Download This Show

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241

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Aug 2026

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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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60 recent

August 14, 202628 min

The Renter Algorithm: 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 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 downloadthisshow@abc.net.auFind all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

August 7, 202629 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 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 downloadthisshow@abc.net.auFind all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

July 31, 202629 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, 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 downloadthisshow@abc.net.auFind all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

July 24, 202629 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 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 downloadthisshow@abc.net.auFind all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

July 17, 202629 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 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 downloadthisshow@abc.net.auFind all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

July 10, 202629 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.------------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 downloadthisshow@abc.net.auFind all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

July 3, 202628 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 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 downloadthisshow@abc.net.auFind all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

June 26, 202629 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 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 downloadthisshow@abc.net.auFind all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

June 19, 202629 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 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 downloadthisshow@abc.net.auFind all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

June 12, 202628 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 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 downloadthisshow@abc.net.auFind all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

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