Byte Into IT

Jo and Lilly chat with sarah Young, Senoir Cloud Security advocate at Microsoft about responsible A.I and how to manage it. Also on the line is InfoXchange CEO David Spriggs to talk about the 20th Technology for Social Justice Conference on the 1st and 2nd of May

Join Vanessa and Row on all the new tech news and weird news this week! On the line is Sam Gavern, a "Vinemaker" to chat about a new startup Grapevine, exploring systematic changes that minorities experience in the tech world. In the studio, Vanessa and Row is joined by Ray and Fee, two information workers, who deep dive into the challenging aspects of work in the tech industry.

Vanessa Toholka & Dan Salmon discuss online security with Adam McKenzie, and his recent tech-focused show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival: "Hacked". Later, they speak with Dr Margarita Vladimirova on the lack of privacy or consent when it comes to the commerical usage of everyone and anyone's facial data.

Lilly and Row speak to Tully Arnot about BIRD SONG, a work in the Not Natural exhibition at Science Gallery in Melbourne. They also chat to Meta whistleblower, Frances Haugen on her mission and online safety.

Wouldn't it be fun to meet the people on the other side of the screen? Share ideas? Learn new stuff? This week on Byte Into IT, Vanessa Toholka and Dan Salmon tell us about some great conferences coming up in 2024. Raelene Knowles, Chief Operating Officer at Interactive Games & Entertainment Association (IGEA), tells us all about Games Connect Asia Pacific (GCAP), Australia’s premier professional development and networking event for the game development industry. It is one of the first official events for Melbourne International Games Week (MIGW), starting on the 5th of October, 2024. Olga Goloshchapova, Engineering Manager at Zepto and one of at least seven organisers at the Programmable Tech conference. Olga joins Vanessa and Dan in the studio to discuss the conference, which she says celebrates fantastic software developer content with a focus on human connection. Programmable Tech is happening on March 19 2024. PLUS Vanessa catches a bug - listen now to find out whether it’s malware, illness or midge… Infoxchange: technology for social justice

Should internet providers and social media platforms self-regulate? Professor Jeannie Marie Paterson doesn’t think so. In this episode of Byte Into IT, we hear all about why the government should be doing more to protect the community against AI-generated pornographic and abusive deepfake material. Professor Jeannie Marie Paterson talks to Vanessa Taholka, Dan Salmon and Lilly Ryan about the huge problem that’s leaving women vulnerable to non-consensual images of themselves circling the internet and how Taylor Swift was the catalyst for stronger protections in getting this media off line. Read more here: https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/picture-to-burn-the-law-probably-won-t-protect-taylor-or-other-women-from-deepfakes Plus, Carla Wilshire, CEO of Social Policy Group, delves into how the algorithm can work against women when it comes to job recruitment, why we need more women in tech and the virtual but real dangers faced by women in video games. Her book, Time to Reboot: Feminism in the Algorithm Age comes out March 1st.

Program regular, John Payne, Chair of the Board of Electronic Frontiers Australia, joins the Byte team for a forecast into the digital rights agenda for 2024. They delve into AI, privacy acts and data brokers. Plus, Artist Thomas Marcusson phones in to discuss his installation project for 'Not Natural' at the Science Gallery Museum. Get down to the gallery to see just how random jellyfish can be... With hosts: Dan Salmon, Vanessa Taholka and Paul Callaghan

Tully Water, futurist, trend forecaster, & cultural strategist at 'Soon Futures', joins the Byte Into It team to discuss all things AI and dating. From Tinder to ChatGPT, we hear a well-researched and nuanced discussion about the online dating space and the ways that it has been interacting with language, culture and socialising, as we look to predicting what effects, if any, this may have long-term for human connection. Hosted by Vanessa Toholka, Lily Ryan and Dan Salmon

Lilly Ryan & Row Muray dive into the 'State Community Management Report 2023' with Vanessa Paech (she/her). They also chat with Dr J. Rosenhaum (they/them) about Nightshade & other 'poisons/preventions' that may impact/help the growth of AI art.

