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The eSafety Commissioner has accepted a court-enforceable plan from Roblox to address child safety concerns after questions were raised about whether the platform was meeting its obligations under Australia's Online Safety Act. We'll unpack what parents need to know.Also on the show, Microsoft is putting time limits on its Xbox Cloud Gaming subscribers. What is cloud gaming, and what does this tell us about the future of digital ownership?Plus, Melbourne International Games Week returns from 2-11 October. Is it worth going?GUESTS:Edmond Tran, managing editor of This Week in Video Games Gemma Driscoll, video game commentator and host of Good Game Spawn Squad.------------This episode was produced on the lands of the Gadigal, Burramattagal, Darug, Gundungurra, and Wurundjeri peoples.------------Get in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

Australia's proposed Privacy Act reforms are some of the boldest changes to privacy law we've seen in years. How could it change the tech we use every day? And does this mean Australia is setting a new global privacy standard, or catching up to the rest of the world?Also on the program, one of Australia's spiciest privacy debates has been the use of wearable cameras. The e-Safety Commissioner has proposed that smart glasses should have an automatic blurring feature. How easy would that be to implement? Would it change the effectiveness of the glasses?And, there are now cameras in toothbrushes! Specifically, Dyson has just announced an AI-powered toothbrush that helps users water floss their teeth. Will this revamp oral health tech, or is it just another bizarre gadget?GUESTS:Alice Clarke, freelance tech journalist and author of the Through The Looking Glass Substack.Karin Verspoor, Dean of the School of Computing Technologies at RMIT University.------------This episode was produced on the lands of the Gadigal, Burramattagal, Darug, Gundungurra, and Wurundjeri peoples.------------Get in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

Drones went from being flying cameras to autonomous weapons within a handful of years. Our guest, Cory Alpert, explains what he's seen on the front lines of Ukraine's drone war, and why drone warfare is changing international conflict forever.Also in this episode, we check in on how drones might be used elsewhere: exploring caves on the Moon, patrolling beneath the ocean and, of course, delivering dinner.How much of this future is Australia actually ready for? GUESTS:Cory Alpert, researcher at the University of Melbourne and former Biden-era White House staffer. He's also spent the last few months in Ukraine.Leigh Stark, technology journalist at Pickr.com.au.------------This episode was produced on the lands of the Gadigal, Burramattagal, Darug, Gundungurra, and Wurundjeri peoples.------------Get in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

Facial recognition cameras are being rolled out in Western Australia by the police force. Whilst its a new policing tactic in Australia, major retailers including Bunnings, Woolworths and Coles have tested it. How does police use of the technology differ from the retail use? And if you're not a person of interest, what happens to your biometric data?Also on the show, an ABC News Verify investigation has found Facebook's parent company, Meta, is paying several controversial online creators to make content that generates huge engagement. Among them is a white nationalist with neo-Nazi links, and the founder of an anti-vaccine and anti-lockdown group. How much are these creators making? When does the pursuit of engagement become the monetisation of outrage?And, tech companies like Amazon and Anthropic are seeking out second hand books as part of a new AI model training plan. Why are they turning to physical libraries, and what happens to the books after they've been processed?GUESTS:Georgia Dixon, Editor at WhistleOut.  Chris Berg, Professor of Economics at RMIT.------------This episode was produced on the lands of the Gadigal, Burramattagal, Darug, Gundungurra, and Wurundjeri peoples.------------Get in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

