Good morning. Here’s what happened overnight and what you need to know today.
1.
Comyn clean: Commonwealth Bank boss Matt Comyn warned that AI will trigger job losses across the bank and the economy, writing in an editorial that “at CBA, as in many large organisations, some work will be done by smaller teams,” and that “pretending otherwise does not protect workers. It only ensures they are surprised later.” Comyn, who employs about 55,000 staff, made the remarks ahead of a CBA AI conference in Sydney on Tuesday, where he will interview OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman. Comyn also said that some career paths would “steepen as people use AI to take on more complex work sooner.” CBA will also roll out a new customer-facing AI tool called Companion, being tested in its retail banking app and for business customers, allowing customers to ask questions about their finances with AI agents responding to queries, the AFR reported. CBA has a $90 million Future Workforce Program and is investing $2.4 billion annually in technology, Comyn said, at least $500 million more each year than other major Australian banks. The comments come after CBA last year became the first bank to directly link redundancies to AI, announcing it would cut 45 call centre roles because of a new voicebot system, before reversing the decision after pressure from the Finance Sector Union and customer pushback. Comyn also waded into the copyright debate, saying the government does not need to choose between protecting creative industries and attracting AI investment. “The goal is not to choose between creators and technology,” he said. “It is to protect rights, support Australian content and give Australia more influence over the systems people and businesses will rely on.” (AFR)
2.
Trump pressure: Donald Trump escalated his Middle East diplomacy on Monday, demanding Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan join the Abraham Accords as a condition of any Iran peace deal. The US president said on Truth Social that negotiations with Iran were “proceeding nicely” but that it “should be mandatory” for those countries to simultaneously sign the accords. He said the process “should start with the immediate signing by Saudi Arabia and Qatar,” warning that countries that refused “should not be part of this Deal in that it shows bad intention.” He confirmed he raised the Abraham Accords with leaders of those countries during a phone call on Saturday. Pakistan rejected the proposal outright, with a source familiar with the matter telling Reuters the two issues were “not interlinked and cannot be made so” and that “Pakistan is under no compulsion to adhere to any such demand.” Saudi Arabia and Qatar had not responded publicly at the time of writing. Axios reported earlier that Arab leaders seemed surprised by the demand during Saturday’s call, with an official telling the publication there was silence on the line before Trump joked and asked if they were still there. (Capital Brief)(Donald Trump)(Axios)(Bloomberg)(Reuters)
