Big Ideas

When it was founded in 2015, openai — the company behind Chat GPT — had a mission to develop artificial intelligence tools that would benefit humanity. But somewhere along the way, that mission changed.  While the use of AI in our daily lives is increasingly pervasive, the technology's toll on the environment, human rights, copyright, privacy and workers and resources in the global south is starting to mount. In her new book, leading AI reporter Karen Hao details the AI industry's pursuit of progress at any cost.

This conversation was recorded at RMIT University in partnership with Readings Bookshop on 5 September 2025.

Speakers

Karen Hao Author, Empire of AI: inside the reckless race for total domination, former Wall St Journal reporter, former senior AI editor at the MIT Technology Review, lead at the Pulitzer Centre's AI spotlight series, one of Time Magazine's Top 100 people in AI in 2025

Kobi Leins (host) Lawyer, academic, AI governance and digital ethics advisor, author, New War Technologies and International Law: The Legal Limits to Weaponising Nanomaterials

ABC Radio National's CITIZEN JURY takes hard, hot-button issues affecting a community — and places citizens at the centre of finding solutions. It's citizen-driven democracy in action!

Tasmanian salmon is on dinner plates across Australia. It's a 1.4 billion-dollar industry producing jobs for Tasmanians, and more than 70, 000 tonnes of fish annually — with plans for expansion. 

But salmon farming has also become a lightning-rod for locals concerned about its environmental impact — on water quality, wild species, and then there was the mass mortality event last summer which saw over 1 million salmon die and smelly fatty fishy globules wash up on local beaches. 

Join BIG IDEAS host and science journalist Natasha Mitchell in the historic town of Franklin in the Huon Valley with three Citizen jurors, two expert witnesses, and a live audience of passionate locals — including salmon workers and activists — as they listen, debate, and share solutions on this fraught issue.

CITIZEN JURORSJohn StanfieldLifelong recreational fisher in Tasmania, former army employee, now works in healthFounder, RecFishTas (Recreational Fishing in Tasmania) Facebook GroupPeter GrahamSculptor, former mining industry geologistSecretary, Port Huon Progress Association Lives near a salmon company's hatchery facilityDr Rayne AllinsonHistorian, former university academic, authorFirst-time environmental campaigner and state election candidate after mass salmon die-off polluted her local beach in 2025. Employed by newly elected MP Peter George's electoral office in 2025.

EXPERT WITNESSESProfessor Jeff RossSenior researcherFisheries and Aquaculture CentreInstitute of Marine & Antarctic StudiesUniversity of Tasmania 

Christine Coughanowr Water quality management consultantCo-chair, Tasmania Independent Science CouncilFounder and former director,  Derwent Estuary Program partnership

INDUSTRY REPRESENTATIVEDr John WittingtonCEO, Salmon TasmaniaFormer CEO, Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre (CRC)Former Secretary of the Department of Primary Industries, Parks Water and Environment, Tasmania

AUDIENCE

Members of the Huon Valley community and surrounds. The call-out for audience was made on ABC Hobart, ABC Radio National, and The Cygnet. Huon & Channel Classifieds.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to Huon Valley Council for granting the ABC access to The Palais Theatre in Franklin for this event.

Thanks to Jo Spargo and the ABC Hobart team for supporting this Citizen Jury event.

Thanks to Huon Aquaculture staff for a tour of their hatchery facility and salmon pens for the Citizen Jury members and ABC Citizen Jury team.

FURTHER INFORMATION

How many salmon farms are there in Tasmania — and who owns them? (ABC News, 2025)

Massive fish deaths in Tasmanian salmon farms to be investigated (ABC 730, 2025)

Tasmanian salmon industry reeling from largest-ever fish deaths event as EPA launches investigation (ABC News, 2025)

In 1975, aged just 29, she wrote a bestselling book that changed Australia. Since then, she's courted controversy and acclaim, but Anne Summers has never given up the fight for gender equality.

This conversation was recorded live at the 2025 Sydney Writers' Festival.

Speakers

Dr Anne SummersAuthor, Damned Whores and God's Police, Ducks on the Pond: An Autobiography 1945-1976, The Misogyny Factor, and many moreProfessor of domestic and family violence, University of Technology SydneyJournalist, editor, political advisor, advocate

Dr Alecia Simmonds (host)Associate Professor in Law, University of Technology SydneyAuthor, Courting: An Intimate History of Love and the Law, and Wild Man: The True Story of a Police Killing, Mental Illness and the Law

Further information:

Tenacity and two squat houses — how an Australian movement was born for women leaving violenceBig Ideas, ABC Radio National, Monday 6 May 2024

Baby boycott — the fertility crisis and the big decisionBig Ideas, ABC Radio National, Thursday 26 June 2025

When people say or do the wrong thing, we have laws and a legal system that should be able to deliver consequences and, hopefully justice. But in this digital age, the human instinct to inflict punishment in the court of public opinion has reached fever pitch. So do we want to live by mob rule, or the rule of law?