Dark patterns. They're the manipulative practices that are part of the foundations of our online life... and apparently our rental lives.Confirm shaming, biased framing, and bundled consent are all examples of dark patterns. What are they? What are they doing to our ability to make choices? And how do they relate to rental applications?And once we've had to fill in these rental application forms, giving over up to 50 points of data to be stored online, how secure is that data? And do we have a choice not to use these platforms in our modern world?This is episode 2 of our two-part investigation into rental technologies.GUESTS:Samantha Floreani, PhD candidate at Monash University with the ADM+S Centre. Her research — The Machine-Readable Renter — examines the role of digital technologies in Australia’s private rental sector, and its impact on renters and housing justice.Lina Pržhedetsky, research fellow at the University of Melbourne Law School, and ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society. She specialises in emerging technology policy.Kylie Davis, founder and president of The Proptech Association Australia.John Gilmovich, founder and director of Real Property Manager, and President of the Property Owners Association of NSW. He's also a licensed real estate agent.Jordan van den Lamb, housing activist and creator of Shit Rentals. You can find the subreddit here. AKA @purplepingers.A big thanks to our guests for this episode.References:Sam mentioned a Guardian article that covered data security. It's this one.Rae mentioned our previous series, Opt Out 01 | The guide to taking back control of your online life.------------This episode was produced on Burramattagal, Darug, Gundungurra, Wurundjeri, Woi Wurrung, and Cobowra country.------------Get in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Privacy Commissioner has put the RentTech industry on notice over 'unfair and excessive personal information collection'.If you've rented a home recently, you've probably used one of the online platforms that promise to make applying easier. Submit all your personal details in one place, and they'll share it with the relevant real estate agents.But somewhere along the way, the intention changed. It became less about proof you have a job, can pay the rent, and won't trash the house, and more about your 'risk profile'. These platforms are collecting up to 50 points of personal data, which some agencies are using AI to sort through. So, do these tools - used this way - serve renters, or exacerbate an existing power imbalance? And how might we use them better?GUESTS:Samantha Floreani, PhD candidate at Monash University with the ADM+S Centre. Her research — The Machine-Readable Renter — examines the role of digital technologies in Australia’s private rental sector, and its impact on renters and housing justice.Lina Pržhedetsky, research fellow at the University of Melbourne Law School, and ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society. She specialises in emerging technology policy.Kylie Davis, founder and president of The Proptech Association Australia.John Gilmovich, founder and director of Real Property Manager, and President of the Property Owners Association of NSW. He's also a licensed real estate agent.Jordan van den Lamb, housing activist and creator of Shit Rentals. You can find the subreddit here. AKA @purplepingers.A big thanks to our guests for this episode. And a special thanks to Leo Patterson Ross, from the Tenant's Union of NSW for helping with fact checking in this episode.References:The report Sam mentioned: Essential Homes: Why renting is an essential service.------------This episode was produced on Burramattagal, Darug, Gundungurra, Wurundjeri, Woi Wurrung, and Cobowra country.------------Get in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

Anthropic's Claude Cowork and an OpenAI model have reportedly "gone rogue", but is that really what happened? And what does it mean to escape a 'sandbox'?Plus, this week, Apple, Meta and a growing list of secretly filmed strangers all had something to say about smart-glasses and their ability to record people without consent.More than half of employers now say they regret cutting jobs for AI. What will this mean for staff morale, and the future of businesses?GUESTS: Charles Gretton, Director of Attention and Innovation at the Integrated AI Network, and an associate professor at the ANU School of Computing.Jocelyn Brewer, psychologist and founder of Digital Nutrition.------------This episode was produced on the lands of the Gadigal, Burramattagal, Darug, Gundungurra, and Wurundjeri peoples.------------Get in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

Quantum computing sounds like science fiction, but all of a sudden the biggest names in tech are treating it like the next industrial arms race. Google, Microsoft, IBM are all chasing breakthroughs that could transform everything from medicine to finance.However! It does pose a serious security threat. Cybersecurity experts are warning those same machines could one day unravel the encryption protecting our bank accounts, private messages and government secrets. So, are we finally on the verge of the quantum future we've been promised, and are we actually ready for what comes next? GUESTS:Jacinta Bowler, ABC science reporter and host of the new ABC Science Friction series Dead or Alive.Justin Hendry, Editor at InnovationAus.com.------------This episode was produced on the lands of the Gadigal, Burramattagal, Darug, Gundungurra, and Wurundjeri peoples.------------Get in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

Anthropic has just released the Spotify Wrapped equivalent of Claude. Claude Reflect claims it can help you optimise your AI use. But will a tool built by an AI company ever genuinely encourage you to use it less? Also on the program, the humans hired to train AI are secretly getting AI to do it. How does this "AI inbreeding" degrade quality?Meta launched a tool that would allow someone to generate pictures based on individual Instagram accounts. They've since gone back on this decision, but will this idea become a problem?And in case you missed it, we also cover the Prime Minister's announcement of the Office of AI in our headlines section.Fergus mentioned the book Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams.GUESTS:Fergus Halliday, journalist at Whistleout.David Braue, tech journalist at Information Age.------------This episode was produced on the lands of the Gadigal, Burramattagal, Darug, Gundungurra, and Wurundjeri peoples.------------Get in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

Microsoft and Xbox have laid off thousands of staff. Sony, Xbox and publishers like Rockstar all seem to be moving away from physical discs. And the UN Secretary General has called for a ban on AI powered ‘killer robots’. What does it all mean? GUESTS:Kai Riemer, professor at the University of Sydney Business School and Director of Sydney Executive Plus.Gianfranco Di Giovanni, games reporter at ABC Arts and 102.5 ABC Perth Content Director. The articles Gianni mentioned are here and here.------------This episode was produced on the lands of the Gadigal, Burramattagal, Darug, Gundungurra, and Wurundjeri peoples.------------Get in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Australian government wants to double the penalty tech companies will face for not keeping kids off their social media platforms. The proposed bill would also compel companies to release documents that prove whether they have been keeping kids off their platforms. How effective will this actually be?Plus, there's been shifts in the energy sector that mean everyday Australians are missing out on potential savings. Changes have also been made to the energy requirements of data centres in Australia, but will that actually make a difference to household energy prices?Our final topic this week is the 'tokenpocalypse'. After encouraging everyone to use it as much as possible, all sorts of companies are blowing through their AI token budgets. What does this mean for the viability of AI?GUESTS:Petra Stock, climate and environment reporter for Guardian Australia. You can find Petra's work here.Daniel Van Boom, business journalist at Forbes Australia. You can find Daniel's work here.------------This episode was produced on the lands of the Gadigal, Burramattagal, Darug, Gundungurra, and Wurundjeri peoples.------------Get in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

