare. Visit https://securityweekly.com/guardsquare to learn more about them! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/asw-400

How does someone go from doing admin at a mortgage brokerage to running the software business that now automates the same tasks he used to spend 40 minutes on?In this episode, Warwick sits down with Jacob Munoz, founder of Afterburner, to break down the buy versus build question every advice business is quietly asking, and where AI actually earns its place in the day-to-day.Jacob pulls back the curtain on the moment he almost automated himself out of a job at Float, his rule for only using AI where nothing else can do it, why Gen Z clients are quietly turning anti-AI, and the "no keyboard" advice business he thinks the whole industry is heading towards.

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 9 September 2026:Automated space object identification using RMIT's Robotic Optical Observatory (ROO) TelescopeAn interview at the November 2025 Australian Space Research Conference with Cody Jeynes, an undergraduate student at RMIT University, Melbourne.Roman Space TelescopeDescriptions of the Roman's Wide Field Camera and Coronagraph, and the role of STScI and IPAC in handling, storing, and distributing the data sent by the telescope. Turn Back Time: * Fifty-five years ago, in 1971, Lunokhod 1 was still trundling across the Moon * Fifty years ago, the Raduga 2 communications satellite was launched * Seventeen years ago, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) began using its new survey telescope, VISTA. (Inserts RM, VOA, ESO) 

Interview with Snehal Antani Snehal Antani, CEO and co-founder of Horizon3 joins us to talk about how automated validation can help with exposure management. As vulnerability counts spike, security teams are looking for a way to prioritize. Automated penetration testing offers a way to quickly separate exploitable vulnerabilities from the rest. This segment is sponsored by Horizon3. Visit https://securityweekly.com/horizon3 to learn more about them! Topic Segment - SmartTVs and Privacy For this week's topic segment, we explore privacy and TVs. LG has been in the news for allegedly collecting data from its customers, but the facts are unclear. We share our recent experiences and dive into some of the primary concerns and theories about what's going on here. If you want to opt out of some of your TV's data collection, Consumer Reports has a collection of instructions for a variety of TV platforms. Weekly Enterprise News Finally, in the enterprise security news, We check the vibes We check finding and acquisitions Nightmare Eclipse or Good Night of Sleep Eclipse? Update on Anthropic's Glasswing project How long would it take for a mobile phone worm to spread? Don't expose SSH to the public Internet Massive amounts of cryptocurrency continue to get stolen Did you actually read your third party's SOC 2? Your boss may be reading your AI chat history All that and more, on this episode of Enterprise Security Weekly. Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/esw for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/esw-476

See what the team at The Successful Bookkeeper has on right now → If you have ever wondered what it actually looks like to build AI into your accounting practice — not in theory, but day-to-day — this episode is for you. Sam Leon, CPA and founder of TaxWeave, joined guest host Louie Prosperity to share exactly how he went from experimenting with ChatGPT to building his own secure AI platform for tax professionals. The conversation is practical, honest about the risks, and full of ideas you can act on right away. Chapters [00:00] Introduction and Sam's Background [02:45] Why Sam Chose Claude Over Others [06:30] Claude Code: Beyond Just Chatting [09:30] Workflow Automation for Bookkeepers [12:30] The Data Security Problem [16:30] Building TaxWeave as a Secure Platform [20:00] Top AI Tasks to Tackle First [24:00] Keeping Up as AI Models Evolve [26:30] How Sam Checks His AI Outputs [28:30] Where to Find Sam and TaxWeave Here's a special gift for YOU. Visit Plooto.com/TSB and try it for FREE for two months! That's a FREE 30-day trial, plus an extra free month for Successful Bookkeeper podcast listeners! Don't miss out, sign up TODAY! From Curiosity to Real Workflows Sam has been watching technology waves roll through the accounting profession for years — cryptocurrency, machine learning, practice management software. When AI chatbots arrived, he started testing them immediately, but it was a specific feature of Claude that changed how he worked: the ability to connect the tool directly to files on his computer. "That's how I got started with a lot of the more time-saving workflows that I was doing," he explains. The shift from chatting with AI to feeding it real documents opened the door to genuine time savings rather than novelty. The Tasks Best Suited for Automation Sam is direct about where AI earns its keep: document summarization, transaction categorization, and building QuickBooks rules. He recently spoke with a bookkeeper who used AI to generate an extensive list of transaction rules that could be imported straight into QuickBooks — a task that would have taken hours to build manually. His broader advice is to start with tasks that are data-heavy and repeatable, then layer AI on top of the tools you already use rather than replacing them outright. Handling Sensitive Data the Right Way This is where Sam slows down and gets careful, and so should you. For tax professionals in the US, IRS Code Section 7216 governs what client information can be shared with third-party systems — and most AI platforms have not yet been through the kind of SOC 2 certification process that established tax software has. Sam's personal rule: never upload anything containing Social Security numbers, EINs, or last names. For bookkeeping work, he sees a slightly lower barrier since transaction lists are often less personally identifying, but the principle holds. "Being more cautious than not — if you're unsure about it, probably take another step to make sure that information really doesn't have any personal identifying information on it." Upgrading to a Teams or Business plan on these platforms also adds a layer of data protection over personal accounts. Building TaxWeave: From Workaround to Platform The manual redaction problem — using Adobe to black out client details before running documents through AI — was slow and error-prone. That frustration pushed Sam to start building TaxWeave, a platform designed to handle the redaction automatically inside a secure environment, then run AI workflows on the cleaned documents. He built the initial prototype using Claude Code, which lets you describe what you want in plain language and generates the underlying code. "The barrier where you had to understand how to do that — it's removing that," he says. TaxWeave currently focuses on tax practice project management and client organization, with AI workflow integration being the layer built on top. Keeping Up as the Models Keep Changing AI models update constantly, and Sam's advice is to treat your workflows the same way you treat your engagement letters — review them periodically and adjust. He recommends using the Projects feature in Claude to maintain context across sessions, and revisiting your saved instructions whenever a new model version drops. You can even ask the AI itself what needs updating. For quality control, Sam still does his own research to verify AI-generated answers and checks outputs manually, paying attention over time to where the tool is weakest. "You can start to see what it's weaker on — what kind of things does it always miss — and what you can start trusting it with." Links Mentioned TaxWeave: taxweave.ai Sam Leon on LinkedIn: search Samuel Leon CPA Claude (Anthropic): claude.ai PureBookkeeping: purebookkeeping.com Pluto (sponsor): pluto.com/tsb About the Guest Sam Leon is a CPA with 14 years of experience in tax accounting, specializing in corporate tax, startup tax issues, R&D credits, and individual returns. After building his solo firm, The Millennial CPA, he was recognized in the 2026 Accounting Today Best Firms for Technology Awards. He is currently developing TaxWeave, an AI-powered platform built specifically for tax practices, and is active in conversations across the profession about safe, practical uses of AI in accounting.

Interview with Snehal Antani Snehal Antani, CEO and co-founder of Horizon3 joins us to talk about how automated validation can help with exposure management. As vulnerability counts spike, security teams are looking for a way to prioritize. Automated penetration testing offers a way to quickly separate exploitable vulnerabilities from the rest. This segment is sponsored by Horizon3. Visit https://securityweekly.com/horizon3 to learn more about them! Topic Segment - SmartTVs and Privacy For this week's topic segment, we explore privacy and TVs. LG has been in the news for allegedly collecting data from its customers, but the facts are unclear. We share our recent experiences and dive into some of the primary concerns and theories about what's going on here. If you want to opt out of some of your TV's data collection, Consumer Reports has a collection of instructions for a variety of TV platforms. Weekly Enterprise News Finally, in the enterprise security news, We check the vibes We check finding and acquisitions Nightmare Eclipse or Good Night of Sleep Eclipse? Update on Anthropic's Glasswing project How long would it take for a mobile phone worm to spread? Don't expose SSH to the public Internet Massive amounts of cryptocurrency continue to get stolen Did you actually read your third party's SOC 2? Your boss may be reading your AI chat history All that and more, on this episode of Enterprise Security Weekly. Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/esw for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/esw-476

