I really, really love AI. I love the opportunity for disruption it represents, and the way it evens the playing field in terms of access to the tools needed to build incredible things. If I had $20 billion, I’d invest in the companies leading the charge.

But guess what! I don’t have $20 billion! So let’s just read about people who do!

Bunnings has won the right to use AI facial recognition technology (FRT) in its stores to combat theft and staff abuse. 

The Administrative Review Tribunal partly overturned a 2024 ruling last week that Bunnings had breached customer privacy rights by using FRT between 2018 and 2022.

Here’s what to know.

FRT scans people’s faces and uses AI to identify individuals based on their unique facial structure. 

The technology is employed for a wide range of purposes.

Many personal devices use FRT to unlock, access certain apps or allow payment processing without the need to enter a password. 

It can also scan video footage to process large groups of people to quickly identify individuals out of a crowd.

Businesses have begun using it to identify perpetrators of theft, and police agencies have begun using it to assist with law enforcement.

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) found in 2024 that Bunnings’ use of FRT breached privacy laws by “collecting their personal and sensitive information.”

Between 2018 and 2021, Bunnings used FRT in over 60 stores in NSW and Victoria to check visitors against a database of known offenders.

If a match was found, the person would be monitored in the store for possible criminal activity or asked to leave the premises.

Bunnings said if no match was found the facial data would be deleted in under 5 milliseconds. 

The Review Tribunal partly reversed the 2024 decision last week, granting Bunnings an exception to use FRT in its stores for the purpose of combatting theft and staff abuse.

However, it upheld the OAIC’s ruling that Bunnings had violated privacy laws by failing to properly notify visitors when the technology was in use. 

Bunnings may continue to use the technology, as long as proper notice is given to visitors that the technology is in use, the Tribunal found. 

Bunnings claimed that 70% of theft or abuse incidents in 2024 were caused by the same small group of repeat offenders, and manually cross-checking each visitor was impossible.

The tribunal allowed the use of FRT when balanced against the public safety needs of combatting “significant” retail crime and staff and customer abuse. 

Reporting by Lachlan Keller.

The maker of the AI chatbot Claude, Anthropic, is set to close a $US20 billion ($AU28.4 billion) funding round this week, according to reporting from Bloomberg.

Anthropic initially sought $US10 billion at a valuation of $350 billion.

Here’s what you need to know.

Anthropic doubling its funding target reflects the significant investor interest in the AI sector, company sources speaking with Bloomberg said. 

The funding round was off to a good start, after Microsoft and semiconductor manufacturer Nvidia confirmed a $15 billion investment late last year.

Altimeter Capital Management and Sequoia Capital, who both invested in rival company OpenAI, are still expected to invest this round.

This funding round comes less than five months after Anthropic’s last round, which raised $13 billion at a $183 billion valuation.

Anthropic is behind one of the world's leading AI chatbots, Claude, which it released in mid-2023.

It is a competitor to OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT. (Claude had about 19 million users overall in the third quarter of 2025, while ChatGPT boasted 800 million).

Tech giants such as Amazon and Google's parent company, Alphabet, were early investors. 

The company has more than 300,000 business customers, mainly in the field of computer programming, where it has emerged as a market leader.

On Thursday it released an updated model of its bot Claude Opus, which can be used for financial services and research. 

The release came on the heels of the mid-January launch of Claude Cowork, a tool that can re-organise folders on users’ computers. 

Financial software stocks were rattled in the wake of the two releases, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq index falling 0.7% on Thursday.

Aside from Claude Opus, Anthropic offers other AI platforms, including Sonnet and Haiku, both of which focus on coding. 

Anthropic’s revenue more than doubled in the last year to end 2025 with $9 billion in earnings, according to Bloomberg.

Companies conduct multiple rounds of fundraising to raise capital to start and further grow the business. 

Early fundraising rounds are known as “seed funding,” while later ones undertaken to raise further capital are named after a letter of the alphabet, starting with A, then B, and so on. For instance, Anthropic’s latest round is a Series G round.

These are based on a new valuation of the company calculated at the time of the funding round. 

A company’s valuation is determined by analysing its financial statements to determine its current or projected value. 

The company initially sought $10 billion based on a $350 billion valuation, but gained so much interest from investors it seems it will secure double that amount.  

The earlier an investor backs the company, the better returns they are likely to get through share of revenue, or shares and dividends once the company is listed on a stock exchange.

That process is known as an Initial Public Offering (IPO).

According to the Financial Times, Anthropic has asked Silicon Valley law firm Wilson Sonsini to begin working on an IPO for 2026 as it races OpenAI to go public. Anthropic itself is yet to confirm whether it is working on an IPO, however.

A company with a billion-dollar valuation before going public is known as a “unicorn,” due to how rare it is. Anthropic’s latest round being valued at $350 billion demonstrates the level of interest in the AI sector.

Reporting by Lachlan Keller.

The mindset that matters most when investing:

Successful investing isn’t just about the numbers – it’s about how you think. Having a strong investor mindset helps you stay calm when markets move and avoid hype-driven decisions. Key things to focus on:

Want more tips? Listen to Episode 4 in Season 1 of the CommSec Invest podcast to find out more.

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Can’t seem to quit TikTok? You’re not alone!

TikTok has been warned by the European Commission it needs to overhaul the “addictive design” of its platform or face fines up to 6% of its global annual turnover.

The Commission said features like infinite scroll, autoplay and push notifications could harm the physical and mental wellbeing of users, especially children.

We polled the TDA office and 75% of us are trying to stay off TikTok because of how addictive it is!

Reporting by Lachlan Keller.