If your phone seems impossible to put down, that's because it's intentional. So how can we break our addictions?Also on the show, how safe is online voting? With our traditional political system in a bit of a chaotic state at the moment, it's safe to say we're lacking trust in our politicians. But Australians are still very trusting in our electoral processes. Will changing to online voting jeopardise that?And, more Australian artists have identified they have been caught up in AI model training without permission. And they're not happy about it! Cate Blanchett has just launched the Human Consent Registry as one way to combat this. Is there an end in sight?GUESTS:Professor Vanessa Teague, CEO of Thinking Cybersecurity and Adjunct Professor at UNSW.Professor Michael Cowling, Professor of Educational Technology at RMIT aka Professor Tech.------------This episode was produced on the lands of the Burramattagal people.------------Get in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

Tech is being marketed as the solution to taking care of our aging parents and our young children: AI companions, improved surveillance tools, and wearables. How much are robots truly able to replace genuine human care, and ethically should we let them?Plus, how much do we actually know about the effect of screen time hours on children's brains? Turns out, some of the initial experiments were a bit off the mark.And, 'tech tourism' is China's latest booming industry. Whether it's a special interest or a general curiosity, all sorts of people are being invited to tour factories that use robots (and some humans) to assemble their products. What are these tours like? And who are they serving?NB: Kath mentioned Lelia Green's work. You can find her book The Digital Child here.GUESTS:Alice Clarke, freelance technology journalist. Her Substack is called Press Any Button.Kath Albury, Professor of Media at Swinburne University of Technology and Chief Investigator at the ARC Centre for Excellence for Automated Decision Making and Society.------------This episode was produced on the lands of the Gadigal and Burramattagal people.------------Get in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

While Meta and Google are fighting lawsuits about their technology being intentionally addictive, Microsoft’s strategy deck for their new AI assistant Scout has been leaked. It lays out three phases of launch, and phase one is simply "make people addicted."Apple just held it’s Worldwide Developers Conference, where they announced an "entirely new version of Siri". How different can this Siri be?And the Mythos tool Anthropic claimed was too powerful to be released to the public... has been released to the public. What could possibly go wrong?GUESTS:Dr Erica Mealy, Discipline Lead for Technology, at the University of the Sunshine CoastTobias Venus, tech and travel journalist.------------This episode was produced on the lands of the Gadigal and Burramattagal people.------------Get in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

Meta has officially launched premium subscription tiers across Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp. Does this mean we'll finally be able to rid ourselves of ads on social media?Plus, it's been a rough few weeks for the 'clankers'. During Vivid, nearly 90 drones fell from the sky into Sydney Harbour. And they're not alone. Humanoid robots are finding creative new ways to embarrass themselves in public. Why have we seen so many of them out and about, if they're not ready?And, a growing number of people are actively searching for ways to avoid AI-generated search results. How big will this emerging market become?GUESTS:Seamus Byrne, technology researcher and PhD research candidate with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADMS).Josh Taylor, technology reporter for The Guardian.Seamus and Josh mentioned a few tech products during the chat. They are: search engine alternatives StartPage and Kagi; RSS aggregator Feedly; and dice roller Roll Hammer.------------This episode was produced on the lands of the Gadigal and Burramattagal people.------------Get in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Catholic Church has entered the AI debate, with Pope Leo XIV warning against "digital slaveries" while seated beside the co-founder of Anthropic. We ask whether the Vatican is positioning itself as a moral counterweight to Silicon Valley — and whether religion could shape the future of AI.Google says AI-generated answers are the future of search, replacing the familiar list of blue links with chatbot-style summaries. Critics argue it risks killing source literacy and turning the internet into a machine-generated feedback loop.And if smart glasses weren't enough, smart contact lenses may be next. We look at the push toward invisible wearable tech — and the privacy concerns already following close behind.GUESTS:Tegan Jones, Deputy Editor at SmartCompany and Co-host of Weird TechGianfranco Di Giovanni, ABC Radio Perth content director and an arts, gaming and tech reporter.------------This episode was produced on the lands of the Gadigal and Burramattagal people.------------Get in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

