Category: News
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The Economist: How to actually spot AI-written text
A new Economist study of nearly 56,000 sentences and 1.2 million words tested ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Grok against the publication’s own writing to find genuine markers of AI-generated text. Old assumptions don’t hold: the bots no longer overuse “delve,” and only Claude now uses more em dashes than humans. Instead, AI models favour long,…
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BN Daybreak: Record FSCA fines; New police bosses; US-China AI rivalries; Trump warns Iran
Listen here In today’s episode, we cover South Africa’s crowning as Africa’s ransomware capital and the FSCA’s record R2.8 billion in fines, including action against the Banxso deepfake scam. We also discuss the appointment of seasoned provincial police commissioners and new anti-corruption progress. Globally, we unpack President Trump’s tariff lawsuits, OpenAI’s security briefing following the…
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Dr Lennit Max: Non-racial, merit-based appointments of four new police commissioners
Listen here In his latest interview with Chris Steyn, former Western Cape Provincial Police Commissioner, Dr. Lennit Max hails the appointments of four new provincial commissioners. “This time around I am very pleased that the Acting National Commissioner in her wisdom decided that there’s merit among people of colour.” He points out that all four…
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Who digs Africa’s gold, who keeps it — and who could hold it?: Duarte da Silva
Africa now mines more gold than any other region on earth, yet almost none of the value stays on the continent, according to a new paper from Northbound Processing’s Dr Duarte da Silva. Roughly R580 billion worth of African gold is smuggled out undeclared each year, mostly to the UAE, while conflicts in Sudan and…
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China’s rare earths weapon is losing its bite as global supply expands: David Fickling
China has leaned on rare-earth export controls to strong-arm the US and Japan, but David Fickling argues the tactic is backfiring. Neodymium and praseodymium are now too widely mined to threaten, forcing Beijing to focus on scarcer heavy rare earths like dysprosium, terbium and samarium, long thought to exist only in one Chinese deposit. New…
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SA’s industrial masterplans are quietly protecting monopolies, not fixing them: Donald MacKay
XA Global Trade Advisors Director Donald MacKay argues South Africa’s sector masterplans, far from reviving struggling industries, are entrenching decades-old monopolies at consumers’ expense. With 69.5% of SA sectors highly concentrated according to the Competition Commission, MacKay says government-backed protection (anti-dumping duties, safeguards, and a maze of 110 import rebates) shields inefficient incumbents rather than…
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Can your portfolio handle inflated retirement costs?
By Dorothy Avvakoumides* Picture a ‘typical’ breakfast for two at home. Two slices of toast each, with cheese, plus two eggs and milk for your coffees or tea. Ordinary, unremarkable, the kind of thing you don’t think about twice. Until you look at what this daily routine will cost you in retirement. Whereas this breakfast…
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Madlanga fells another giant, but where should the buck stop?: John Matisonn
IDAC head Andrea Johnson resigned this week after the Madlanga Commission exposed a fabricated affidavit, an admitted cover-up of her closeness to suspended crime intelligence general Feroz Khan, and baseless charges against police commissioner Fannie Masemola. A leaked recording caught her mocking the commission and scheming to shield a key witness. John Matisonn argues this…
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ANC set to lose about 500 councillors in November local elections
This article was first published by The Common Sense Polling by The Common Sense shows the ANC’s support has slipped to 39%, down from 46% in 2021. Even accounting for the party’s usual advantage in converting votes into seats — a quirk of South Africa’s mixed ward/proportional system that has historically boosted the ANC’s seat share…
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‘Magnificent 7’ no more: the problem with stock nicknames
The “Magnificent Seven” tech giants have lost over $2 trillion in market value since June, as investors question whether massive AI spending will ever pay off. FT columnist John Plender argues these catchy market nicknames — from the Nifty Fifty to the Faangs — are more than marketing hype: they’re symptoms of momentum-driven bubbles where…