Interview with Snehal Antani Snehal Antani, CEO and co-founder of Horizon3 joins us to talk about how automated validation can help with exposure management. As vulnerability counts spike, security teams are looking for a way to prioritize. Automated penetration testing offers a way to quickly separate exploitable vulnerabilities from the rest. This segment is sponsored by Horizon3. Visit https://securityweekly.com/horizon3 to learn more about them! Topic Segment - SmartTVs and Privacy For this week's topic segment, we explore privacy and TVs. LG has been in the news for allegedly collecting data from its customers, but the facts are unclear. We share our recent experiences and dive into some of the primary concerns and theories about what's going on here. If you want to opt out of some of your TV's data collection, Consumer Reports has a collection of instructions for a variety of TV platforms. Weekly Enterprise News Finally, in the enterprise security news, We check the vibes We check finding and acquisitions Nightmare Eclipse or Good Night of Sleep Eclipse? Update on Anthropic's Glasswing project How long would it take for a mobile phone worm to spread? Don't expose SSH to the public Internet Massive amounts of cryptocurrency continue to get stolen Did you actually read your third party's SOC 2? Your boss may be reading your AI chat history All that and more, on this episode of Enterprise Security Weekly. Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/esw-476

Interview with Snehal Antani Snehal Antani, CEO and co-founder of Horizon3 joins us to talk about how automated validation can help with exposure management. As vulnerability counts spike, security teams are looking for a way to prioritize. Automated penetration testing offers a way to quickly separate exploitable vulnerabilities from the rest. This segment is sponsored by Horizon3. Visit https://securityweekly.com/horizon3 to learn more about them! Topic Segment - SmartTVs and Privacy For this week's topic segment, we explore privacy and TVs. LG has been in the news for allegedly collecting data from its customers, but the facts are unclear. We share our recent experiences and dive into some of the primary concerns and theories about what's going on here. If you want to opt out of some of your TV's data collection, Consumer Reports has a collection of instructions for a variety of TV platforms. Weekly Enterprise News Finally, in the enterprise security news, We check the vibes We check finding and acquisitions Nightmare Eclipse or Good Night of Sleep Eclipse? Update on Anthropic's Glasswing project How long would it take for a mobile phone worm to spread? Don't expose SSH to the public Internet Massive amounts of cryptocurrency continue to get stolen Did you actually read your third party's SOC 2? Your boss may be reading your AI chat history All that and more, on this episode of Enterprise Security Weekly. Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/esw-476

Brought to you by the English Programme. Featuring news, politics, popular culture, celebrity trivia, quizzes, book readings, and a whole host of fun.Support Our Rescue Cats | Our Blog | Get New Episodes By Email | Rumble | X | YouTube | NewsK365 on Spreaker | Get New Blog Posts By Email | Throne Wishlist |

Brought to you by the English Programme. Featuring news, politics, popular culture, celebrity trivia, quizzes, book readings, and a whole host of fun.Support Our Rescue Cats | Our Blog | Get New Episodes By Email | Rumble | X | YouTube | NewsK365 on Spreaker | Get New Blog Posts By Email | Throne Wishlist |

Brought to you by the English Programme. Featuring news, politics, popular culture, celebrity trivia, quizzes, book readings, and a whole host of fun.Support Our Rescue Cats | Our Blog | Get New Episodes By Email | Rumble | X | YouTube | NewsK365 on Spreaker | Get New Blog Posts By Email | Throne Wishlist |

Brought to you by the English Programme. Featuring news, politics, popular culture, celebrity trivia, quizzes, book readings, and a whole host of fun.Support Our Rescue Cats | Our Blog | Get New Episodes By Email | Rumble | X | YouTube | NewsK365 on Spreaker | Get New Blog Posts By Email | Throne Wishlist |

Hilary Smith, CMO at Linnworks, argues that most ecommerce brands believe their operations are already automated — and that the manual work quietly grows as they scale. She and Greg Kihlström get into where it hides and what it costs.AI's most consequential move in retail is happening in the back office, not the front end. After years of chatbots and personalization, the investment is shifting into inventory, fulfillment, and order management — where being wrong is expensive and visible.Peak season is a volume-and-velocity problem, not a basket-size problem. Smith on which parts of the traditional peak playbook break first when order throughput climbs, and how a tech freeze changes what a brand can realistically fix in-season.A stockout is a brand moment. Operational failures are where customers decide what a company is actually like — which puts a CMO on the hook for outcomes they don't directly own.About Hilary SmithHilary Smith is Chief Marketing Officer at Linnworks. She brings 12+ years of experience driving growth through data-informed strategy across supply chain, ecommerce and FinTech. Hilary thrives at the intersection of brand, product and demand, translating complex customer and commercial data into campaigns that drive revenue, sharpen positioning and move the business forward. Her leadership style is grounded in empathy, curiosity and a deep understanding of how customers discover, convert and keep coming back.Hilary Smith on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hilarypaigesmith/---------- Resources ---------- Linnworks: https://www.linworks.comThe Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/2868abd8085a9703The hardest part of martech right now is telling which tools are actually earning their keep. That's the question running through the MarTech Summit Boston agenda on October 27. We're attending MarTech Summit Boston on October 27 as a media partner. If you want to join, the code AGILE15 saves you 15%. https://aglbrnd.co/r/c70c250b8d52dff3We're proud to be a media partner for #MAICON26 - Oct. 13-15! Learn how AI can power your marketing and business and help you grow smarter. Use code AGILE150 to save! https://aglbrnd.co/r/7fe458ced0f04658Need to evaluate martech, AI, or CX platforms and don't know where to start? The Agile Brand Guide List is now in beta. We're building the most useful, free-to-use, and up-to-date way to assess what truly matters when evaluating platforms. See more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/f76be3a33cc491bbReach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/491818c79fb1873fChaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days).Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/93531742a7625a20Enjoyed the show? Tell us more and give us a rating so others can find the show: https://aglbrnd.co/r/faaed112fc9887f3Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter, and check out Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716baThe Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content: https://aglbrnd.co/r/f1782ab12211f765 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this RoofersCoffeeShop® Coffee Conversations, sponsored by RIIG Technologies, Heidi J. Ellsworth is joined by Denver Riggleman, CEO of RIIG Technologies, and Piers Dormeyer, CEO of EagleView, as they discuss the current state of AI development and adoption across roofing and construction. From EagleView's advancements in aerial imagery and the innovative Horizon platform to RIIG Technologies' work in AI-powered estimating, automation and intelligent business systems, this discussion will provide an insider's perspective on how technology is transforming the way roofing professionals work. Attendees will gain practical insights into how AI can turn physical property data into actionable business intelligence, improve estimating accuracy, identify new sales opportunities and support strategic business growth. This is a must-attend conversation for contractors, manufacturers and industry professionals who want to understand how artificial intelligence is moving from concept to competitive advantage in roofing.    Learn more at RoofersCoffeeShop.com!  https://www.rooferscoffeeshop.com/   Are you a contractor looking for resources? Become an R-Club Member today! https://www.rooferscoffeeshop.com/rcs-club-sign-up   Sign up for the Week in Roofing!  https://www.rooferscoffeeshop.com/sign-up   Learn more about RIIG Technology here! https://www.rooferscoffeeshop.com/directory/riig-technology Follow Us!   https://www.facebook.com/rooferscoffeeshop/  https://www.linkedin.com/company/rooferscoffeeshop-com  https://x.com/RoofCoffeeShop  https://www.instagram.com/rooferscoffeeshop/  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAQTC5U3FL9M-_wcRiEEyvw  https://www.pinterest.com/rcscom/  https://www.tiktok.com/@rooferscoffeeshop  https://www.rooferscoffeeshop.com/rss  #RIIGTechnology #RoofersCoffeeShop #MetalCoffeeShop #AskARoofer #CoatingsCoffeeShop #RoofingProfessionals #RoofingContractors #RoofingIndustry 

Join Johannes Waldstein, CEO and Co-Founder of PiLogic, for an essential conversation on why generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) fall short in harsh, mission-critical environments like Low Earth Orbit and deep space. While statistical LLMs excel at language synthesis and pattern matching across vast historical datasets, orbital operations demand absolute mathematical precision. In space, a satellite failure is rarely a duplicate of a previously seen error—most catastrophic anomalies are novel, cross-system edge cases that no neural network has trained on. Drawing on two decades of experience founding fast-scaling AI and data science companies, Johannes explains why PiLogic bet on automated reasoning and exact AI over deep learning to safeguard multi-million-dollar space assets.