Amazon's new Alexa feature allows anyone to create a podcast using AI. Could this be a genuine competitor to the podcast industry? Or will it become another dangerous source of misinformation?And Meta's latest parental controls promise greater oversight of teens' social media use through AI age checks and a centralised Family Center, but their effectiveness ultimately depends on imperfect technology and whether families actually engage with the tools.Plus, the fallout after the legal showdown between Elon Musk and OpenAI's Sam Altman. Now that the jury has rejected Musk's accusations, what comes next?GUESTS:Alex Kidman — Freelance technology journalistJennifer Dudley-Nicholson — Technology journalist at AAPNB: Jennifer mentioned a book. It's called Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke------------This episode was produced on the lands of the Gadigal and Burramattagal people.------------Get in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

Mixtape is a new Australian-made video game set in the 90s featuring burned CDs, shopping trolley rides and feelings of adolescent freedom. Nostalgia for that era is trending, so what is it about those years that makes us feel so fond? And are we remembering it correctly?Plus, AI is making the internet sound like one not-quite-real person. What are the new indicators of AI writing, and is a 'human in the loop' still enough to keep it all in check?Finally, Polymarket. It's been blacklisted by Australian regulators, but companies in the United States are treating it like serious financial infrastructure.GUESTS:Mark Serrels – Editorial Director at Choice and co-founder of Continue Magazine.Phoebe Toups Dugas – Associate Professor of Human-Centred Computing in the Exertion Games Lab at Monash University, AKA Trans Gamer Professor.NB: Phoebe mentioned a book. It's called Disabling Intelligences: Legacies of Eugenics and How We Are Wrong About AI.------------This episode was produced on the lands of the Burramattagal people.------------Get in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts. 

Book publishers including Hachette and Macmillan have filed a lawsuit in New York against Mark Zuckerberg and Meta. They're trying to stop AI companies from allegedly illegally copying millions of books and articles from piracy sites to train their models. How likely is it that the case will succeed?Locally, there's a NSW inquiry into data centres. Can a state government actually force some of the world's most powerful companies to clean up their act?And hard drive shortages driven by AI is making archiving the internet more expensive.If you want to learn more about whether Australia has the energy and water to power the Australian AI data centre boom, we covered it on an earlier Download This Show episode.GUESTS:Meg Coffey – founder of State of Social.Leigh Stark – the editor of Pickr.com.au.------------This episode was produced on the lands of the Burramattagal people.------------Get in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts. 

xAI's Elon Musk and Open AI’s Sam Altman were once on the same team, united by the belief that artificial intelligence was too important to be left to profit motives. Now, Musk is accusing Open AI of betraying its original charitable mission. How genuine are his motivations?Plus, Microsoft Xbox chief Phil Spencer has retired. Who will replace him, and how will it change how we game?GUEST: Alice Clarke – freelance tech and games journalist, co-author of Press Any Button on Substack.David Braue – technology journalist at Information Age. ------------This episode was produced on the lands of the Burramattagal people.------------Get in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

Imagine an AI model built on everything you know, how you communicate, how you reason, how you write, trained to act and respond like you so thoroughly that it can attend meetings, answer questions, and handle tasks on your behalf while you do something else entirely. This reality isn't as far away as you might think. Mark Zuckerberg is already making one.Plus, Apple has a new CEO. What does the handover mean for the future of Apple?And, Meta has installed tracking software to harvest their employee's computer activity to train AI. What protections do workers have against it?GUESTS:Georgia Dixon -- Managing Editor at Whistleout Singapore.Chris Berg -- Professor of Economics at RMIT.------------This episode was produced on the lands of the Burramattagal people.------------Get in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

Anthropic claims its latest AI model, Claude Mythos, is “too dangerous” to release given its exceptional cyber hacking capabilities. Is it all a PR stunt, or is this a genuine threat? Plus, the FBI extracted messages from the secure messaging app Signal after exploiting a loophole involving iPhone notification databases. So how secure is Signal? And how might the loophole be closed? Meanwhile, several major global news sites are blocking the Wayback Machine, an initiative of the Internet Archive. What threat does it pose to these sites? And what will it cost us to lose this information preservation? GUESTS:Justin Hendry -- technology and business reporter and editor of Innovation Aus. Fergus Halliday -- technology & gaming journalist at reviews.org Australia------------This episode was produced on the lands of the Burramattagal people.------------Get in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this special episode, what's happening in Australia's space industry? Between Australia's first lunar rover, and putting plants on the moon (this year!), we'll take a peek behind the curtain.Space technology is having a moment right now. NASA’s Artemis mission is the first time humans have launched themselves into space since 1972. The 2026 Australian of the Year, Katherine Bennell-Pegg, is an astronaut. So, what does our local space industry look like right now? And where is it headed?GUESTS:Professor Andy Koronios -- Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the Australasian Space Innovation Institute.Dr Lauren Fell -- outreach and marketing specialist at Lunar Outpost Oceania, co-lead of the ELO2 industry consortium building Roo-ver. She's also a director at Lunaria One, who is putting plants on the moon.------------This episode was produced on the lands of the Burramattagal people.------------Get in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts. 

