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 AI scientist and author on his rising concerns about existential risk and the false inevitability of the hyper-scalers.
Panellists ABC AI correspondent Ca, Wilson, Tech Policy Design Institute co-director Zoe Jay Hawkins and Per Capita’s Peter Lewis also discuss:
- the ad-powered cyber-attacks on Australian institutions
- the Digital Duty of Care laws enter the Parliament
- Meta’s new terms of trade and plans for AI...
The CEO of the new Australian Council on AI Strategy on the big decisions and competing trade-offs facing Australia and where scientists fit in the conversation.
Panelists Australian Writers Guild CEO Claire Pullen, Health Engine CEO Dan Stinton and per Capita’s Peter Lewis also discuss.
- is the Parliamentary Inquiry AI actually worth it?
- should AI be in your...
The co-founder of Indicator on how lies have taken over the internet and what we can all do to build a better information ecosystem.
Also this week:
- Culture wars over digital duty of care
- AI as an intellectual hot dog
- and what the Firmus flop could mean for datacentres
For show notes go to: https://burningplatforms.su...
As Open AI apologises to Australia the CEO of Sovereign AI takes us through the relative merits of open weight, open source and closed AI models.
Regular panellists Digital Rights Watch chair Lizzie O’Shea, Health Engine CEO Dan Stinong and Pert Capita’s peter Lewis also discuss
- the downsides of live-streaming amateur basketball
- Anthropic’s consultations with God
- and the rapid release of consumer agents
As Australia confronts the Open AI hack on Medicare we are joined by an expert in strategic foresight to explore how we can confront the AI revolution with the benefit of hindsight.
Panellists Digital Rights Watch chair Lizzie O’Shea, ABC national AI reporter Cam Wilson and Per Capita’s Peter Lewis also discuss:
- whether AI models can get drunk
- is it time for an AI Pause?
- and Audrey Tang’s call for a cit...
The Sydney University scholar explains how people can train their algorithms to get a better online experience and what it means to the Digital Duty of Care.
Regular panellists Digital Rights Watch chair Lizzie O’Shea, Health Engine CEO Dan Stinton and Per Capita’s Peter Lewis also discuss:
- Frontier Tech’s global reckoning
- Open AI’s massive content heist
- and the Australian bros building a global slop em...
The CEO of the Alannah and Madeline Foundation gives her verdict on the government’s new Digital Duty of care laws.
Regular panellists Digital Rights Watch chair Lizzie O’Shea, Health Engine CEO Dan Stinton and Per Capita’s Peter Lewis also discuss:
- the AI hyperscaler’ cry for help
- Apple’s creepy new release
- Read more
The independent MP on her community-driven plan for AI, working with government from the cross-bench and pushing the pace of reform.
Regular panellists Digital Rights Watch chair Lizzie O’Shea, Health Engine CEO Dan Stinton and Per Capita’s Peter Lewis also discuss:
- GetUp’s big Palantir win
- Rogue AI latest salvo
- and the Digital Duty of Care laws
For show notes go to: https://burningplatforms.substack.co...
As privacy reforms gather momentum, the co-director of the Human Technology Institute walks us through the proposed changes and their implications for the digital world.
Regular panellists Digital Rights Watch chair Lizzie O’Shea, Health Engine CEO Dan Stinton and Per Capita’s Peter Lewis also discuss:
- Meta’s mega $18 billion legal settlement for harming children
- Read more
The co-founder of the Tech Policy Design Centre on the development of new laws to hold tech companies to account for the harms of their products.
Regular panellists Digital Rights Watch Lizzie O’Shea, Health Engine CEO Dan Stinton and Per Capita’s Peter Lewis also dig into:
- The new salt mines of AI
- Australia’s pitch for AI sovereignty
- and ARIA’s purge of slop from the music charts
For show notes g...
The co-founder of the Human Technology lays down his megapixel provocation and challenges us to stop thinking about AI as being so different that we can’t control it.
Panellists Digital Rights Watch chair Lizzie O’Shea, ABC National AI Reporter Cam Wilson and Per Capita’s Peter Lewis also discuss
- Can Automated Decision Making work for the people?
- Is the Social Media Ban making things worse?
- Is surveillance-bu...
The national security expert on the strategic risks of cognitive readiness and information is the new theatre of conflict.
Panellists Australian Writers Guild CEO Claire Pullen, Health Engine CEO Dan Stinton and Per Capita’s Peter Lewis also discuss:
- Pornography as harbinger of digital doom
- Mark Zuckerburg’s values-free ‘Encyclical’
- Australia’s nascent Digital Duty of Care.
- Anthropic's rare book-breaking binge
- Backlash over the surveillance of open models
- How to regulate perv glasses
Burning Platforms is back for another live show, this time recorded at the 2026 ALP Conference in Adelaide where we launched the "FairAI Initiative" with Digital Rights Watch chair Lizzie O’Shea, Human technology Institute co-director Ed Santow and Senator Tony Sheldon.
Join the Burning Platforms for show notes, resources, and regular updates from the Big Tech Policy space: https://burningplatforms.substack.com/
In a world of relative facts and filter bubbles how do we build a common base of reality to anchor democracy? Burning Platforms will bring themes from the ABC series ‘A Matter of Facts’ to life in a fun and interactive live event that will challenge you to pick the truth from the lies.
Featuring:
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Hamish Macdonald, award-winning journalist
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Lizzie O’Shea, Co-founder and Chair of Digital Rights Watch
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Jess ...
Burning Platform is back from its brief hiatus for a special live Virtual Town Hall, convened on July 6th, looking at the growing fight to resist the US tech behemoth, in partnership with Digital Rights Watch and GetUp!
Hosted by Per Capita's Peter Lewis, with speakers: * DRW chair Lizzie O'Shea * GetUp! campaigner Hayden Rodgers * Australian Greens Senator David Shoebridge Show notes available at: https://burningplatforms.s...This week on Burning Platforms, we're joined by the head of the Local and Independent News Association, Clare Stutchbery, to get her insights on the importance of media diversity in an age of information hierarchies.
Panellists Digital Rights Watch Chair Lizzie O’Shea, Aust...
The political strategist and author of ‘Angertainement', Ed Coper, joins the Burning Platform this week to discuss how social media outrage ruined everything and outlines his blueprint for harnessing the toxic information ecosystem.
Panellists Digital Rights Watch Chair Li...
This week on Burning Platforms we dive deep into Pope Leo’s XIV’s encyclical with Dr Michael Walker from the Justice and Peace Office at the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney .
Our panellists Digital Rights Watch Chair Lizzie O’Shea, ABC AI reporter Cam Wilso...
The founder of start-up Noizend on the challenges of scaling tech in Australia and how the real innovation is not running on the back of LLMs.
Regular panellists Digital Rights Watch Chair Lizzie O’Shea, Health Engine CEO Dan Stinton and Per Capita’s Peter Lewis also ...
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