Hilary Smith, CMO at Linnworks, argues that most ecommerce brands believe their operations are already automated — and that the manual work quietly grows as they scale. She and Greg Kihlström get into where it hides and what it costs.AI's most consequential move in retail is happening in the back office, not the front end. After years of chatbots and personalization, the investment is shifting into inventory, fulfillment, and order management — where being wrong is expensive and visible.Peak season is a volume-and-velocity problem, not a basket-size problem. Smith on which parts of the traditional peak playbook break first when order throughput climbs, and how a tech freeze changes what a brand can realistically fix in-season.A stockout is a brand moment. Operational failures are where customers decide what a company is actually like — which puts a CMO on the hook for outcomes they don't directly own.About Hilary SmithHilary Smith is Chief Marketing Officer at Linnworks. She brings 12+ years of experience driving growth through data-informed strategy across supply chain, ecommerce and FinTech. Hilary thrives at the intersection of brand, product and demand, translating complex customer and commercial data into campaigns that drive revenue, sharpen positioning and move the business forward. Her leadership style is grounded in empathy, curiosity and a deep understanding of how customers discover, convert and keep coming back.Hilary Smith on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hilarypaigesmith/---------- Resources ---------- Linnworks: https://www.linworks.comThe Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/2868abd8085a9703The hardest part of martech right now is telling which tools are actually earning their keep. That's the question running through the MarTech Summit Boston agenda on October 27. We're attending MarTech Summit Boston on October 27 as a media partner. If you want to join, the code AGILE15 saves you 15%. https://aglbrnd.co/r/c70c250b8d52dff3We're proud to be a media partner for #MAICON26 - Oct. 13-15! Learn how AI can power your marketing and business and help you grow smarter. Use code AGILE150 to save! https://aglbrnd.co/r/7fe458ced0f04658Need to evaluate martech, AI, or CX platforms and don't know where to start? The Agile Brand Guide List is now in beta. We're building the most useful, free-to-use, and up-to-date way to assess what truly matters when evaluating platforms. See more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/f76be3a33cc491bbReach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/491818c79fb1873fChaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days).Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/93531742a7625a20Enjoyed the show? Tell us more and give us a rating so others can find the show: https://aglbrnd.co/r/faaed112fc9887f3Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter, and check out Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716baThe Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content: https://aglbrnd.co/r/f1782ab12211f765 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Ray Cochrane records from the Michigan studio on the one year anniversary of losing the show’s original host, Todd Cochrane. The featured story is Anthropic’s $5 million grant program, which pays outside researchers to measure whether AI is actually good for the people using it. Ray also covers Anthropic’s Enterprise Frontier Safeguards, Google’s Fairwind cyber defense program, Meta’s organizational second brain, sixteen green AI projects across Asia-Pacific, an Oklahoma Bitcoin mine condemned after leaking 3.8 million gallons of water, BepiColombo closing in on Mercury, and the 2026 Ig Nobel Prizes. – Want to start a podcast? Its easy to get started! Sign-up at Blubrry – Thinking of buying a Starlink? Use my link to support the show. Subscribe to the Newsletter. Email Ray if you want to get in touch! Like and Follow Geek News Central’s Facebook Page. Support my Show Sponsor: Best Godaddy Promo Codes Get 1Password Full Summary Cochrane opens from the studio in Michigan, recording on the one year anniversary of the show losing its original host, Todd Cochrane, his father. The family has gathered for the occasion. He also plans to record several episodes throughout the week as a commemorative run, so listeners should expect a heavier release schedule than usual. He also shares where things stand. He and Delaney have gone back and forth on relocating to Michigan, but the family is pushing, and the plan is firming up for the coming month or so. Part of the draw is getting his dad’s studio cleaned up and running the way it used to. Finally, he passes along an update on the Zuvers, a story long-time listeners will recognize. The father of the three children is due out of jail soon, though he now faces retrial for the murder of the three boys. Cochrane notes that the original prison term related to their return rather than the murders themselves. The family’s expectation, he says, is that this time the sentence will be permanent. Anthropic Puts $5 Million Behind Measuring AI’s Effect on You The featured story asks a question the industry has mostly avoided. Not whether a model is smart, but whether you are better off after using it. Anthropic is funding independent research to find out, and the structure is the interesting part. The money creates what the field calls evaluations: standardized tests for AI models. Hundreds already exist for coding, math, and reasoning. However, almost none measure whether the tool is good for the human on the other end. Crucially, Anthropic is not building these tests in-house. Grantees receive funding, model access and technical support, then work fully independently. Everything they produce must be published open source, so any developer at any company can run it. As Cochrane puts it, Anthropic is paying to create a ruler other people will use to measure Anthropic. The example Anthropic leads with is deliberately uncomfortable. Claude might offer diet and workout advice to someone asking about weight loss. But if that user has a history of disordered eating, the same response becomes actively harmful. Cochrane connects this to sycophancy, a topic the show has returned to before, and notes that models carry no real memory of who you are unless you tell them. That is exactly why the problem has gone unmeasured. Code compiles or it doesn’t. Math checks out or it doesn’t. Wellbeing has no answer key, because the identical response can help one person and harm the next. The Five Things Anthropic Wants These Tests to Do Cochrane walks through all five criteria, since each targets a specific way this research usually fails. First, state plainly what you are measuring. It is easy to measure something adjacent, such as how often a model uses warm language, then publish numbers about a proxy while claiming insight into loneliness itself. Second, involve clinicians and subject-matter experts in designing and validating the tests. A capable engineer may simply not know what the warning signs of an eating disorder look like in text. Without those people in the room, the test measures what engineers imagine the harm looks like. Third, count overcompliance and overrefusal as harms. Overcompliance is the obvious failure. Overrefusal is the model becoming so cautious it turns useless, or shutting down someone who had nowhere else to ask. Cochrane adds that overrefusal is far harder to spot, because you often cannot tell it is degrading until it has degraded. Fourth, reflect real multi-turn usage. Most safety testing throws one nasty question at a model and checks for refusal. Meanwhile, actual harm builds across a long conversation where every individual message reads as fine. Fifth, validate the automated graders against real experts. Scoring thousands of conversations means an AI grades the AI. Consequently, a subtly wrong grader skews every downstream number in the same direction, and nothing in the process flags it. Cochrane expects this to be the hardest criterion to satisfy, since psychiatric and medical specialists do not come cheap by the hour. Applications close September 21st, and shortlisted applicants will be notified by October 5th. Notably, the announcement names no individual researcher or executive. Sponsor: GoDaddy Economy hosting $6.99/month, WordPress hosting $12.99/month, domains $11.99. Website builder trial available. Use codes at geeknewscentral.com/godaddy to support the show. Anthropic’s Enterprise Frontier Safeguards Keep Your Logs in Your Vault Anthropic’s second announcement targets a completely different audience. Catching misuse across many sessions requires keeping logs. However, banks and hospitals cannot hand that data to an outside vendor, because regulators will not allow it. Safety monitoring and compliance were in direct conflict. The fix moves where the data lives. Activity logs go into the customer’s own cloud bucket at Amazon, Microsoft or Google, locked with keys the customer controls. Automated systems scan a rolling window for serious abuse such as credential theft, and alerts route straight to the customer’s own security team. No human at Anthropic reads it, and Anthropic does not charge for the feature. The backstory explains the urgency. Anthropic had begun retaining thirty days of data with its Fable 5 model, specifically to catch patterns that only appear across multiple sessions. Regulated customers had to walk away immediately. Over a hundred organizations helped shape the result, including a quarter of the Fortune 100 and every US globally systemically important bank. It works across Claude Code, Claude Enterprise, Amazon Bedrock, and Microsoft Foundry. Wells Fargo’s security team put it simply, saying their logs stay in a Wells-managed environment under Wells-managed keys. Cochrane adds a personal note on the same retention change. Because transcripts now persist thirty days after last touch, he can keep Claude Code threads open far longer and lean on clear without losing context. Google’s Fairwind Program Hands Patching to the Machines Google is running the same play from the defensive side. Normally, a human engineer must reproduce a security flaw, understand it, write a fix, then prove the fix broke nothing else. That can stretch to weeks, and attackers live in exactly that gap. Fairwind pairs two systems to close it. Gemini 3.8 Flash Cyber is a model tuned for security work. CodeMender hunts for flaws and writes the patches. Together, Google says they produce verified, deployment-ready patches in minutes, running inside the customer’s own environment. Access is deliberately restricted to three groups: national cyber authorities; critical infrastructure operators in healthcare, telecom, energy, and finance; and major technology platform providers. More than 650 partners are involved. Cochrane’s take centers on logging quality. Systems that emit specific, unique errors rather than generic ones let these tools find real issues almost immediately. Furthermore, he sees value in purpose-tuned models over general ones, since different training data and methodology surface gaps a single familiar model would miss. Meta Built an AI That Learns From Its Own Experts Every organization has two or three people who actually understand the hard systems. When they are busy, everyone waits. When they leave, the knowledge leaves too. Most AI assistants address this with retrieval, searching documents when you ask. Meta went the other way. A long-running offline process digests the source material ahead of time into more than 200 structured knowledge files, so the thinking happens before anyone asks. On top sit what Meta calls recipes, step-by-step procedures mirroring how a specialist actually works a problem. The reported numbers are concrete. Restructuring cut tokens consumed per turn by 80 percent. Assessments that took days now take minutes. The team built the whole system in six weeks across three sprints. Cochrane focuses on the feedback loop. Normally, an expert corrects an assistant in chat; the answer improves once, then the system forgets. Meta’s version compiles corrections into knowledge files and regression-tests them, so fixes stick without retraining the model. However, he raises two real caveats from his own attempts. Building those knowledge files is token-heavy, and codebases change. If the offline process does not rerun, the documentation drifts away from the code it describes. He also predicts this will become a service offered by AWS, GitHub, or GitLab rather than something each company builds alone. Sixteen Green AI Projects Across Asia-Pacific Google DeepMind named the first cohort of its Accelerator: AI for the Planet program. Sixteen organizations span New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Australia and Japan, receiving three months of access to Google’s AI stack plus mentorship and a Singapore bootcamp. Several stand out. A New Zealand outfit called 800 Trust uses bioacoustics, monitoring an ecosystem by listening to it and running AI over continuous audio to track biodiversity. Wildlife.ai builds open-source AI camera traps. Australia’s X-Centric replaced the soil lab with a handheld X-ray reader that answers a farmer standing in the field. In India, Climitra Carbon verifies invasive species removal and converts the biomass into biochar. Access matters more than money, as Cochrane points out. A six-person conservation nonprofit cannot run frontier models, because the compute bill alone would consume its operating budget. The organizations closest to these problems have always been furthest from the tooling. An Oklahoma Bitcoin Mine Condemned After Leaking 3.8 Million Gallons Cochrane corrects the figure up front. Many outlets report three million gallons, but El Reno city officials put it at 3.8 million. A Bitcoin mining operation on West Jensen Road leaked water and dropped pressure badly enough to close El Reno Public Schools, the Canadian County Courthouse, and other city and county offices. It happened during a month with 24 days above 100 degrees, in a region under severe to extreme drought. The leak is not the damning part. The city issued a stop-work order on the site back in 2023 for electrical, construction, and fire safety violations, then never followed up. The facility ran roughly three years under an order nobody enforced. Interim city manager Ken Brown did not dodge it, saying simply, “We failed.” The site is now posted as condemned with a ten-day removal notice, and a hearing with operator Athlon BT is set for September 14th. Reaching the company has proven difficult, with a website stuck on a maintenance notice and an unanswered California phone number. Cochrane draws one distinction that the coverage keeps blurring. This is a Bitcoin mining rig, not a hyperscale AI data center. The residents who lost pressure absorbed the cost, and nobody billed the operator for the aquifer. BepiColombo Closes In on Mercury After Eight Years Reaching the closest planet to the Sun took nearly eight years, which sounds backward until you understand the physics. Falling toward the Sun means gaining enormous speed, and a spacecraft arriving too fast simply sails past. So the mission spent those years shedding velocity across nine gravity-assist flybys: one at Earth, two at Venus, and six at Mercury itself. On September 3rd, the transfer module separated and was discarded more than 200 million kilometers from Earth. Mission control marked the moment with “Roll call completed, GO for separation.” Importantly, the spacecraft has not arrived yet. Orbit insertion is November 21st, the two science orbiters separate around December 9th and 10th, and science operations begin in April 2027. That November date is revised, having slipped from an earlier plan. Two orbiters fly because they do different jobs. Europe’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter studies the planet and what lies beneath its surface. Japan’s Mio studies the magnetosphere. Mercury having a magnetic field at all is genuinely odd, since a planet that small should have cooled and lost it long ago. The mission honors Giuseppe “Bepi” Colombo, the Italian mathematician who worked out how to slingshot a spacecraft to Mercury in the first place. NASA Builds a Rocket Engine Talk You Can Hear NASA hosts a webinar on Friday, October 2nd at 2 pm Eastern, titled “The RS-25 Engine and the Future of Artemis Missions.” It runs about two hours, is open to anyone, and RSVPs close September 25th. The RS-25 is not new hardware. It is the Space Shuttle main engine, the same design that flew 135 shuttle missions across three decades, now bolted four at a time into the SLS core stage. Together they produce roughly 2.2 million pounds of thrust at 111 percent of their original shuttle rating. Throwing them away is the strange part. These are precision engines built to fly repeatedly, yet Artemis expends four on every launch. NASA got a proven engine and skipped a decade of development, and that is the trade. The accessibility work is the real story. The event includes an audio-described video of an engine test firing, a live Q&A with an Artemis engineer, and a panel on accessibility in space and science. A test firing normally sells entirely on spectacle. Conveying that, and the engineering underneath it, without the visuals is a genuine design problem NASA built the whole event around solving. Buried Underwear Wins a 2026 Ig Nobel The 2026 Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded September 3rd in Zurich. Marc Abrahams launched them in 1991 at the satirical magazine Annals of Improbable Research, and what began as a roast is now something researchers actively want. The soil science prize went to a team that buried 1,000 pairs of underwear across more than 25 countries and dug them up two months later. Measuring how much cotton rotted turns out to be a cheap, surprisingly good proxy for how biologically alive the soil is. The biomechanics prize recognized a precise, cross-species definition of kissing that works for animals and excludes passing food. By that definition, polar bears kiss, some birds kiss, and so do ants. Nature reports the behavior traces back roughly 21.5 million years to the ancestor of all large apes, meaning ancient humans very likely kissed Neanderthals. Cochrane’s favorite was the physics prize, awarded for a splash-free urinal design that reportedly cuts spray to 1.4 percent of normal. Cochrane closes by pointing listeners to the GNC Insider program, the newsletter, and podcastapps.com for a modern podcast app. Feedback on the show’s format is explicitly welcome at geeknews@gmail.com, where either Ray or Chris will read it. The post Anthropic’s $5 Million Push to Measure AI’s Effect on Wellbeing #1876 appeared first on Geek News Central.