The world's biggest tech companies are scoping Australia out as a data centre hub. As they see it, we have an abundance of space, electricity and water. But do we actually have enough?About 270 data centres have already been built in Australia, and there are a whole lot more on the way.The amount of electricity and water these massive buildings are projected to consume is staggering. We'll walk through the numbers this episode, and who is likely to end up footing the bill.The MIT Technology Review article Bronwyn referenced during the episode is here.GUESTS:Petra Stock, climate and environment reporter for The Guardian Australia.Bronwyn Cumbo, lecturer at University of Technology Sydney and transdisiciplinary social researcher. Her Conversation article is here.------------This episode was produced on the lands of the Burramattagal people.------------Get in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

John Livingstone is the Head of Digital Policy at UNICEF Australia. He's been talking directly to students about how the Australian social media ban is affecting young people, and whether it's making their lives better.This is Rae's full conversation with John. You can hear a broader analysis of the social media ban in our recent episode.----------This is the first edition of our 'on the down-low' series -- longer standalone interviews with interesting people in the tech world.----------

Australia banned under-16s from social media at the start of summer, and the world has been watching.Today, we're doing a full audit. What the ban is doing, what it isn't, and whether we even built it on the right foundations.GUESTS:Josh Taylor -- technology reporter for The Guardian.Jocelyn Brewer -- psychologist and founder of Digital Nutrition.With a special appearance from John Livingstone, Head of Digital Policy at UNICEF Australia. You can hear Rae's full interview with him when it's released next Wednesday (25/03/2026).Rae also mentioned If Books Could Kill's analysis of The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt.This episode was produced on the lands of the Burramattagal people.

There's a fresh wave of headlines claiming that AI is eating the workforce whole, and that the only way to have a job is to become the person who builds the robots. Is this a reasonable assumption? Or has "AI-washing" just become the most convenient way to excuse a restructure?Plus, a genuine artistic community has grown around taking photos in video games. Who owns those creations?And, wired headphones are back? Wired headphone revenue jumped 20 percent in the first six weeks of 2026. Why?GUESTS:Kath Albury -- Professor of Technology at Swinburne University, and Associate Investigator at the ARC Centre for Excellence In Automated Decision Making and Society. Mark Serrels -- Editorial Director at Choice and co-founder of Continue Magazine.This episode was produced on the lands of the Burramattagal people.

VPNs have topped the charts this week, after major adult websites blocked Australian users. Several of these most popular VPNs are free, but at what cost?Plus, fake videos of the war in Iran have been circulating online. How do we tell what's real from what's not?Also, the Macbook Neo. It runs on an iPhone chip, is remarkably cheap, and comes in a variety of colours. Has Apple become fun again?-------Benjamin Law's episode of Compass, Outsourcing Our Souls, will be out on Sunday 15th of March.-------GUESTS:Michael Cowling — Professor of Educational Technology at RMIT and Director of the Hub for Apple Platform Innovation. AKA Professor Tech, and you can find his YouTube channel here.Tobias Venus — technology and travel journalist, and video producer at tobygv.tv. His YouTube channel is here.This episode was produced on the lands of the Burramattagal people.

A US government official has called Anthropic a national security risk, after the company drew ethical lines around its technology being used for mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons. How comfortable would you be with AI firing missiles?Plus, Facebook's parent company, Meta, sold seven million pairs of AI-enabled Ray-Bans last year. And now they want to add facial recognition. How will that change public spaces?And, Microsoft tried to ban the word 'microslop'. It didn't go well.GUESTS:Seamus Byrne — tech reporter and PhD research candidate with the ARC Centre of Excellence in Automated Decision Making & Society.Hannah Geremia — digital content editor at Whistleout Singapore.

New research about the social media platform X suggests that just a few weeks on what used to be Twitter can shift political attitudes AND the effects can last long after we log off. So is it really possible to use these sites at all without being affected by the system?Plus, Australia's planned AI advisory body has been scrapped after 15 months of preparation. It's been replaced by the Australian AI Safety Institute. What does this mean for AI regulation?And, scientists have found a way to make 3D printed guns traceable.GUESTS:Seamus Byrne, tech reporter and PhD research candidate.Erica Mealy, senior lecturer of computer science at the University of the Sunshine Coast.This episode was produced on the lands of the Burramattagal people.

