Tech Mirror

China’s AI Rulebook

China has been regulating artificial intelligence for years, challenging the assumption that technology is evolving too rapidly to regulate. As concerns grow over tech company accountability, what lessons (if any) can Australia and other democracies...

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Putting AI to Work for Australians

“I wanted to make a difference, and I wasn’t getting that fulfilment in the private sector anymore,” says Lee Hickin. After decades at some of the world’s largest technology companies, including Amazon, Microsoft and IBM, Lee wanted to shift the...

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OnlyFans

OnlyFans is often immediately recognised as an adult content platform. Yet, according to digital culture scholar Dr. Emily van der Nagel, the company sidesteps embracing the kinds of explicit material that define it. What does this mean for the...

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AI’s Diversity Problem

Many believe that Artificial Intelligence will soon be embedded in nearly every aspect of the modern world. But how diverse are the people shaping this technology? In this episode of Tech Mirror, Johanna Weaver is joined by Dr. Gemma Killen and...

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Can Industrial AI Rebuild Australia's Economy?

Is Australia getting AI strategy right? Following the PM’s “AI In Australia’s Interests” speech on 15 July, much of the conversation has focused on data centres and ‘national standards’. But according to industrial AI leader Cori Stewart, that's not...

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Building Matilda

What would it take for Australia to build its own AI future? The Australian Prime Minister made a landmark speech on 15  July declaring that his government would shape Artificial Intelligence rather than be shaped by it. Just days before the speech,...

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Human Choice and the Ethics of AI

In a world of AI, what does it mean to be human? In this episode of Tech Mirror, host Johanna Weaver speaks with one of Australia’s foremost ethicists, Simon Longstaff, from the Ethics Centre. Together, they make the case for ethics in the wider AI...

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AI Agency & Mythos 5

With countries and tech stakeholders rapidly moving to claim AI in their interest, such as the US government’s move to restrict non-citizens' access to platforms like Claude, what does it mean for Australians to have control over their technological...

Worker Futures & Digital Dignity

The nature of work and jobs is being reshaped by artificial intelligence. Is it the building block to a worker utopia, or a more bleak, disruptive reality? In this episode of Tech Mirror, host Johanna Weaver sits down with Joseph Mitchell from the...

Good Tech

Prepare to meet some amazing individuals who are using technology for social justice. This episode was recorded live at the Technology for Social Justice conference - Australia’s premier not-for-profit technology capability building, upskilling,...

Earning trust

This episode marks the launch of TIPD's new research around AI, trust and regulation on 5 May in Parramatta. It begins with Johanna speaking with the Assistant Minister for Science, Technology and the Digital Economy, Dr Andrew Charlton, followed by...

Privacy + kids online

Johanna discusses Australia’s draft Children’s Online Privacy Code with Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind and Director of the Code Taskforce Kate Bower. They discuss how the proposed privacy code will work and how it will shape and benefit young...

How progress ends

Johanna looks at whether the past can give us clues about the future with Carl Benedikt Frey, Dieter Schwarz Associate Professor of AI & Work at the Oxford Internet Institute and writer of How Progress Ends: Technology, Innovation, and the Fate of...

China + Tech

In the next deep dive into tech and geopolitics, Johanna Weaver sits down with Tim Coghlan, an Australia global tech and China economy analyst living in Beijing.They talk about geostrategic competition, from the perspective of China. Tim talks about...

Tech + Trump

In the first episode in a deep dive into tech and geopolitics, Johanna Weaver sits down with Martijn Rasser, Vice-President of Technology Leadership at the US Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP). The pair talk about strategic technology...

India AI Action Summit

In this episode Johanna Weaver catches up with Jess Wilson, CEO of Good Things; David Masters, Head of Global Public Policy at Atlassian; Lizzie O’Shea, Chair of Digital Rights Watch;  Nick Davis, Co-Director at the UTS Human Technology Institute; and...

2026 Preview

To start off our new season of Tech Mirror, Johanna Weaver is join by her co-founder at the Tech Policy Design Institute, Zoe Hawkins, and the pair look forward into 2026 and take a punt on predicting the hot tech policy topics for the year. Will...

Part 5: Next Steps - Australia vs Social Media

This is the final episode of TPDi’s 5-part Tech Mirror mini-series, Australia vs Social Media: Inside the world-first online safety experiment.   In this episode, we turn our attention to the future, looking at policy priorities for the Government...

Part 4: Implementation - Australia vs Social Media

This is episode 4 of TPDi’s 5-part Tech Mirror mini-series, Australia vs Social Media: Inside the world-first online safety experiment.   In this episode, we do a deep dive into the practicalities of implementing the Social Media Minimum Age...

Part 3: The Law - Australia vs Social Media

This is episode 3 of a 5-part Tech Mirror mini-series, Australia vs Social Media: Inside the world-first online safety experiment. In this episode, we make sense of the Social Media Minimum Age legislation, explaining the limits of the law and what it...