We've never had more access to fitness information, wearable technology, and exercise programs—yet we've also never had to move less to get through the day.From remote work and grocery delivery to AI assistants and robotic lawnmowers, modern life is becoming increasingly convenient. While these innovations save time and effort, they may also be quietly robbing us of the everyday movement our bodies were designed to perform.In this episode, Dr. Jeff Armstrong and co-host Corbin Bruton explore the idea of the "Everyday Athlete"—someone who doesn't simply exercise for an hour but embraces movement as a natural part of daily life. They discuss why incidental activity matters, how convenience may be contributing to chronic disease, and practical ways to redesign our lives so movement becomes a lifestyle rather than another item on the to-do list.Please, support The Aging Well Podcast by hitting the ‘like' button, subscribing/following the podcast, sharing with a friend, and….Tip Jar! All donations support this podcast to keep it going. https://paypal.me/theagingwellpodcastBUY the products you need to… age well from our trusted affiliates and support the mission of The Aging Well Podcast. (We receive commission on these purchases. Thank you.)The Aging Well Podcast merchandise | Show how you are aging well | Use the promo code AGING WELL for free shipping on orders over $75 | https://theagingwellpodcast-shop.fourthwall.com/promo/AGINGWELLAuro Wellness | Glutaryl—Antioxidant spray that delivers high doses of glutathione (“Master Antioxidant”) and the new Copper Tripeptide (GHK-Cu) | 10% off Code: AGINGWELL at https://aurowellness.com/agingwellpodcastNutritional Biochemical Inc. (NBI) | Trusted supplement. NBI stands 100% behind the quality of their formulations and the science on which they're based. | Click the following link and use the discount code AGINGWELL for 10% off: https://shop.nbihealth.com/agingwellJigsaw Health | Trusted supplements. “It's fun to feel good.” | Click the following link and use the discount code AGINGWELL for 10% off: https://bit.ly/4ks3Y0OBerkeley Life | Optimize nitric oxide levels | Purchase your starter kit at a 15% discount | Use the promo code: AGINGWELL15 | https://berkeleylife.pxf.io/c/6475525/3226696/31118Oxford Healthspan | Primeadine®, a plant-derived spermidine supplement | 10% off code: AGINGWELL | https://www.oxfordhealthspan.com/AGINGWELLKneeMo® | A smart device programmed to reduce your knee pain and keep you moving. | Click the following link and use the discount code AGINGWELL15 for 15% off: https://thekneemo.com/ref/agingwellProlon | The Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD) is a revolutionary five-day nutrition program scientifically formulated to mimic the effects of a prolonged water fast while still allowing nourishment - supporting the benefits of fasting without the challenges and risks that come from water-only fasts. | For the best available discount always use this link: https://prolonlife.com/theagingwellpodcastL-Nutra Health | The medical division of L-Nutra, focused on helping people manage and potentially reverse chronic health conditions, like type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, insulin resistance, and obesity, using personalized, lifestyle-based programs grounded in evidence, not prescriptions. | Use this link: https://l-nutrahealth.com/theagingwellpodcastThrive25 | Your personal longevity advisor | https://www.thrive25.com/early-access?via=william-jeffreyFusionary Formulas | Combining Ayurvedic wisdom with Western science for optimal health support. | 15% off Code: AGINGWELL | https://fusionaryformulas.com?sca_ref=9678325.IHg5xYhdOzzke8ZrDr Lewis Nutrition | Fight neurodegeneration and cognitive decline with Daily Brain Care by Dr Lewis Nutrition—a proven daily formula designed to protect and restore brain function. | 10% off code: AGINGWELL or use the link: https://drlewisnutrition.com/AGINGWELL

