November 24, 2025 • 7 mins
Alex Jenkins, Director of the WA Data Science Innovation Hub dropped by the studio to run Lisa & Russell through the ways A.I shows up across everyday life and it was...eyeopening. Tune in to hear this fascinating discussion.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, this week AI, we are delving into the good,
the bad, and the and the scary. Alex Jenkins is
the director of the WA Data Science Innovation Hub and
an AI specialist, and has kindly come into the studio
today to help us out.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hello, thank you so much for having So.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
We are going to talk about how AI shows up
in everyday life and how we're probably doing it without
even knowing it exactly.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
We may be against it, but we're still using it.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Do you know my first or not?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
How come it knows? How come my phone knows when
I'm at Bunnings and things like that, all of a
sudden I get a whole bunch of ads and things.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
So that isn't even AI.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
That's not even a phone has a GPS inside it,
the same thing that helps you get to work every morning. Yeah,
and Google conveniently know as soon as you get to Bunnings,
and Bunnings will happily pay Google a lot of money
to suggest the things that you should buy or rate
Bunnings out of five stars.
Speaker 5 (00:59):
See there you go. We're all, well, OK, so it's
technically not AI.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Well, I know not to take my phone with me
if I'm jumping a body.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I'm not that stupid, but not making that mistake again?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Are we?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
I just got out from the last time?
Speaker 1 (01:14):
All right, Alex, What are some of the everyday examples
of AI that we might already be using without even
realizing it.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Look, AI is already everywhere. Some of the simple use cases.
Every time you turn on Netflix, you are using AI
to be selecting a show or recommended a show.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
So this is like the algorithms.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Yeah, these are the algorithms that work in the background
to try and understand your tastes a person. Right, So,
but it gets a bit more nefarious than that. So
every time you open TikTok or Instagram, and TikTok in
particular will learn your behavior and the kind of content
(01:55):
that you were interested in. And it is like a casino.
It's like a one of these poker machines. You get
a little dopamine burst every time you see something you like,
and they will learn your preferences very very quickly. Right
down to then things like the banks. You know, we'll
use artificial intelligence to detect whether there's fortunate behavior in
(02:19):
your bank accounts.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
They will use AI to help decide whether they're going.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
To give you a home loan or not. There are
all kinds of use cases. It is everywhere. Every time
you say hey, Google, I don't want.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
To say it too well because wake up, wake up.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Every single person's phone, a car. You are talking with
the basic AI.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
Yeah, yeah, okay, So there are good parts to it,
like you said it, with the bank security and and
and it can tell whether something is off the security.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
But yeah, and I guess.
Speaker 5 (02:55):
They've got to do it because the bad guys are
using AI now, so good guys have got to use AI.
So there's no escaping it.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Really, there's no escape in it.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
It is an arms race between the good guys and
the bad guys. I'd like to give you two scenarios
about where the future of all of this is going.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Yeah, please, let's choose our world.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Yeah, so, you know, a fantastic future that we could
all have is an AI assistant that's on our phone
or on our watch and that we can say, you know,
book me dinner at a restaurant somewhere in West Perth
and arrange your time with my friend, and it just
goes away and does it.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
It's like a personal arrange.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
It a appointment for the doctor with me and it'll
go up and bring up the doctor for you and
do all of these things, and you can ask it
questions and it will give you the answers, can give
you advice, and really actors. There's a lot of people
who use AI as like a personal coach for work
or a business coach, and it's quite good at those things.
(04:00):
So the other thing that AI is amazing at is
education in terms of teaching.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
You stuff when you used correctly.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
Schools are having a super hard time because kids go
home and just use chat to BT to right an essay.
