It started as a weekly segment on BayFM's Roadtrip called Activista in which Access Now's CEO Brett Solomon and I talked about how to be a better activist at a time when the world needs you most.
In 20 episodes, each around 15 minutes long, we shared ideas about things like the power of the whiteboard to capture ideas, and how to chair a meeting, giving space for the quietest voices in the room. We also followed the 2022 Federal Election with a special focus on the tactics of competing campaigns.
Then towards the end of that year, we shifted our focus to the online world where so much change was taking place right before our eyes. The result is the This Week In Cyberspace podcast, in which we take a global gaze at the most pressing issues of the day - internet shutdowns, censorship, and the latest moves by digital dictatorships to control their citizens.
Now in its second series, we're paying particular attention to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it's impacting our daily lives. In Utopia v's Apocalypse we examined the AI debate and how to protect ourselves from the rise and rise of Artificial Intelligence. With Microsoft’s decision to ditch its entire AI ethics team, and the European Union's vote on the EU AI Act, we look at the possible disruptions to democracy on the horizon.
Human rights in the digital age is very much Brett's patch, and it's been eye-opening for me to explore it with him. Each week I learn about new projects like the megalopolis Neom in Saudi Arabia where Microsoft, Google and other tech giants are building cloud data storage facilities. Neom is also home to The Line, a 170km long, 500 metre high, 200 metre wide city for 9 million inhabitants that claims to be totally sustainable.
It's always an enlightening discussion and I hope you get as much of a blast out of discovering these futuristic ideas as I do.
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