By Raffaele F Ciriello, Senior Lecturer in Business Information Systems, University of Sydney
Kathryn Backholer, Co-Director, Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition, Deakin University
OpenAI has announced plans to introduce advertising in ChatGPT in the United States. Ads will appear on the free version and the low-cost Go tier, but not for Pro, Business, or Enterprise subscribers.
The company says ads will be clearly separated from chatbot responses and will not influence outputs. It has also pledged not to sell user conversations, to let users turn off personalised ads, and to avoid ads for users under 18 or around sensitive topics such as health and politics.
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By Martin Brook, Professor of Applied Geology, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
Tragic slips in the Bay of Plenty highlight how geology, heavy rainfall and climate change are combining to amplify a largely hidden risk.
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By John Woinarski, Professor of Conservation Biology, Charles Darwin University
Euan Ritchie, Professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, School of Life & Environmental Sciences, Deakin University
Katherine Moseby, Professor of Conservation Biology, UNSW Sydney
Sarah Legge, Professor of Wildlife Conservation, Australian National University
Decades of evidence link foxes and feral cats with extinctions of Australian mammals. Claims these introduced predators aren’t responsible don’t stack up.
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By Angela Glindemann, PhD Candidate, Creative Writing, RMIT University
Authors Hannah Kent and Toni Jordan got their start through writers centre initiatives. If Victoria loses its centre, it will be the only mainland state without one.
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By Will de Freitas, Environment + Energy Editor, The Conversation
This roundup of The Conversation’s climate coverage was first published in our award-winning weekly climate action newsletter, Imagine.
“Observing Greenland from a helicopter,” one scientist wrote last year, “the main problem is one of comprehending scale. I thought we were skimming low over the waves of a fjord, before … realising what I suspected were floating shards of ice were in fact icebergs the size of office blocks. I thought we were hovering high in the sky over a featureless icy plane below, before bumping down gently onto ice only a few metres below us.”
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By Toby Newstead, Senior Lecturer in Management, University of Tasmania
Suze Wilson, Associate Professor, School of Management and Marketing Te Kahui Kahurangi, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa – Massey University
Five years ago, as Australia burned through the catastrophic Black Summer bushfires, then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison was photographed relaxing on a Hawaiian beach.
When he returned, his now-infamous words – “I don’t hold a hose, mate” – epitomised a crisis leadership approach that came across as being built on…
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By Jonathan Este, Senior International Affairs Editor, Associate Editor, The Conversation
This newsletter was first published in The Conversation UK’s World Affairs Briefing email. Sign up to receive weekly analysis of the latest developments in international relations, direct to your inbox.
Fears that Donald Trump’s newly minted “Board of Peace” might supplant the United Nations appear to have been premature. The US president has touted his brainchild as “an international organization” that aims to “secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict”.…
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By Anna Marie Brennan, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Waikato
Greenland is central to US Space Force strategies for orbital dominance. Laws and treaties designed to maintain the peace in space are looking increasingly outdated.
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image A vote in progress in the House of Representatives at Parliament House on January 20, 2026, in Canberra, Australia. © 2026 Hilary Wardhaugh/Getty Images This week, Australia passed new laws that expand government authority to ban hate groups and impose tougher penalties for hate crimes. The legislation is part of the government’s response to Sydney’s Bondi Beach mass shooting in December when two gunmen killed 15 people at celebrations for the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.States are obligated under international human rights law to protect people from racial…
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By Gemma Ware, Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The Conversation
Listen to Paul Bierman, an expert on Greenland’s ice, talk to The Conversation Weekly podcast about the history of the island’s ice sheet.
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