Vanessa Toholka, Dan Salmon and Paul Callaghan are joined by Dr Dang Nguyen, Senior Research Fellow at the RMIT University node of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society. Dang discusses the role of AI and automated decision-making in news and media.

Lily and Dan discuss issues with accessing Playstation online store content, following the video game brand's decision to pull titles. They also chat with City of Melbourne Councillor Jamal Hakim about the new technologies and spaces at the recently-opened Narrm Ngarrgu Library.

Lily and Dan get stuck into applying AI to pharmaceutical processes with Professor Sally Gras, Director of ARC Digital Bioprocess Development Hub. And, John Pane, Electronic Frontiers Aus Board Member helps to pick apart and interpret the Commonwealth governments new 2023-2030 Australian Cyber Security Strategy. Plus, the hosts tell you all the latest and not-so-greatest in the world of tech.

Joining Vanessa and Jo this week is Anthony Agius, independent tech journalist behind the daily newsletter The Sizzle.

Vanessa Toholka and Rowena Murray tackle spying workplace managers with Swinburne University's Professor Peter Holland who says productivity paranoia is at an all time high with the prevalence of working from home setups. Plus, Nashin Mahtani talks about the development of Yayasan Peta Bencana (Disaster Map Foundation) which is a South-East Asian NGO creating humanitarian technologies for community-led disaster co-management.

In this podcast we interview Jongkil Jay Jeong, Senior Research Fellow in Cyber Security at Deakin University on the national digital ID scheme. We also discuss the Optus outage, cryto currency, Elon Musk and AI chatbots.

Dr Sam John, a senior lecturer in neural engineering at the University Melbourne, joins our hosts to talk about his work with a group of biomedical engineering students to develop gaming consoles for people with cerebral palsy, and looking generally into adapting existing gaming controllers to make them more accessible for people who are differently abled. They speak about prototypes they've developed for this purpose, as well as the commercial possibilities of these developments. The hosts also talk about the updates in AI regulations globally, local changes to emergency mobile roaming, and the results of the first lawsuit against self-driving cars. Hosted by Dan Salmon, Dan Morganti and Ash Keller.

Sam Floreani joins Dan & Ash to talk about the various rent-tech platforms that collect and use renters data, their (lack of) obligations under the privacy act, the expense of these tech apps, the biases and dangers that can come from this kind of information-sharing and industry reliance on rent-tech. Jordie Van Der Berg aka “PurplePingers” talks about his website and TikTok profile 'Shit Rentals', which he created to share information & reviews about rentals and real estate agents/agencies, and how to best protect your rights as a renter. Hosted by Dan Salmon & Ash

Vanessa and Jo are joined by author Tony Walsh. Together they dive into his newly realeased book Faking it: Artificial Intelligence In A Human World - plus Adjunct Professor Steve Worthington (Swinburne Uni) discusses potential legislation around digital wallets and their hidden fees.

Dan and Ro chat with Associate Professor Dan Golding (Swinburne Uni) on how well video game sound tracks do on streaming platforms outside of the games themselves - plus his huge new co-authored research project on Australian Music in games. Plus, Drew Rooke, a journalist at the Cosmos Magazine shares details about computer-powered deep sea mapping tehcnology that maps out ship wrecks along Australias coastline

Thao Phan is a feminist technoscience researcher who specialises in the study of gender and race in algorithmic culture. She joins Lilly and Dan to chat about the upcoming event she's co-curated, Study-In On AI + Race + Art, bringing together writers, researchers, artists, activitists, scientists, and critical thinkers of all kind for a day of study and speculative thinking. The trio discuss why artistic and experimental interventions (such as collective study) are important for unpacking assumptions around race, gender, subjectivities, data-driven technologies, productivity, and society. They also got to catch up with Nico King about their work at Chaos Theory Games on 'Crab God' which touches on reef conservation. Nico phoned in from the Australian Game Developer Awards which acknowledges the hard work of developers, and highlights up and coming games and that pushing the boundaries of games design.