Byte Into IT

Vanessa Toholka and Dan Salmon discuss recent tech news, such as Medibank being taken to court, a DdOS attack of the Internet Archive, the breaking of Ticketmaster's monopoly and more. They also get into their thoughts on travel for the holidays.

Hosts, Vanessa Toholka and Dan Salmon chat with Louie Roots and Mads Mackenzie about the return of Freeplay Independant Games Festival and new 'Angles' Conference, bringing game creatives together for events throughout June. They also have a chat with Deputy Director of Enterprise AI and Data analytics hub at RMIT, Chao Chen on AI evolving and how we can keep ourselves safe.

Nick Thorpe & Ethan Thorpe join the show to discuss the launch of the Live Music Locator - a new website service tracking every gig in every venue across Naarm, partnering with the City of Yarra as well as the Leaps & Bounds Festival. Later, Laura Summers & Linda McIver from the Australian Data Science Education institute chat about teacher guides for AI, a survey for teachers to fill out to help guide their resources.

Lilly Ryan and Dan Salmon chat to Sarah Vivienne Bentley, Research Scientist for CSIRO, on her new article for The Conversation on how the digital divide is already hurting people's quality of life and will AI make this better or worse? The team also get to chat to Amelia Johns, Associate Professor at the University of Technology of Sydney, about how conspiracy theorists get around Facebook/meta's content moderation policies and how much more can be done for content moderation.

Jake Goldenfein, senior lecturer at Melbourne Law School and tech expert, joins the show with some illuminating facts about how governments use automated decision making processes, and the implications of this usage; as well as talking about data set economies, facial recognition, AI and proposed changes to Australian privacy law. Hosted by Lily Ryan ft. Karl Chapman on panelling

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.