Burning Platforms
Welcome to Burning Platforms: De-Coding the Power and Politics of Big Tech. Join Peter Lewis, Lizzie O’Shea (Digital Rights Watch), Dan Stinton (HealthEngine CEO), and guests, fortnightly for analysis of the politics of technology from some of Australia’s leading digital campaigners and industry experts. Brought to you by the Centre of the Public Square - an initiative of Per Capita.
Episodes
The Director of QUT’S Digital Media Research Centre outlines how different chatbots take users down different wormholes when they research conspiracy theories.
Regular panellists Digital Rights...
The former Chief Scientist outlines his new venture, ‘Proudly Human to allow creators to verify their work in the ocean of slop.
Regular panellists Digital Rights Watch chair Lizzie O’Shea, Healt...
The Burning Platforms panel kick around the carcass of this week when the White House went to war with AI, bosses found new ways to snoop on workers, and the market was moved by a bit of fan fiction.
Per Capita’s Peter Lewis joins Digital Rights Watch chair Lizzie O’Shea, Health Engine CEO Dan Stinton and The Sizzle’s Cam Wilson try to make sense of the madness.
And some reading to get you warmed up:
Casey Newton - What is OpenAI g...
On this week's episode of Burning Platforms, the team look at the AI Impact Summit in Delhi with first-hand accounts from UTS’s Human Technology Institute co-director and regular panelist Digital Rights Chair Lizzie O’Shea.
They join Health Engine CEO Dan Stinton and Per Capita’s Peter Lewis to also discuss:
- Read more
Governments may campaign in poetry and govern in prose, but what about the engineering that keeps our democracy flowing? The pioneer of public innovation and Professor of Collective Intelligence at University College London, Sir Geoff Mulgan, believes it’s time to get the boring bits right.
Regular panellists Digital Rights Watch Chair Lizzie O’Shea, Health Engine CEO Dan Stinton and Per Capita’s Peter Lewis also discuss:
- Grok’s wild (and gross) summer
- ChatGTP’s foray into health
- and Bandcamp’s AI pledge
As 2025 crashes out we survey the highs and lows of the year in tech with long-time platform burner Human Technology Institute co-director Ed Santow.
Regular panellists Digital Rights Watch Chair Lizzie O’Shea, Health Engine CEO Dan Stinton and Per Capita’s Peter Lewis discuss:
- the Government’s AI Plan
- the Social Media Ban
- and what to read over summer
Join us in discussing the issues raised in this episode join us in the...
While the vested interests wrestle with the intricacies of AI regulation, are community library conversations the best bet for shaping our tech future? On this week's episode of Burning Platforms, we meet the academic who is fighting the algorithm with words.
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How much energy will AI really burn? Climate writer and activist Ketan Joshi joins Burning Platforms to chat AI and Climate: what we know, what we don’t know and what data centres have to do with yogurt tubs.
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Is Big Tech’s domination of AI inevitable or are there different ways of organising our data to shift the power the dynamic? We discuss the RadicalXChange project with its new director, Jess Scully.
Regular panellists Digital Rights Watch Chair Lizzie O’Shea, Health Engine CEO Dan Stinton and Per Capita’s Peter Lewis also discuss:
- Read more
AI is transforming our world at rapid speed, raising urgent questions about who benefits, who loses, and how we keep control of the future.
Panellists from the Burning Platforms podcast and guests, explore the promises and pitfalls of AI - and what’s at stake for all Australians.
Panellists include:
- Lizzie O’Shea: Human Rights Lawyer & Chairperson, Digital Rights Watch
- Peter Lewis: Executive Director, Essential Media &a...
Is the rise of AI inevitable or just the latest cycle of hype for a sector that thrives on the vibes? The author of “Resisting AI’, Professor Dan McQuillan, joins the show to argue for a more fundamental response to Big Tech.
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The co-author of ‘Conspiracy Nation’ takes us on his journey into the world of anti-vaxxers, wellness influencers and sovereign citizens.
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The tech industry is pitching data mining and new infrastructure as the key to national prosperity. But will it deliver? And if so, for whom?
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“I’m concerned that AI and big tech – well, big tech with AI – has gone into a full-court press… particularly on the federal system...I’m concerned that without thinking it through clearly enough, policy makers won’t essentially subject the slogans to sufficient ...
New Federal industry and science minister Tim Ayres shares his take on industry policy, AI's opportunities and risks, and how we could steer through the latest wave of tech change.
With regular panellists Digital Rights Watch Chair Lizzie O’Shea, Health Engine CEO Dan Stinton, and Per Capita’s Peter Lewis
To discuss the issues raised in this episode join us in the Democracy Sandpit - https://civility.bettermode.io/welcome
Regular panellists Digital Rights Watch Chair Lizzie O’Shea, Health Engine CEO Dan Stinton and Per Capita’s Peter Lewis ...
The Large Language Models are powered by stolen data but there are new and innovative ways to make the thieves pay. Professor Toby Walsh explains the tech-driven resistance to Big AI from data poisoning to responsible cloud computing.
With panellists Digital Rights Watch Chair Lizzie O’Shea, Editor of the Sizzle Cam Wilson, and Per Capita’s Peter Lewis we also discuss:
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Qant...
"I thought old people got scammed. And actually young people are at greater risk because they have more confidence in dealing [with things] online."
This week on Burning Platforms, the team learns how the financial scam industry has become an enthusiastic early adapter of AI and how the banks are working around the clock to ensure they aren’t the ones liable for the ensuing harm.
With our regular panelists Digital Rights Watch Cha...
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