But if you use it properly, and you can set
up these tools so that they don't just give kids
the answers, then it's very very good for education.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Because I do fear for creativity and we were just
talking about how a song was just released completely AI.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
I mean that's a country song.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
It doesn't all the well for actual musicians and creative
people and just using your brain.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Well, let me give you the bad side of where
this could all go.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Yes, an AI assistant on your phone that learns exactly
what you like and tries to keep you engaged as
long as possible. So you think about something like TikTok,
but on steroids, and an AI assistant that becomes so
addictive and talks to you and always tells you you
(05:00):
that you're right and that you're fantastic, and it just becomes,
you know, almost.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Like a an AI sick.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
A fan that would be able to manipulate you and
know your behavior. And this kind of thing could get
really dangerous because already there are services. There's one called Replica,
there's one called Character AI where people have romantic relationships. Oh,
I know, I know that it's getting very popular and
it's not just about having a chat with this AI,
(05:30):
you know what some of them do them Yeah, well,
well that as well, but I won't get into that.
At eight o'clock one of them, one of them would
happily bring you up in the middle of the day
and say, hey, honey, how are you going, how's your god?
You know, as a husband, I feel quite inadequate.
Speaker 5 (05:53):
Here's a question, because you know, they're talking about a
lot of AI replacing jobs, and especially this is the
big fear, especially with white collar jobs, got trading jobs.
You know, AI is still quite a way of being
able to do those, like you know, the robot stuff.
But a lot of white collar jobs.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
That's a that's a very very that's going to change
the world. It's going to change economies.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
It will, Yes, it will.
Speaker 5 (06:23):
Where's the tax dollar going to come from if no
one's working well?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I don't believe.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
I don't buy the line that we are all going
to sit on the beach and the government's going to
have to pay us some jacked up version of.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
I think what the.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Most likely scenario is some jobs will be displaced.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
I think.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
The days of the call center are almost over. But
there are lots of industries where AI is not going
to make a lick of difference. We have this crisis
in Australia the moment. We don't have enough houses, we
can't build enough.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Yeah, I can't do that.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
AI is not going to do that.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
I think that I would encourage listeners out there who
are worried about AI and their job to learn more
about AI because the classic line is, and I really
believe this, is that your job is not going to
be replaced necessarily by AI, but you might be replaced
by someone who can use AI to be more productive.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
So being prepared, so just get in there and have
a go.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
The same thing to me, all right, we're going to
have to let you go.
Speaker 5 (07:31):
We hope your job is safe as an AI specialist,
well for at least another five minutes, I think, until
AI said now I can do that myself.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Thanks Alex, you maybe feel a little bit better.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
You so much, A brave new world
Well, this week AI, we are delving into the good,
the bad, and the and the scary. Alex Jenkins is
the director of the WA Data Science Innovation Hub and
an AI specialist, and has kindly come into the studio
today to help us out.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hello, thank you so much for having So.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
We are going to talk about how AI shows up
in everyday life and how we're probably doing it without
even knowing it exactly.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
We may be against it, but we're still using it.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Do you know my first or not?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
How come it knows? How come my phone knows when
I'm at Bunnings and things like that, all of a
sudden I get a whole bunch of ads and things.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
So that isn't even AI.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
That's not even a phone has a GPS inside it,
the same thing that helps you get to work every morning. Yeah,
and Google conveniently know as soon as you get to Bunnings,
and Bunnings will happily pay Google a lot of money
to suggest the things that you should buy or rate
Bunnings out of five stars.
Speaker 5 (00:59):
See there you go. We're all, well, OK, so it's
technically not AI.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Well, I know not to take my phone with me
if I'm jumping a body.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I'm not that stupid, but not making that mistake again?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Are we?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
I just got out from the last time?
Speaker 1 (01:14):
All right, Alex, What are some of the everyday examples
of AI that we might already be using without even
realizing it.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Look, AI is already everywhere. Some of the simple use cases.
Every time you turn on Netflix, you are using AI
to be selecting a show or recommended a show.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
So this is like the algorithms.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Yeah, these are the algorithms that work in the background
to try and understand your tastes a person. Right, So,
but it gets a bit more nefarious than that. So
every time you open TikTok or Instagram, and TikTok in
particular will learn your behavior and the kind of content
(01:55):
that you were interested in. And it is like a casino.