The 2025 James Merralls Fellowship in Law Lecture, hosted by the University of Melbourne Law School and the Victorian Bar, was recorded on 4 September 2025.

Speakers

Sue Chrysanthou Defamation barrister

James Waters (host) Commercial law barrister

For all of human history, space has been a place of mystery, awe and fascination. But unless you're an astronaut, a billionaire, or a pop star, most of us will never have the opportunity to travel there — except in our minds. This conversation features two writers who've used the perspective of space to explore our humanity, Earth's place in the universe, and the meaning of it all.

The conversation, Out of this World was recorded live at the 2025 Sydney Writers' Festival.

Speakers

Samantha Harvey Author, Orbital (2024 Booker Prize winner) and many more

Ceridwen Dovey Writer of fiction, creative non-fiction and science, filmmaker, author of Only the Astronauts and many more

Ashley Hay (host) Writer, editor, facilitator, mentor, author of A Hundred Small Lessons, and many more

Have you ever visited an art gallery full of wonder, ready to be inspired, only to leave feeling like it was all a bit over your head? You're about to meet one writer whose new book of essays rejects the over-complication and gets to the messy, human heart of art.

What Artists See is a collection of essays from award-winning arts writer and critic Quentin Sprague, canvassing twelve contemporary Australian artists whose works span sculpture, painting and architecture, and the stories are just as diverse as the mediums.

This talk was recorded at the ANU Drill Hall Gallery on 27 August 2025.

Speakers

Quentin SpragueArts writer and critic, author of What Artists See, Ken Whisson: Painting and Drawing and The Stranger Artist: Life at the Edge of Kimberley Painting (2021 Prime Minister's Literary Award for non-fiction)

Mark McKennaProfessor of history, University of Sydney, author, The Shortest History of Australia, Return to Uluru, From the Edge: Australia's Lost Histories, Looking for Blackfellas' Point and An Eye for Eternity: The Life of Manning Clark, (winner, Prime Minister's Literary Award for non-fiction)

When a child is born, so too is a mother. This idea, known as "matrescence", was first conceived in the 1970s by American medical anthropologist Dana Raphael. Parenting in 2025 looks very different in many ways,  the scientific evidence now supports the theory that women undergo radical physiological, psychological and social changes during pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood.

This conversation was presented by the Sydney Opera House at the 2025 All About Women Festival.

Speakers

Lucy Jones Science journalist and author, Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood

Gina Rushton (host) ABC journalist and author, The Parenthood Dilemma, Procreation in an Age of Uncertainty

He was undefeated in battle and established one of the largest empires in history. But his legacy goes beyond his military conquests. He increased trade between East and West, spread the Greek civilisation and founded cultural centres that still thrive today. Learn more about Alexander the Great's life, personality and impact with a fresh perspective on his reign, including the vital roles that other figures played in historical events and new insights into how and why historical interpretations have changed.

This talk is provided by the York Festival of Ideas. The Festival is led by the University of York, UK.

Speaker

Dr Stephen HarrisonLecturer in Ancient History, Swansea University, Author of Alexander the Great: Lives and Legacies

She became the third ever woman to win a Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018, and the first in 50 years. This is the story of how Donna Strickland became a "Laser Jock", and why she's now on a mission to restore trust in science.

This event was recorded at the Centre for Ideas at the University of New South Wales.

Speakers

Donna StricklandProfessor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Waterloo, Canada2018 winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics (with Gérard Mourou)

Tegan Taylor (host) Presenter, Life Matters and What's that Rash? ABC Radio National

Further information:

Ziggy Ramo is an award-winning musician and author whose latest book titled Human?: A lie that has been killing us since 1788 weaves song, visual art and personal history to present a new way of looking at this country’s past.  Led by Mparntwe and Alice Springs-based poet Laurie May, Ziggy reflects on the project and where it took him at the Byron Writers Festival.

Each chapter of Human? is a multi-media journey, the richness of the art forms matches the depth of the topics covered – both personal and political to Ziggy. 

Speakers

Ziggy Ramo Wik and Solomon Islander artist and author of Human?: A lie that has been killing us since 1788

Laurie May Mparntwe and Alice Springs-based poet and spoken word performer