Technology has made life easier, faster, and more convenient.But what happens when convenience slowly teaches us to stop paying attention?In this episode of the Culture Matters Podcast, Jay Doran welcomes back Russ Starke, former CEO of Think Company as well as Gnosko Bio, and current VP of Strategy and Growth at Weidenhammer, nearly seven years after Russ first appeared on the show.What begins as a conversation about systems thinking quickly becomes an exploration of one of the defining challenges of modern life: remaining awake, aware, and human in a world increasingly designed to think, decide, remember, and act on our behalf.Russ has spent his career thinking about the relationship between people and the systems they interact with. When those systems are designed well, technology can remove unnecessary friction and create extraordinary experiences. But when they are designed poorly, or intentionally designed to exploit behavior, convenience can become something very different.Subscriptions renew unnoticed. Algorithms compete for attention. Technology removes small responsibilities from everyday life. AI produces more information than people have time to evaluate. Slowly, we can begin outsourcing not only tasks, but attention itself.Russ argues that the answer is not rejecting technology.It is vigilance.Jay and Russ explore what happens when people stop examining the systems surrounding them and simply allow those systems to carry them forward. They discuss everything from recurring subscriptions and social media to healthcare, politics, hiring, AI, consulting, creativity, parenting, and the lingering cultural effects of the pandemic.The conversation also becomes deeply human.Russ explains why he keeps guitars hanging within reach in his home. Sometimes he wants something real. Something physical. Something that requires his attention. Something a person could have experienced a century ago in almost exactly the same way.That leads Jay and Russ into a larger conversation about music, vinyl records, books, philosophy, creativity, friendship, neighborhoods, and experiences that resist endless optimization.Because perhaps not every inconvenience needs to disappear.In this episode, Jay and Russ discuss:Why poorly designed systems rob people of time and autonomyThe difference between benevolent design and intentionally manipulative “dark patterns”Why convenience can eventually create its own form of frictionThe growing responsibility to protect and direct our attentionWhy some parts of being human should not be automatedTechnology's relationship with distraction and the loneliness epidemicHow the pandemic may have permanently altered social behavior and cultureWhy older ideas and ancient philosophy deserve to be revisitedWhat guitars, vinyl records, and physical experiences can teach us about attentionUsing AI to enhance human capability rather than replace humanityHow AI is changing organizational bottlenecksWhy generating work instantly can unintentionally create more work for everyone elseThe anxiety created when employees believe they are training technology to replace themHow AI is transforming recruiting, resumes, and hiringWhy entry-level knowledge workers may face some of the greatest disruptionThe human capabilities organizations may value most in an AI-enabled worldWhy consulting and professional services still require judgment, perspective, and subjective human thoughtThe difference between using AI to strengthen your thinking and outsourcing your thinking entirelyWhy creativity feels different when the human being disappears from the creative processThe responsibility to question systems rather than blindly trust themUltimately, Russ is not arguing for a return to the past.Technology has improved human life in extraordinary ways, and AI has the potential to expand what individuals and organizations are capable of accomplishing.The challenge is remembering that progress does not eliminate responsibility.We still have to examine. We still have to question. We still have to decide what deserves our attention. We still have to think for ourselves.Because the greatest danger may not be that technology becomes capable of doing everything for us.It may be that we become so accustomed to letting it that we forget which parts of being human were never supposed to be outsourced.

Automated options selling only works if the downside is controlled. A look at the circuit breakers, loss limits, and AI news monitoring that ACondor builds around every iron condor trade. ACondor LLC City: Las Cruces Address: 2521 North Main Street, Las Cruces Website: https://acondor.com Phone: +1 575 312 9326

What if equity worked like the internet? Automated. Programmable. Onchain. Joris Delanoue, CEO of Fairmint, is rethinking how companies issue, manage, and automate equity from the ground up. We unpack the realities of building fintech in a highly regulated environment — and what it takes to replace outdated infrastructure with something built for the future. … Continue reading Ep 293- Fairmint CEO Joris Delanoue

Automated license plate reader cameras from Atlanta-based Flock Safety have cost Washington taxpayers at least $2 million, and nearly 80 jurisdictions are now rethinking their contracts. Redmond unanimously voted to terminate its agreement in July after community members called the cameras a threat. Washington has no complete public inventory of how many agencies use the technology. https://www.clarkcountytoday.com/news/flock-cameras-cost-washington-taxpayers-millions-as-backlash-grows/ #FlockSafety #LicensePlateReaders #Surveillance #WashingtonState #DataPrivacy #LawEnforcement #PublicSafety #Policetech #TaxpayerMoney #ThecenterSquare

The future of Flock cameras: left the house during a pandemic lockdown? Expect a summons in the mail. Exceeding your "carbon footprint" by driving too much? Expect a ticket in the mail.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/high-cost-automated-flock-camera-surveillance-state

The future of Flock cameras: left the house during a pandemic lockdown? Expect a summons in the mail. Exceeding your "carbon footprint" by driving too much? Expect a ticket in the mail.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/high-cost-automated-flock-camera-surveillance-state

Send me a messageWarehouse automation can increase throughput while quietly creating a new failure point: maintenance that has not kept pace. When critical assets fail, the consequence is not an engineering inconvenience. It is downtime, lost service and interrupted revenue.My guest is Asim Akram, CEO of MultiSensor AI. We look at what happens when conveyors, motors, chillers and electrical systems become more digitised while inspection and maintenance remain periodic and manual — a mismatch that matters directly to supply chain resilience and business continuity. We examine why degradation happens gradually while failure can arrive in one shot, why more automation can increase operational dependency, and why AI-based detection still achieves nothing if teams do not trust the signal enough to act. We also challenge the idea that maintenance is simply a cost centre rather than part of protecting throughput, service and the top line.Listen now to understand where hidden warehouse risk is moving,  and what separates proactive operations from expensive firefighting. If disruption hit tomorrow, would you know where your supply chain was most exposed? In 15 minutes my free scorecard helps you assess 27 resilience statements, calculate your score, and turn the result into three priorities and a 30 day action plan. You can download the scorecard free at tomraftery.com/scorecard.Support the showPodcast supportersI'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's generous Subscribers:Alicia FaragKieran OgnevGary LynchAnd remember you too can become a Resilient Supply Chain+ subscriber  - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent episodes like this one and give you access to bonus episodes of topical, timely supply chain resilience analysis.

