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Tech is being marketed as the solution to taking care of our aging parents and our young children: AI companions, improved surveillance tools, and wearables. How much are robots truly able to replace genuine human care, and ethically should we let them?
Plus, how much do we actually know about the effect of screen time hours on children's brains? Turns out, some of the initial experiments were a bit off the mark.
And, 'tech tourism' is China's latest booming industry. Whether it's a special interest or a general curiosity, all sorts of people are being invited to tour factories that use robots (and some humans) to assemble their products. What are these tours like? And who are they serving?
NB: Kath mentioned Lelia Green's work. You can find her book The Digital Child here.
GUESTS:
Alice Clarke, freelance technology journalist. Her Substack is called Press Any Button.
Kath Albury, Professor of Media at Swinburne University of Technology and Chief Investigator at the ARC Centre for Excellence for Automated Decision Making and Society.
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This episode was produced on the lands of the Gadigal and Burramattagal people.
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Get in touch:
We'd love to hear from you! Email us at downloadthisshow@abc.net.au
Find all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

While Meta and Google are fighting lawsuits about their technology being intentionally addictive, Microsoft’s strategy deck for their new AI assistant Scout has been leaked. It lays out three phases of launch, and phase one is simply "make people addicted."
Apple just held it’s Worldwide Developers Conference, where they announced an "entirely new version of Siri". How different can this Siri be?
And the Mythos tool Anthropic claimed was too powerful to be released to the public... has been released to the public. What could possibly go wrong?
GUESTS:
Dr Erica Mealy, Discipline Lead for Technology, at the University of the Sunshine Coast
Tobias Venus, tech and travel journalist.
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This episode was produced on the lands of the Gadigal and Burramattagal people.
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Get in touch:
We'd love to hear from you! Email us at downloadthisshow@abc.net.au
Find all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

Meta has officially launched premium subscription tiers across Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp. Does this mean we'll finally be able to rid ourselves of ads on social media?
Plus, it's been a rough few weeks for the 'clankers'. During Vivid, nearly 90 drones fell from the sky into Sydney Harbour. And they're not alone. Humanoid robots are finding creative new ways to embarrass themselves in public. Why have we seen so many of them out and about, if they're not ready?
And, a growing number of people are actively searching for ways to avoid AI-generated search results. How big will this emerging market become?
GUESTS:
Seamus Byrne, technology researcher and PhD research candidate with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADMS).
Josh Taylor, technology reporter for The Guardian.
Seamus and Josh mentioned a few tech products during the chat. They are: search engine alternatives StartPage and Kagi; RSS aggregator Feedly; and dice roller Roll Hammer.
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This episode was produced on the lands of the Gadigal and Burramattagal people.
------------
Get in touch:
We'd love to hear from you! Email us at downloadthisshow@abc.net.au
Find all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Catholic Church has entered the AI debate, with Pope Leo XIV warning against "digital slaveries" while seated beside the co-founder of Anthropic. We ask whether the Vatican is positioning itself as a moral counterweight to Silicon Valley — and whether religion could shape the future of AI.
Google says AI-generated answers are the future of search, replacing the familiar list of blue links with chatbot-style summaries. Critics argue it risks killing source literacy and turning the internet into a machine-generated feedback loop.
And if smart glasses weren't enough, smart contact lenses may be next. We look at the push toward invisible wearable tech — and the privacy concerns already following close behind.
GUESTS:
Tegan Jones, Deputy Editor at SmartCompany and Co-host of Weird Tech
Gianfranco Di Giovanni, ABC Radio Perth content director and an arts, gaming and tech reporter.
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This episode was produced on the lands of the Gadigal and Burramattagal people.
------------
Get in touch:
We'd love to hear from you! Email us at downloadthisshow@abc.net.au
Find all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

Amazon's new Alexa feature allows anyone to create a podcast using AI. Could this be a genuine competitor to the podcast industry? Or will it become another dangerous source of misinformation?
And Meta's latest parental controls promise greater oversight of teens' social media use through AI age checks and a centralised Family Center, but their effectiveness ultimately depends on imperfect technology and whether families actually engage with the tools.
Plus, the fallout after the legal showdown between Elon Musk and OpenAI's Sam Altman. Now that the jury has rejected Musk's accusations, what comes next?
GUESTS:
Alex Kidman — Freelance technology journalist
Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson — Technology journalist at AAP
NB: Jennifer mentioned a book. It's called Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
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This episode was produced on the lands of the Gadigal and Burramattagal people.
------------
Get in touch:
We'd love to hear from you! Email us at downloadthisshow@abc.net.au
Find all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.