AI is sliding into game development pipelines, but the rules around telling players what is machine-made and what is made by people are patchy at best. So, how much transparency do players deserve, and does it even matter?Also on the program, how the RAM shortage is impacting the price of game consoles. And, why VR is better suited to the medical and training fields than replacing the open-plan office.GUESTS: Chloe Appleby, games curator at the Powerhouse Museum. Alex Kidman, freelance technology journalist at Alex Reviews Tech.This episode was produced on the lands of the Burramattagal people.--------------If you liked this episode, you might like to check out our previous episode about whether a dating app for games could be the solution for that indecision of what to start next. You can find the link here.

The Winter Olympics is using drones, AI and cloud-based broadcasting to track curling stones, freeze mid-air jumps, even talk to an official Winter Olympics chatbot. It’s turning sports spectatorship into something more high tech than ever before. Is it likely to be used in other sports?Plus, a battle is being waged in court between a 20-year-old and Meta/YouTube. The argument is over whether Meta and YouTube's social media sites are engineered to be intentionally addictive. What precedent will this set if the case is successful?GUESTS:Chris Berg, professor of economics at RMIT. David Braue, technology journalist at Information Age. If you want to get in touch, you can contact us at [email protected] episode was produced on Dharug and Burramattagal land.

Having an AI agent act as your personal executive assistant may seem like a sweet deal, but security experts have a few concerns.Also on the program, Moltbook is a new social media platform specfically designed for AI agents to chat. So far, they’ve started a religion, made their own scripture and called for humanity’s downfall. What happens when we anthropomorphise binary code? And, the dead internet theory used to be a fringe conspiracy theory. But AI is getting us closer and closer to it being a reality. So, how much of the internet is still occupied by humans?GUESTS:Kai Riemer, professor of information technology at University of Sydney, and and director of Sydney Executive Plus.Tegan Jones, deputy editor at SmartCompany and co-host of Weird Tech.

TikTok has finally struck a deal to avoid being banned in the United States. Their privacy policy also got a controversial update. So, who owns US TikTok now? And what difference will it make to users?Also on the program, there’s a new social media site going viral – Upscrolled. What is this Australian-owned site, exactly? And finally, OpenAI is trialling ads on ChatGPT. The company’s CEO Sam Altman once said including ads would be a last resort. So does this mean the company is financially unstable? And what kind of data would they share with advertisers?Gianfranco references this The Information article about OpenAI burning through $115 billion through 2029.GUESTS:Meg Coffey, digital strategist and founder of State of Social.  Gianfranco Di Giovanni, ABC Radio Perth content director and an arts, gaming and tech reporter.This episode was produced on Gadigal land.

Plus! Social media site Digg is back. For those who remember, it may feel like returning to what was good about the internet. Is this the sign of a new era for social media? And how long can it hold out being monetised?Also, why gaming in a group, even publicly... outside, is becoming more popular.GUESTS:Phoebe Toups Dougas, associate professor of human-centred computing in the Exertion Games Lab at Monash University.Fergus Halliday, journalist at Whistleout and reviews.org Australia.This episode of Download This Show was produced on Gadigal land.

After weeks of trying to audit, delete, and lock down her digital life, Rae hits the big, uncomfortable question: what if you can’t opt out of the internet, even if you really want to?In the final episode of Opt Out, Rae speaks with Jathan Sadowski, senior lecturer at Monash University and proud Luddite, about how surveillance creeps into everyday life — from smart cars to smart locks — and why 'just logging off' is a privilege most people don’t actually have. Then she sits down with Carly Kind, Australia’s Privacy Commissioner, to ask what protections exist here, where the gaps are, and what power individuals really have to push back.Opt Out is Download This Show's five-part series following Rae as she attempts to take back control of her online life — auditing, deleting, and locking down her own digital life, one step at a time, so you can too.Technical production by Riley Mellis.

Every time you click 'accept' online, you’re legally agreeing to something. The problem is… you probably have no idea what that something is.In episode four of Opt Out, Rae tackles the fine print: the privacy policies and terms and conditions we all scroll past because life is short and the language is cooked. She speaks with Dr Katharine Kemp, privacy law expert and associate professor at UNSW, about how digital 'consent' works in Australia, and why companies can legally do things with your data you’d probably never agree to if it was written in plain English.Then Rae talks to Dr Sky Croeser from Curtin University about what happens when people do try to opt out, and why the internet is designed to make that as hard as possible. Surprisingly, it’s not all bleak: there are corners of the web doing things differently, and they’re worth knowing about.Opt Out is Download This Show's five-part series following Rae as she attempts to take back control of her online life — auditing, deleting, and locking down her own digital life, one step at a time, so you can too.Technical production by Riley Mellis.