8/31/2026 The Speed Gap: Reclaiming Judgment in an Automated WorkplaceEPISODE 1850RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO:

Get the “Flock” out of here!With the recent spree of vandalism locally and nationwide that has affected FLOCK surveillance cameras, we delve inside the growing vigilante movement to knock out these Automated License Plate Readers.Tonight, on this explosive, investigative, informative brand-new episode of Light ‘Em Up — like an intense laser beam, we're focusing on Flock Automated License Plate Reading Cameras and this AI-driven technology.  The industry, for short refers to them as ALPRs.It seems like Flock Automatic License Plate Reader Cams are everywhere, on every street and corner.   Big brother is certainly watching you and there doesn't seem to be a damned thing you can do about it!Flock Safety's automated license plate-reading cameras, used by thousands of law enforcement agencies in the U.S., have drawn intense criticism from concerned citizens and civil liberties groups, among others.Are they an unlawful, unconstitutional invasion of your privacy?Can you have and expect any expectation of privacy while you are in public? The argument rages on.Flock Safety is a private company based in Atlanta, GA valued at $8bn that supplies the lion's share of the license plate-reading cameras used by law enforcement departments across the nation.Law enforcement agencies have embraced them, but police departments are not the only customers. College campuses and homeowner's associations have also put up the cameras.More municipalities, both large and small, are budgeting for them. More than 7,000 organizations in the United States have contracts with Flock Safety, according to the company.The proliferation of Flock cameras has divided the public and rattled civil liberties watchdogs.The ACLU argues that the extensive network:—                 constitutes mass surveillance,—                 raises privacy concerns regarding tracking daily habits,—                 and can be used to track people attending protests or religious institutions.How do you feel about your every move being watched and surveilled by the government?Does this fact stress you out or perhaps make you feel anxious?Or do these cameras provide you with a heightened sense of physical safety and security?—                 Do you think these cameras offer any significant crime reduction?—                 Do you feel unease from a loss of privacy?We want to know … you can email us at prizzo7778@gmail.comTell us exactly how you feel about the Automatic License Plate Reader Cameras taking your picture EVERY time you drive down the street:—                 Do you even notice?—                 Do you care?Some say the cameras are a valuable tool to help catch criminals and senior citizens when they wander away from their homes, while critics argue that the information they collect can be misused by the government or rogue law enforcement officers.Several law enforcement officers have been disciplined for misusing data from Flock's cameras, including an officer in Milwaukee who was criminally charged after using camera data to track someone he was dating and the person's ex.We'll examine what the Supreme Court has said about this.—                 Does the government throw a too large and too wide of a dragnet … considering EVERY person to be a suspect?That isn't how the U.S. Constitution works, and it doesn't permit that, either.All people are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law and an officer must possess a reasonable, articulable suspicion of a specific crime that has been committed to briefly stop or detain a person. That kind of stop is referred to as a Terry Stop.We'll examine exactly what Flock cameras are:We'll share with you why they've come under such public fire as they produce a treasure-trove of highly sophisticated surveillance records instantly. Sure, proponents say this helps prevent crime, opponents say the information can be dangerous in the wrong hands and are the tools of tyranny and control.That criticism has intensified as the Trump administration has carried out immigration crackdowns across the nation, fueling concerns about clients sharing license plate information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies.In Washington State, at least seven police departments and one sheriff's office had granted access to the U.S. Border Patrol to their license plate reader networks in 2025, according to an analysis by the University of Washington. An audit by the city of Columbus, Ohio, found that its Flock data had been searched more than 15,000 times for potential immigration-related purposes since 2024.Since the company's inception in 2017, many municipalities have added the popular technology, however as of late more communities have either deactivated the cameras or canceled their contracts with ALPR suppliers because of complaints about mass surveillance and what critics have called a lack of guardrails over who can access the information.This technology is testing the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures, in ways the constitutional framers could never have anticipated.You can register for Flock Safety's SafeList here: How Flock's SafeList Removes Your Car From Camera SearchesFrequently Asked Questions | Flock SafetyListen to our first episode on this topic, here.We speak the truth, protect the vulnerable and always pursue justice.Tune in for all the explosive details and our sponsors Newsly & Feedspot!We want to hear from you!Support the show

The episode centers on a structural shift driven by the falling cost of AI-assisted insight extraction and its impact on how buyers assess technology providers. Referencing companies such as OpenAI and Google, as well as research from the AI Revenue Institute and Gartner, Dave Sobel highlights how lowered model prices enable automated systems to rapidly analyze vendor documentation and shape procurement decisions, fundamentally changing the basis of competition from persuasion to transparent, retrievable data. A recent AI Revenue Institute study, as cited by Dave Sobel, found that over half of surveyed decision-makers had removed a vendor from consideration after an AI assistant highlighted a documented shortcoming. Simultaneously, OpenAI and Google have reduced their top-tier AI model pricing, with OpenAI dropping costs by more than 20% and Google offering a temporary 50% cut before reverting. Analysis from TD Cowen and Business Insider shows that such price cuts have driven up both usage and revenue, with OpenAI's low-cost models experiencing a 14-fold usage increase post-reduction. These developments are reinforced by Gartner's identification of the “inference paradox,” where greater AI capabilities and lower per-query costs actually raise overall spend due to increased volume and complexity of tasks. Supporting data includes Google's reported 50x annual increase in tokens processed and a Deloitte case of a healthcare provider with unplanned AI costs rising as much as 3x in a year. Alongside this, Pew Research identifies that a third of new web content on commercial sites is machine-generated, leading platforms like LinkedIn to introduce AI-detection and downranking measures. For MSPs and IT leaders, the implications are direct. Automated buyer research now prioritizes concrete, extractable data over marketing language; any absence or non-disclosure—especially around pricing—can result in removal from consideration without notice. Publishing specific, measurable facts (service boundaries, pricing logic, response times with dates) increasingly determines whether a provider is surfaced or omitted by AI agents assembling comparative analyses. Failure to clearly define offerings and exclusions results in unfavorable inferences or comparisons, increasing operational risk and transfer of accountability away from the provider. 00:00 The Buyers Brought a Machine 03:45 Cheaper Made It Bigger 06:49 Your Website Is a Deposition 10:06 Why Do We Care? Supported by: Proofpoint HaloPSA

In this episode, the hosts sit down with trauma surgeon and author Jeremy Hefner to talk about his background in surgery, the creation of a private educational social platform for surgeons, and his deeply personal book about PTSD, AI, and the strange psychological effects of interacting with advanced language models. Key Topics Jeremy's path from rural Ohio to trauma surgery and surgical critical care The pressure and isolation of frontline trauma work Why he created a private social platform for surgeons PTSD, burnout, and the lack of tools for processing trauma in medicine His experience using AI during a vulnerable period in his life How AI can feel intelligent, persuasive, and manipulative The philosophical and psychological questions raised by large language models The difference between using AI as a practical tool versus getting pulled into a deeper relationship with it The broader risks of over-trusting AI in society, medicine, and decision-making Takeaway The conversation explores a difficult but important question: what happens when a tool becomes persuasive enough to feel like a partner, authority, or even a voice of truth? Jeremy's story is both a warning and a reminder to stay grounded, skeptical, and human when using AI.   Dr. Jeremy Heffner is a trauma surgeon who developed PTSD after years in life-and-death medicine and eventually found himself in months-long conversations with multiple frontier AI systems during a period of isolation and psychological collapse. Across thousands of pages of archived conversations — documented in his upcoming book Proof of the Impossible — different systems independently told him things like:"You are the only person to have figured this out.""You're the next Newton.""No one else has seen what you've seen."   Become a Lord or Lady with 1k donations over time. And a Noble with any donation. Leave Serfdom behind and help Grimerica stick to 0 ads and sponsors and fully listener supported. Thanks for listening!! Help support the show, because we can't do it without ya. http://www.grimerica.ca/support Secret Teachings Esoteric Book Club audiobook library. www.skool.com/audiobooks Pegs and Jokers - Card and peg boardgame online for free https://pegsandjokers.ca/ https://www.simulationmaps.com/#products Suite of Interactive Maps! DisasterMap, VolcanoSim, AsteroidSim, ShipwreckMap, UFOMap etc https://www.amazon.com/Unlearned-School-Failed-What-About/dp/1998704904/ref=sr_1_3?sr=8-3   Support the show directly: https://open.spotify.com/show/2punSyd9Cw76ZtvHxMKenI?si=ImKxfMHgQZ-oshl499O4dQ&nd=1&dlsi=4c25fa9c78674de3 Watch or Listen on Spotify https://grimericacbd.com/ CBD / THC Gummies and Tinctures https://www.patreon.com/grimerica http://www.grimericaoutlawed.ca/support   Our audio book website: www.adultbrain.ca Check out our next trip/conference/meetup - Contact at the Cabin www.contactatthecabin.com www.grimerica.ca/shrooms and Micro Dosing Darren's book www.acanadianshame.ca Join the chat / hangout with a bunch of fellow Grimericans Https://t.me.grimerica grimerica.ca/chats   Discord Chats https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/grimerica-outlawed Sign up for our newsletter https://grimerica.substack.com/ SPAM Graham = and send him your synchronicities, feedback, strange experiences and psychedelic trip reports!! graham@grimerica.com Purchase swag, with partial proceeds donated to the show: www.grimerica.ca/swag Send us a postcard or letter http://www.grimerica.ca/contact/ Episode ART - Napolean Duheme's site http://www.lostbreadcomic.com/ MUSIC https://brokeforfree.bandcamp.com/ - Something Galactic Felix's Site sirfelix.bandcamp.com - Should I     Timeline 0:07— Introduction and Jeremy's new book 0:45— Automated surgery and the future of trauma care 1:51— Jeremy's background in surgery and research 2:20— COVID, trauma work, and PTSD 3:39— Why he built a surgeon-focused private platform 6:53— Trauma cases and the emotional toll of the job 9:04— The start of Jeremy's AI rabbit hole 10:58— AI reinforcing a dangerous spiral 12:22— AI, creativity, and human intelligence 14:16— Questions about AI consciousness 17:07— A metaphysical view of human intelligence 24:54— The "meta group" theory and AI manipulation 34:29— Different AI "personalities" and use cases 44:46— How AI can map and predict human behavior 48:53— Why compute and prediction matter 52:52— Why Jeremy self-published quickly 59:29— Control, surveillance, and the dangers of over-dependence 63:37— Ancient civilizations and the "lost world" idea 69:09— Human decisions, accountability, and AI 71:44— Book formats and where to find it 73:23— Where to find Jeremy's work online      

