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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 reporte...

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...

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 jeop...

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 b...

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...

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 publi...

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...

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 technol...

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 'hum...

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 th...

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:  Al...

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 th...

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,...

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...

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 wal...

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-...

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 Livingst...

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 he...

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 aga...

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....

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 Australi...

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...

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 Met...

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 in...

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 Al...