Amazon to invest $13 billion in Australia's data center infrastructure

BT CEO Allison Kirkby suggests more job cuts may be necessary as AI capabilities expand beyond the company's initial plan to eliminate 55,000 positions by 2030. The current restructuring, which aims to cut £3 billion in costs, may not fully account for AI's potential impact. At least 10,000 roles are already expected to be affected by automation and digitization, particularly in IT departments. The company has seen success with AI-powered chatbots in customer service and is using AI for network management. BT's approach is being viewed as an indicator of how AI might transform employment across the telecommunications industry.

Amazon is investing AU$20 billion (US$13 billion) in Australia's data center infrastructure from 2025-2029, its largest technology commitment to the country. The investment will expand server capacity for AI workloads and cloud computing, positioning Australia as a regional tech hub. Amazon will also support three new solar farms in Victoria and Queensland with 170 megawatts capacity. This move aligns with similar expansions by Microsoft and Google to meet growing AI demand while balancing technological advancement with sustainability commitments.

The artificial intelligence landscape is evolving rapidly with tools like ChatGPT and Writesonic transforming digital workflows. Organizations now prioritize monitoring systems and observability as AI becomes more agentic—capable of reasoning and acting independently. Human evaluation remains essential for assessing AI-generated content quality. Writesonic's SEO AI Agent represents a significant advancement, automating end-to-end SEO processes with comprehensive reporting capabilities. Industry experts anticipate continued investment in monitoring systems and further development of agentic AI, with organizations leveraging these technologies to improve automation, creative output, and compliance under human oversight.

Meta's $15B investment for a 49% stake in Scale AI has disrupted the AI industry, valuing the company at $29B. Scale CEO Alexandr Wang will lead Meta's "superintelligence" initiative while Scale transitions to new leadership under Jason Droege. The deal raises questions about Google's future access to Scale's data services, as Google is reportedly Scale's largest customer. While Scale remains technically independent, industry watchers question whether Meta will eventually restrict competitors' access to Scale's critical AI data annotation resources, potentially forcing Google and others to find alternative solutions.