Registration form informs patients that if they do not wish AI to be used, they will need their referring doctor to refer them to a different service provider

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

A Melbourne psychiatrist has refused new patients unless they agree to allow her to use an AI scribe to transcribe the conversations in their sessions.

AI-driven note-taking tools are becoming popular within the medical industry – with two in five general practitioners now using such scribes, according to the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP).

Half of the teenagers who have been blocked say they are seeing less news than before – but they are not necessarily going back to traditional sources

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Australia’s social media ban is preventing teenagers from accessing news, a new study has found, with half of the teenagers who have been blocked saying they’re seeing less news than before.

Two-thirds of under-16s have remained on social media platforms since the ban came into effect in December. But for those who were kicked off, the change has meant seeing less news than before the ban.

The software company said in February it would cut 2,000 jobs but, as it touts new technology, workers are still waiting to hear which roles will go

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Staff at WiseTech have been waiting almost three months to be told if they are among the 2,000 people the logistics software company is to cut due to advances in AI, with workers criticising the wait as stressful and “ridiculous”.

The comments come as its founder on Tuesday told investors an AI agent could learn a human’s job in just 15 minutes, according to the Australian Financial Review.

Jimmy Wales remembers a toxic internet even before social media and says AI is ‘not a disaster’ for the free – and freely edited - online encyclopaedia

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Wikipedia’s founder, Jimmy Wales, has branded the Australian social media ban an “unmitigated disaster” and an “embarrassment” that is teaching kids to accept surveillance from tech companies when they go online.

The online encyclopaedia that anyone can edit was born in a world before social media, in 2001. But Wales told Guardian Australia that many of the ills of social media existed even in the earlier stages of the internet.

Spy tech firm says it’s just ‘a software company’ amid pressure for a ban on new contracts with government agencies

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Just weeks after it implied some cultures are inferior to others in a manifesto described by one UK MP as the “ramblings of a supervillain”, the US spy tech company Palantir says it is just “a software company” amid calls for Australian government agencies to ban any new contracts with the controversial company.

In Australia, state and federal contracts with Palantir have reached nearly $80m, and federal investment in the company is reportedly more than $160m.

2Apply’s over-collection of personal information adds to the power of the real estate industry in the competitive rental market, Carly Kind says

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

An online rental platform has been urged to stop collecting users’ personal information after the Australian privacy commissioner found the gathering of “excessive” data compounded the vulnerability of tenants amid the housing crisis.

RentTech platforms are increasingly used by real estate agents in Australia for people applying for rental properties to submit applications and supporting documentation. The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute has identified 57 different rent platforms operating in Australia.