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BizNews Edge: Second prosecution boss falls at Madlanga Commission; ANC heads into a tough November
Two prosecution bosses down, and counting. The Madlanga Commission has just claimed its second casualty, and a leaked recording shows exactly how bad it got. Meanwhile fresh polling suggests the ANC is about to lose over 500 council seats, Interpol has crowned South Africa the ransomware capital of the continent, and the FSCA has landed…
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BN Daybreak: SA corruption probes; Trump’s Iran pause; SpaceX upcoming earnings, FIFA backlash
Listen here Today’s BizNews Daybreak examines Japan’s US-coordinated currency intervention, OPEC+ production increases, and energy lobby opposition to US biofuels legislation. South Africa’s corruption commission delivers unprecedented accountability, while Donald Trump pauses planned Iran strikes pending rapid talks. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 opens at 7,489 and SpaceX prepares for a high-stakes earnings call this Wednesday.…
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FSCA levies record R2.8bn fines – led by Banxso, Grobler plus 74 others
The FSCA’s latest Regulatory Actions Report, released on Friday, reveals a dramatic escalation in enforcement: R2.8bn in penalties across 76 people and entities, twenty-four times the prior year’s total. Banxso, the trading platform behind deepfake ads featuring Elon Musk and Johann Rupert, accounts for most of it – fined over R2bn after a whistleblower’s BizNews…
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AI is getting better at writing. Humans must get better at editing
Writing has always been a struggle – even for the greatest authors. But now artificial intelligence promises to remove the pain, producing words at a speed no human can match. As machines become increasingly skilled at mimicking our voices, a new question emerges: what happens to creativity, originality, and the craft of writing? Explore the…
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Ramaphosa finally forces Eskom to stop being referee and player
For a century, Eskom has generated South Africa’s electricity, owned the wires that carry it, and sold it to customers – a conflict of interest that helped produce the rolling blackouts we came to call load shedding. On Friday, President Ramaphosa endorsed a plan to finally separate the transmission grid into an independent operator, making…
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Lewis Group’s R88 share price doesn’t add up – good news for Ricardo Portfolio
Lewis Group’s furniture and appliance business just delivered a stellar year. Yet the shares still trade on a price-earnings multiple of roughly 5 times. That gap between performance and valuation is exactly what caught our eye for the Ricardo portfolio. Weighing net asset value, earnings power and dividend yield together, I’ve lifted our adjusted intrinsic…
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Amazon’s AI gamble pays off as cloud growth sends shares soaring
Amazon’s massive AI bet is starting to deliver results, sending shares soaring and reshaping expectations around the future of cloud computing. After months of investor questions over whether billions in spending would pay off, the tech giant has revealed new momentum that could change the conversation. With demand for artificial intelligence accelerating and its cloud…
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The NdB Sunday Show – The fall of Malema’s “Winnie” Johnson – and an Arab Spring brewing…
Listen here In this edition of the NdB Sunday Show, Chris Steyn and Jonathan Deal, the founder of Safe Citizen, talk about the fall of Investigations Directorate Against Organised Crime (IDAC) Chief Andrea Johnson – whom Economic Freedom (EFF) Fighter CIC Julius Malema likened to the late Winnie Mandela – and who was tipped to…
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August curse returns as Rand faces seasonal slump and policy uncertainty
August has long been the rand’s most unforgiving month, but this year the usual seasonal pressures are colliding with fresh uncertainty over South Africa’s monetary policy. A surprise Reserve Bank decision, shifting investor sentiment, and renewed expectations of higher US interest rates have left traders questioning whether the currency’s recent resilience can last. As foreign…
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When history rhymes: AI’s dangerous parallel with 2008 – John Authers
History may not repeat, but it often rhymes – and today’s AI boom is echoing a far more troubling chapter than the dot-com crash. As investors pour billions into artificial intelligence, growing debt, soaring infrastructure costs, and mounting pressure on cash flow are raising fears of a 2008-style credit bubble. This thought-provoking analysis explores why…