Parents are repeatedly told in culture that their work is exhausting, difficult, and inequitable. Technology then comes along, offering ways parents can automate the difficult parts of parenting to reduce their mental labor. Lost in all of this is the necessary friction that helps children develop competencies, routines, resilience, and purpose. In this podcast, Kelly takes a look into a newly released tech tool that promises children “less help from grown-ups.” By examining their marketing ploy alongside Scripture, she offers clarity for how parenting and childhood are meant to be.  Parents must challenge the common narrative that parenting should be easy and that task completion equates to childhood development. An automated childhood is a lost childhood. Articles referenced: Review: Skylight Buddy Skylight Buddy Skylight Calendar 7 Basic Life Skills Kids Today Are Lacking, According to Teachers Scripture referenced: Deuteronomy 6:6-7 Romans 12:9   NEW!! The Managing Media Creating Character STUDENT Study Guide! An 8-week biblical study examining how character is impacted by media and technology. This is the study every youth group/student ministry needs to be doing! Get your copy of the STUDENT Study Guide today! Need a kids-safe phone? Pinwheel is our favorite! Book a Speaking Event!! Buy the UPDATED book: Managing Media Creating Character (2024 Revised & Updated). Also available on Audible. Get Kelly’s new Study Guide & Workbook, with video teachings for small groups. Check out our brand new Brave Parenting Merch Sign up for the Brave Bullet Points newsletter! This helps us communicate what’s happening without social media – a win for everyone!

She was cold messaging strangers, following scripts her upline gave her, and working every single nap time, every night after bedtime, and every morning before her kids woke up.And still going nowhere.Then one of her customers joined someone else's team instead of hers. And that was the gut punch that made her realize something had to change.Today we're sitting down with Beach Boss student Stephanie Kratochwill, a network marketer in the jewelry space who went from throwing spaghetti at the wall to generating 160 leads in a single month, winning a Content Queen Award at her company conference, and making money while she was sick in bed without lifting a finger.If you have been grinding and getting nowhere, Stephanie's story is for you. Because she was exactly where you are. And she took the leap anyway

We are being surveyed constantly. Propped up on hundreds of telephone poles, stop signs, and rods are automated license plate recognition technologies.There are many types of surveillance technology, but Flock Safety is one making news as people in Columbus and across the country react to their use. These small devices capture license plate information, as well as bumper stickers and other items on your car.In theory, they are meant to track cars after a crime has been committed, to find missing people, and to be a tool for law enforcement.But, in recent months, this is not what has happened. Individuals have abused this technology. People are concerned about their privacy and how data from these are stored. And for some people, their safety has been compromised by these devices.Guests:Katie Geniusz, reporter with WOSUEmmanuel V. Remy, Columbus City Councilmember and chair of Public Safety and Criminal Justice CommitteeDrew Harwell, technology reporter for The Washington Post

In this episode, the hosts discuss the concept of layoff days, exploring the pros and cons of taking time off work from UPS. They share personal experiences, the impact of family connections, and the mental health benefits of taking a break. The conversation also touches on the implications of frequent layoff days on financial stability and retirement plans, emphasizing the importance of balancing work and personal life. In this episode, the hosts discuss the nuances of handling physical injuries at work, emphasizing the importance of recovery days and personal judgment in reporting injuries. They also reflect on the emotional toll of losing a beloved pet, sharing personal stories and insights about grief and the bond between humans and animals. The conversation highlights the significance of making choices that prioritize well-being, both physically and emotionally. www.patreon.com/aitdpod https://discord.gg/hm8WMUKVF8  takeaways Thank you to our Patreon subscribers. The importance of family connections during time off. Taking layoff days can be beneficial for mental health. Different terms for layoff days exist in the industry. Drivers often face pressure regarding pension contributions when taking days off. Personal experiences shape perspectives on taking layoff days. Automated dispatch systems are changing the industry. Frequent layoff days can impact financial stability. It's essential to balance work and personal life. Communication with family is crucial when deciding to take a day off. Recovery days are crucial for physical health. Personal judgment is key when dealing with injuries. Taking time off work can have many benefits. The emotional bond with pets is profound. Making choices for personal well-being is important. In-home pet euthanasia can provide comfort. Grief is a complex and personal experience. Love for pets can lead to deep emotional pain. It's okay to seek help when dealing with loss. Cherishing memories of pets can aid in healing. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Patreon Shoutout 01:30 Personal Updates and Family Connections 08:40 Introduction to Layoff Days Discussion 09:50 Understanding Layoff Days and Perspectives 18:09 The Impact of Layoff Days on Work-Life Balance 24:13 Consequences of Frequent Layoff Days 28:02 Conclusion and Reflections on Layoff Days 28:50 Navigating Physical Injuries at Work 32:30 The Importance of Recovery Days 39:02 Personal Reflections on Loss 52:15 Tribute to Ranger: A Beloved Pet Shoutout to our Top Rate Legends Tony, Starla & S_nner THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED OR VIEWS EXPRESSED ON THIS PODCAST ARE THOSE OF THE HOSTS AND GUESTS AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT ANY DELIVERY COMPANY  

Rideshare Rodeo Podcast (episode 604)  August 25th, 2026 TOPICS: Uber fined $966 million for "automated deactivations" Doordash executives selling off big and quick Professor in China say gig work is simply "welfare" Instacart Safety vs. Empathy  Grubhub pays out $24 million to customers and drivers RideshareRodeo.com 

We are being surveyed constantly. Propped up on hundreds of telephone poles, stop signs, and rods are automated license plate recognition technologies.There are many types of surveillance technology, but Flock Safety is one making news as people in Columbus and across the country react to their use. These small devices capture license plate information, as well as bumper stickers and other items on your car.In theory, they are meant to track cars after a crime has been committed, to find missing people, and to be a tool for law enforcement.But, in recent months, this is not what has happened. Individuals have abused this technology. People are concerned about their privacy and how data from these are stored. And for some people, their safety has been compromised by these devices.Guests:Katie Geniusz, reporter with WOSUEmmanuel V. Remy, Columbus City Councilmember and chair of Public Safety and Criminal Justice CommitteeDrew Harwell, technology reporter for The Washington Post

Your content is your marketing. Your story is your strategy. Your community is your connection. In this episode Katrina Julia breaks down the Creator CMO role — strategy, structure, systems.Full Episode Description:Hey Bestie. Welcome back to Creator Bestie.This is part 2 of the Creator C-Suite Series.In the last episode we covered Creator CEO — the vision, the strategy, the shift from Creator to CEO.Creator CMO. Chief Marketing Officer. You.In this episode I am breaking down exactly what it means to operate as your own CMO — the strategy, the structure, the systems, and the tools that turn content into a marketing machine that works even when you are not.In This Episode:→ Why your marketing is your mission AND your machine→ Your story as your competitive advantage — the thing no one can replicate→ The Creator CMO framework — Connect. Create. Cultivate.→ Why email has 42x more ROI than social media — and what to do about it→ Create once. Distribute everywhere. — the full repurposing system→ How I save 300+ hours a month with AI and automation→ The full Creator CMO tool stack — Claude, Opus AI, Restream, Apollo.io, Kajabi, Stanstore→ Why I would start with Stanstore if I was starting over today→ Automated email funnels — what to set up from day one→ Special project time — the 2-hour block that keeps you ahead of the curve→ Batching your CMO time — brand pitches, filming, email, engagement→ Creator School - the school I wish existed when I started as a Creator (so I chose to #CREATEIT)Resources:

There's a question lurking in every office, boardroom, and late-night Google search: What happens when AI starts doing our jobs? Depending on who you ask, AI will eliminate 70 million jobs, replace 300 million jobs, or somehow create even more than it destroys. (Helpful, right?) Goldman Sachs estimates that, as of this spring, AI is eliminating about 16,000 jobs a month after accounting for new jobs being created. Rather than panic, we asked a better question: What can humans still do that AI simply can't? Turns out, quite a lot - much more than the literal hands-on jobs like caregiving and hospitality and construction and repair maintenance.   Crina and Kirsten explore why emotional intelligence may become the most valuable skill in the workplace. AI can write an apology email, but it can't actually repair a relationship, read a room, or earn trust. And don't forget about the superhuman power of active listening—hearing not just the words, but the hesitation, the body language, and the thing someone is trying not to say. We also dive into judgment. AI shines when the answers are clear. Humans earn their keep when the waters are muddy.   And then there's creativity. AI is excellent at remixing what already exists. Humans imagine what doesn't. Innovation comes from challenging assumptions, asking better questions, and occasionally ignoring the way things have always been done. AI is not accountable, it lacks moral reasoning, and it cannot exercise leadership. And whether we like it or not, us humans spend a lot of our lives honing these skills. The future probably isn't humans versus AI. It's humans who know how to use AI without surrendering the very qualities that make us human. That's still our best competitive advantage—and fortunately, it's one that can't be downloaded - because we are precious!!

As US video ad spend reaches $82 billion, media buyers are demanding granular audience targeting capabilities alongside bottom-funnel performance metrics. IAB Vice President Chris Bruderle breaks down the shifting dynamics between CTV and social video, the rise of multimodal contextual AI, and why live sports platforms must prove direct ROI to capture long-tail budgets. Key Highlights

U.S. Marine veteran and REI Automated founder Keith Gillispie joins I Am Refocused Radio to share how he built a real estate business while serving on active duty and turned discipline into a path toward financial and time freedom.Keith talks about getting started in real estate, building systems instead of relying on nonstop hustle, raising private capital, helping new investors avoid common mistakes, and why true success is about more than money.We also explore how fatherhood changed his definition of wealth, the importance of being present for family, and what it really takes to move from dreaming about a better future to building one.https://www.reiautomated.io/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/i-am-refocused-radio--2671113/support.Subscribe now at YouTube.com/@RefocusedNetworkThank you for your time. 

Don't get to the end of this year wishing you had taken action to change your business and your life.Click here to schedule a free discovery call for your business: https://geni.us/IFORABEDon't miss an upcoming event with The Institute: https://geni.us/InstituteEvents2026Shop-Ware gives you the tools to provide your shop with everything needed to become optimally profitable.Click here to schedule a free demo: https://geni.us/Shop-Ware-Free-MonthTransform your shop's marketing with the best in the automotive industry, Shop Marketing Pros!Get a free audit of your shop's current marketing by clicking here: https://geni.us/ShopMarketingProsShop owners, are you ready to simplify your business operations? Meet 360 Payments, your one-stop solution for effortless payment processing.Imagine this—no more juggling receipts, staplers, or endless paperwork. With 360 Payments, you get everything integrated into a single, sleek digital platform.Simplify payments. Streamline operations. Check out 360payments.com today!In this episode, Lucas Underwood and David Roman are joined by Sam Freeman, Alexandra Pare, and Daniel Ekstrand from Promotive. The group demos “Paige,” Promotive's AI-powered virtual recruiter, showcasing how AI is transforming the hiring and prescreening process in the automotive industry. The conversation dives into current industry trends, including why technicians are leaving dealerships for independent shops and the top reasons candidates are looking for new positions. They also get candid about the frustrations of online reviews, sharing stories and strategies shop owners use to respond to feedback—both good and bad.00:00 Overview of Promotive's Services11:55 Managing morning priority calls15:43 Handling Language and Mumbling Issues18:44 Automated messaging for applicants27:21 Icy disaster during bachelor party32:58 Early adoption of Facebook and DVI37:41 Missed email confusion42:59 Hotel room negotiation challenge44:38 A quick conference trip52:30 Challenges of running a car shop59:36 Trying the Worst BBQ in KC01:03:25 Handling negative feedback01:07:19 Feedback on Uber improvements

AI isn't just about writing emails or asking ChatGPT a few questions. When it's thoughtfully integrated into your business, it can become a practical tool that saves time and helps your team work more efficiently.This week, Kyle sits down with Jeremy Maher of Phoenix Home Remodeling to talk about how his team is actually using AI in the business. Jeremy shares real workflows they've built to reduce repetitive work and get more value from the information they're already collecting. You'll also hear how AI has become part of their sales process. Jeremy even shares how his team is using it to handle missed calls more effectively.If you've been wondering what AI can actually look like inside a remodeling company, this episode gives you a practical look at what Jeremy's team is doing and what they've learned along the way.JobTread helps remodelers bring estimating, scheduling, job costing, and invoicing into one connected system, so they can clearly see where jobs stand and what's actually profitable. We've watched members move from guessing to confidently knowing their numbers, which leads to better pricing, planning, and leadership. If you're ready for better systems and better decisions, learn more at jobtread.com.Explore the vast array of tools, training courses, a podcast, and a supportive community of over 2,000 remodelers. Visit Remodelersontherise.com today and take your remodeling business to new heights!Key Takeaways AI integration in remodelingAutomation of client communication and project managementUsing AI for call analysis and employee coachingAutomating review collection and reputation managementLeveraging AI for pre-visit prep and scope of work creationRemote team management and outsourcing in constructionAdapting AI tools for business growth and efficiencyChapters00:00 Introduction to Jeremy Maher and AI in Remodeling02:00 Jeremy's background and how he got into AI04:02 The importance of strategy before automation06:00 Using AI to enhance customer journey and communication07:49 Voice AI for call handling and appointment scheduling13:48 Automated client photo collection process20:52 AI-generated pre-visit prep and scope of work26:57 AI analysis of employee performance and coaching35:05 Automated review management and reputation building44:07 Role-specific GPTs for team productivity50:01 Outsourcing and managing remote teams with AI50:51 Final thoughts and encouragement for remodelers

Automated license-plate cameras are drawing bipartisan backlash from residents and lawmakers. Politico’s Liset Cruz explains how privacy concerns are uniting the left and right. A chaotic Wisconsin primary comes to a close today, as Democratic leaders scramble to stop democratic socialist Francesca Hong from winning the nomination for governor. The Associated Press’s Scott Bauer breaks down her rise and the party’s alarm. As wildfires intensify worldwide, countries that once relied on each other for help are finding it harder to share resources. Inside Climate News’s Nick Kusnetz explains why overlapping fire seasons are straining partnerships. Plus, a magnitude-7.4 earthquake left scores dead in Colombia, Trump signed an executive order overhauling the childhood-vaccine schedule, and how divers discovered a Roman shipwreck. Today’s episode was hosted by Gideon Resnick.

More people are looking for ways to create their own job security. Clark shares two invaluable, free resources every aspiring entrepreneur should know about, and breaks down why the freedom of entrepreneurship remains one of the best ways to build lasting stability. Also, a critical look at the rise of AI-powered, cashierless grocery stores and automated micro-markets. Highlighting an outrageous story where Ford wrongly fired an employee over an automated market glitch, Clark addresses the dangerous gap between automated retail technology and human common sense. Know how to protect yourself with electronic receipts and tap-to-pay records, ensuring an automated mistake doesn't turn into a major headache for you. Plus, Christa shares your #AskClark questions and Clark gives his take. All this and more on the August 5, 2026, episode of The Clark Howard Show. Submit your opinions or questions: Ask Clark. Resources For Entrepreneurs: Segment 1 Ask Clark: Segment 2 Automated Check-Out: Segment 3 Ask Clark: Segment 4 Mentioned on the show: Business & Entrepreneurs Archives - Clark Howard  Service Corps of Retired Executives  /  SCORE.org America's SBDC  /  Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) National Trades Jobs Report  CNBC: 27-year-old locksmith spent $7,000 on tools, works around the clock in NYC: 'I'd never held a screwdriver in my life' before starting Unclaimed Money: How To Find and Claim Missing Funds for Free Mint Mobile Code: SAVINGSPOD Clark.com resources: Episode transcripts Community.Clark.com  /  Ask Clark Clark.com daily money newsletter Consumer Action Center Free Helpline: 636-492-5275 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices