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ABC Australia

Download This Show is your weekly guide to the world of media, culture, and technology. From social media to gadgets, streaming services to privacy issues. Each week Rae Johnston and guests take a fun, deep dive into how technology is reshaping our lives.

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21 episodes
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Avg 28 min
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Yesterday · 29 min
How Ukraine's military drones are changing warfare forever
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, research
August 21 · 29 min
How WA police are using facial recognition technology
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 m
August 14 · 28 min
The Renter Algorithm: Dark patterns and the illusion of choice
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
August 7 · 29 min
The Renter Algorithm: The invisible system judging tenants
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 m
July 31 · 29 min
Have AI models truly "gone rogue"?
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, Direc
July 24 · 29 min
What is Q-Day and how scared should we all be?
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 verg
July 17 · 29 min
(Nearly) everything that happened in AI this week
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
July 10 · 29 min
The UN calls for a ban on 'killer robots'
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. -
July 3 · 28 min
Will fining social media companies make them uphold the ban?
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 Aus
June 26 · 29 min
How do you stop being addicted to your phone?
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 trai
June 19 · 29 min
Is it wrong to have robots take care of our parents?
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 in
June 12 · 28 min
Leaked document reveals Microsoft wants you "addicted" to their product
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 re
June 5 · 29 min
Would you pay to use Instagram?
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
May 29 · 29 min
Can the Pope influence the future of AI?
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 i
May 22 · 29 min
Is your podcast host... human?
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 showdow
May 15 · 29 min
Are we nostalgic for a 90s that didn't exist?
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
May 8 · 29 min
Can we force data centres to clean up their act?
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
May 1 · 29 min
Why Elon Musk is taking OpenAI to court
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 Br
April 24 · 29 min
Will you send an AI twin to work for you?
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
April 17 · 29 min
The AI model “too dangerous” for the public
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 Arc

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