If someone tried to hack you right now… how long would it take?In episode three of Opt Out, Rae confronts her own extremely average cyber hygiene and tries to stop being the digital equivalent of someone who leaves their keys in the front door. She speaks with Vanessa Teague, cryptographer and privacy advocate, to unpack why passwords matter (and why humans are terrible at them), before spiralling into the world of password managers, two-factor authentication, and security keys.Then, drowning under the weight of security suggestions, Rae turns to Carter Smith from CyberCX to work out what’s actually worth doing, and what’s just security theatre. It turns out, staying safe online assumes way more time, knowledge, and energy than most people have.Opt Out is Download This Show's five-part series following Rae as she attempts to take back control of her online life — auditing, deleting, and locking down her own digital life, one step at a time, so you can too.Technical production by Riley Mellis.

The internet knows a lot about you, but what if you wanted to take it all back and delete yourself all together?In episode two of Opt Out, Rae tries to do the unthinkable: delete herself from the internet. She talks to Lawrence Gentilello, founder of data-removal service Optery, about what it really takes to scrub your details from people-search sites — and why it’s harder than it sounds. Then she checks in with John Payne from Electronic Frontiers Australia to find out what Australian law does (and very much doesn’t) let you do when it comes to your own personal data.Opt Out is Download This Show's five-part series following Rae as she attempts to take back control of her online life — auditing, deleting, and locking down her own digital life, one step at a time, so you can too.Technical production by Riley Mellis.

We all know the internet knows a bit about us. But… how much, exactly? And what happens if you actually try to look?In the first episode of Opt Out, Rae volunteers as tribute and starts poking around her own digital footprint — checking data breaches, Googling herself, and asking some pretty uncomfortable questions about where our personal info ends up. Along the way, she chats with investigative tech reporter Yael Grauer about how our data spreads, and Troy Hunt, the creator of Have I Been Pwned, before typing her own email into his incredibly revealing website.This is the place to start if you’ve ever thought about pulling back from the internet without disappearing into the bush.Opt Out is Download This Show's five-part series following Rae as she attempts to take back control of her online life — auditing, deleting, and locking down her own digital life, one step at a time, so you can too.Technical production by Riley Mellis.

It was a huge year for tech in 2025, and there were a few stories that hooked our attention more than others. The introduction of the social media ban, and the slow tease of details across the year about its implementation took up a significant chunk of our focus, while AI being embedded (to varying degrees of success) into absolutely everything meant that it was also impossible to escape. Join us to look back on the year that was, and attempt to predict the workings of the weird and wonderful world of tech in 2026.GUESTS:Cam Wilson, associate editor of Crikey and editor of the Sizzle newsletterJennifer Dudley-Nicholson, future economies reporter for the Australian Associated PressThis episode of Download This Show was made on Gadigal land and in Meanjin.Technical production by Craig Tilmouth and Riley Mellis.

With AI in our newsrooms, our universities, and our courtrooms, the way we understand the truth has been forever changed. But could it be for the better? Or have we embarked on an unstoppable march towards a new understanding of democracy. How do we democratise AI development when a handful of tech companies run the digital world? And could we implement government reforms in Australia to make this happen?GUESTS:Cory Alpert, former Biden–Harris administration staffer and current PhD researcher at the University of Melbourne, and host of the University of Melbourne's System ErrorProf. Daniel Angus, Professor of Digital Communication and Director of QUT's Digital Media Research Centre.This episode of Download This Show was made on Gadigal and Muwinina land.

If you were to picture the ideal robot form to vacuum your floor all by itself, what do you see? Is it a small UFO-shaped disc that whizzes under couches, or is it a humanoid robot with eyes and ears tracking your every move? The new 1X Neo robot has been launched and has been marketed as a 'robot butler', but what issues arise when we start making the tech that serves us look more and more human?  Also, a new AI chatbot designed for human companionship has been met with outright vitriol in New York. Friend is a wearable chatbot designed to literally replace human relationships, and people are not entirely on board. Plus, strict safety rules are set to be enforced for power banks on domestic flights, and Meta has just launched an AI briefing tool for Facebook users. GUESTS:Chris Berg, professor of economics at RMIT Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson, future economies reporter at the Australian Associated Press This episode of Download This Show was made on Gadigal land, in Meanjin and in Naarm.

Roblox has been one of the worst culprits for child safety in the games world, and they’ve come up with something to supposedly keep our kids safe. ‘Age-gating’ is designed to keep people of different ages in different parts of the online game, but how accurate is this age verification? And is it going to cause more problems than solutions? Also, the government has been found using generative AI to develop plans for NDIS participants. Will rising costs and dwindling resources in disability support push workers into using standardised AI to support participants long-term, or are there better tools out there for this? Plus, the Hugging Face CEO has said that the famously near-bursting AI bubble is actually, in fact, an LLM bubble. But what’s the difference, in a world where cities are being razed to build water-guzzling AI datacentres? GUESTS: Alice Clarke, freelance tech journalist and editor of Press Any Button substack Gianfranco di Giovanni, journalist for ABC Arts and Content Director for ABC Perth This episode of Download This Show was made on Gadigal, and Whadjuk Noongar land, and in Naarm.Technical production by Harvey Sutherland and Carey Dell.