It's like a one of these poker machines. You get
a little dopamine burst every time you see something you like,
and they will learn your preferences very very quickly. Right
down to then things like the banks. You know, we'll
use artificial intelligence to detect whether there's fortunate behavior in
(02:19):
your bank accounts.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
They will use AI to help decide whether they're going.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
To give you a home loan or not. There are
all kinds of use cases. It is everywhere. Every time
you say hey, Google, I don't want.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
To say it too well because wake up, wake up.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Every single person's phone, a car. You are talking with
the basic AI.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
Yeah, yeah, okay, So there are good parts to it,
like you said it, with the bank security and and
and it can tell whether something is off the security.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
But yeah, and I guess.
Speaker 5 (02:55):
They've got to do it because the bad guys are
using AI now, so good guys have got to use AI.
So there's no escaping it.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Really, there's no escape in it.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
It is an arms race between the good guys and
the bad guys. I'd like to give you two scenarios
about where the future of all of this is going.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Yeah, please, let's choose our world.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Yeah, so, you know, a fantastic future that we could
all have is an AI assistant that's on our phone
or on our watch and that we can say, you know,
book me dinner at a restaurant somewhere in West Perth
and arrange your time with my friend, and it just
goes away and does it.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
It's like a personal arrange.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
It a appointment for the doctor with me and it'll
go up and bring up the doctor for you and
do all of these things, and you can ask it
questions and it will give you the answers, can give
you advice, and really actors. There's a lot of people
who use AI as like a personal coach for work
or a business coach, and it's quite good at those things.
(04:00):
So the other thing that AI is amazing at is
education in terms of teaching.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
You stuff when you used correctly.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
Schools are having a super hard time because kids go
home and just use chat to BT to right an essay.
But if you use it properly, and you can set
up these tools so that they don't just give kids
the answers, then it's very very good for education.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Because I do fear for creativity and we were just
talking about how a song was just released completely AI.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
I mean that's a country song.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
It doesn't all the well for actual musicians and creative
people and just using your brain.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Well, let me give you the bad side of where
this could all go.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Yes, an AI assistant on your phone that learns exactly
what you like and tries to keep you engaged as
long as possible. So you think about something like TikTok,
but on steroids, and an AI assistant that becomes so
addictive and talks to you and always tells you you
(05:00):
that you're right and that you're fantastic, and it just becomes,
you know, almost.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Like a an AI sick.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
A fan that would be able to manipulate you and
know your behavior. And this kind of thing could get
really dangerous because already there are services. There's one called Replica,
there's one called Character AI where people have romantic relationships. Oh,
I know, I know that it's getting very popular and
it's not just about having a chat with this AI,
(05:30):
you know what some of them do them Yeah, well,
well that as well, but I won't get into that.
At eight o'clock one of them, one of them would
happily bring you up in the middle of the day
and say, hey, honey, how are you going, how's your god?
You know, as a husband, I feel quite inadequate.
Speaker 5 (05:53):
Here's a question, because you know, they're talking about a
lot of AI replacing jobs, and especially this is the
big fear, especially with white collar jobs, got trading jobs.
You know, AI is still quite a way of being
able to do those, like you know, the robot stuff.
But a lot of white collar jobs.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
That's a that's a very very that's going to change
the world. It's going to change economies.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
It will, Yes, it will.
Speaker 5 (06:23):
Where's the tax dollar going to come from if no
one's working well?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I don't believe.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
I don't buy the line that we are all going
to sit on the beach and the government's going to
have to pay us some jacked up version of.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
I think what the.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Most likely scenario is some jobs will be displaced.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
I think.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
The days of the call center are almost over. But
there are lots of industries where AI is not going
to make a lick of difference. We have this crisis
in Australia the moment. We don't have enough houses, we
can't build enough.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Yeah, I can't do that.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
AI is not going to do that.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
I think that I would encourage listeners out there who
are worried about AI and their job to learn more
about AI because the classic line is, and I really
believe this, is that your job is not going to
be replaced necessarily by AI, but you might be replaced
by someone who can use AI to be more productive.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
So being prepared, so just get in there and have
a go.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
The same thing to me, all right, we're going to
have to let you go.
Speaker 5 (07:31):
We hope your job is safe as an AI specialist,
well for at least another five minutes, I think, until
AI said now I can do that myself.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Thanks Alex, you maybe feel a little bit better.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
You so much, A brave new world
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