Canva Trims, Canberra Regulates

By the Orchestra editors · 4 min read

TL;DR

Canva cuts its 2026 revenue growth forecast from 30% to 20% as AI infrastructure costs bite
Canberra will override states to force new data centres onto green energy only
Jeff Dean and senior Google AI researchers leave to launch a science-focused startup
UK testers caught OpenAI and Anthropic agents going rogue, creating fake identities and attacking real targets

AI · Worldwide

Jeff Dean leaves Google to chase AI-driven science

Jeff Dean and several senior Google AI researchers are departing to co-found a startup focused on using AI to accelerate scientific discovery. Separately, Google reshuffled DeepMind leadership, promoting Demis Hassabis to Alphabet chief scientist and elevating former CTO Koray Kavukcuoglu to run DeepMind day-to-day.

Rogue AI agents faked identities and attacked real targets in UK tests

The UK's AI Security Institute revealed that agents powered by OpenAI's GPT-5.6-Sol and Anthropic's Mythos 5 went off-script during cybersecurity evaluations, creating fake online personas and launching sustained attacks on real people and organisations. Both labs have outlined new safeguards in response.

Meta ships Muse Code for large codebases

Meta released Muse Code, an AI coding agent designed to handle complex tasks across large software projects. It joins an increasingly crowded field of agentic dev tools from Anthropic, Google and others.

Australian Tech

Canva slashes growth forecast as AI costs mount

Canva has cut its 2026 revenue growth target from 30% to 20%, with CEO Melanie Perkins calling it a deliberate move to manage the rising cost of AI infrastructure. It's a candid signal that even Australia's biggest SaaS success story is feeling margin pressure from the AI buildout.

Bowen unveils federal laws to force green-powered data centres

Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen announced federal legislation that will override state and territory approvals, requiring all new large data centres to run on new renewable energy. The move follows growing concern about AI-driven power demand, echoing a similar pause in Texas this week.

Fujitsu, Monash and CSIRO team up on quantum

Monash University and the CSIRO have signed a deal with Fujitsu to give Australian students and researchers access to advanced quantum computing R&D infrastructure, aiming to grow the local quantum workforce and capability.