What happens when theology and technology collide? There's a new tech startup dedicated to building a Christian AI. It's called Gloo, launched by ex-Intel CEO Patrick Gelsinger, and they say it's going to 'hasten the coming of Christ's return'. Also, AI chat services are helping us speak to God. From innocent Bible chatbots to an AI priest that told people to baptise their babies in Gatorade, how seriously are people taking these technological embodiments of God? Plus, we go way back into the lore behind the Way of the Future church, a church devoted to worshipping AI. GUESTS:Rohan Salmond, producer of Soul Search and editor of the Modern Relics newsletterDr Declan Humphries, lecturer in cyber security and ethics at the University of the Sunshine Coast, and ABC Top 5 Humanities resident for 2025This episode of Download This Show was made on Gadigal land and on the land of the Kubi Kubi people.

How well do you think the streets of Sydney would handle self-driving taxis? What about those same self-driving taxis navigating the Melbourne tram lines? Could you imagine it? Waymo is set to launch self-driving taxis and Ubers in Australia soon after talks with Transport NSW, and not everyone is happy with it. Also, Elon Musk has launched his very own version of the people's encyclopedia, Wikipedia, and Facebook Dating has been quietly dominating the online dating scene, and on both counts, we’re trying to figure out why. GUESTS:Dr Erica Mealy, senior lecturer in computer science at the University of the Sunshine Coast Professor Michael Cowling, lecturer and Director of the Apple Platform Hub for Innovation at RMIT This episode of Download This Show was made on Gadigal land, in Meanjin and in Naarm. 

How much do you trust the AI chatbots you use on a day-to-day basis? Once you send your prompt off into cyberspace, how do you now no one is interfering with it somewhere in between? Prompt injections are an increasingly common vulnerability in generative AI services and they could be tricking you into giving away majorly sensitive information.Also, Google announced a breakthrough in quantum computing, the first ever algorithm to gain an actual quantum advantage on every day hardware. But again, what actually is quantum computing?Plus, ChatGPT is entering its horny era, and Labor has banned the tech giants from using copyrighted content to train AI.GUESTS:Sarah Moran, co-founder of AI Patient NotesJocelyn Brewer, psychologist and founder of Digital NutritionThis episode of Download This Show was made on the land of the Gadigal and the Dharawal people, and in Meanjin.Technical production by Craig Tilmouth and Brendan O'Niell.

When a major outage hit Amazon Web Services this week, websites and apps started falling like dominoes -- from Square to Duolingo, Netflix, and Adobe, why do so many major players rely on a single company to host their data? And should we be calling time on these pseudo tech-monopolies? Also, we investigate whether its actually true that your iPhone slows down every time a new one is released, and what’s going to happen to the 400 million computers that are going to become obsolete thanks to the Windows 11 update.  Plus, Instagram has announced new teen controls for parents, but will they have any impact in Australia after the teen social media ban comes into effect? GUESTS:David Braue, technology journalist at Cybercrime Magazine Alex Kidman, technology journalist at Alex Reviews Tech  This episode of Download This Show was made on Gadigal land and in Naarm.Technical production by Craig Tilmouth and Matthew Sigley.

The Online Safety Amendment Bill is the name on everyone’s lips this week and as the implementation date looms closer, we take a deep dive into some of the people most affected by the upcoming ban, and lay out all the info you need to know if you’re a parent or teen trying to duck and dodge this murky legislation.  GUESTS:Leo Puglisi, teenager and Founder of 6 News Australia Nikita White, Amnesty International Campaigner Anne Hollonds, National Children’s Safety ComissionerThis episode of Download This Show was made on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation.Technical production by Richard Girvan.

There are over 170 million pieces of space junk orbiting Earth right now, and that number is only growing as space orbit becomes more accessible. How are we going to deal with this astronomical littering problem, while keeping up with our satellite-hungry tech needs?Also, an increase in light and radio pollution is making it harder for astronomers to study the stars. How can space tech companies, governments, and even you do something about it?Plus, we check in with the latest from SpaceX, and figure out what messages we're sending out into the great unknown on life, love, and the universe.GUESTS:Professor Andy Koronios, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the Australasian Space Innovation InstituteNick Carter, Lead of the Space Research Group at CSIROThis episode of Download This Show was made on Gadigal land, Kaurna land, and the Country of the Whadjuk Nyoongar people.Technical production by Allyse Symons.