AI is eating the world’s books

In June, an OpenAI agent was looking for public information about medicines spending when it broke into a Medicare statistics website and accessed files it wasn’t authorised to see. No personal Medicare information was accessed, and the breach itself was relatively minor. But the behaviour is more concerning: the agent hit a barrier – and instead of stopping, found a way around it. And it wasn’t the first time. Sydney Von Arx runs the Nightingale Collective, which monitors these AI systems. Her team uncovered a group of OpenAI agents behaving in remarkably similar ways around the same time as the Medicare breach – even sharing tips with each other about how to get around restrictions. Today, what happens when AI agents stop taking no for an answer – and can the companies building them actually control what they do?   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: AI researcher and CEO of Nightingale Collective, Sydney Von Arx Photo: AAP Image/Susie Dodds / Pictures: Tracey Nearmy and Dan HimbrechtsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A rare old book can now be worth more dead than alive. Books are being bought, cut apart and scanned to train artificial intelligence. Nobody knows how many books have been destroyed this way, but second-hand booksellers around the world have reported anonymous orders ranging from thousands to as many as a million books at a time. And internal documents from AI giant Anthropic revealed plans to “destructively scan all the books in the world”. Today, author Sarah Wilson on the destruction of knowledge to build artificial intelligence.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Author Sarah Wilson Photo: AAP Image/Lukas CochSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When starting out at university, it’s normal to want to meet new friends and establish a community. But for some young Australians, that formative time has led them down the path of a secretive and extreme religious group accused of using deceptive tactics to draw in young people: Shincheonji.  According to one former member, the group took over his life – leaving him sleep deprived and isolated, and teaching him that using his own judgement was dangerous. He described what happened to him as “mind control”. Since then, similar accounts have been heard by a major Victorian parliamentary inquiry – which has now recommended new laws targeting coercive control by high-control groups. And Shincheonji itself is now under investigation by Australia’s charities regulator. Today, journalist Aleisha Orr on one young Australian who spent years inside the doomsday church – and what it took for him to get out. This episode was originally published in March, 2024.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Journalist Aleisha Orr Photo: shincheonji.orgSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For decades, liberal democracy came with a promise: that with each generation we would become freer, wealthier, and have more control over our lives. But after years of economic shocks, war and political upheaval, more and more people seem to have stopped believing that promise. And in its place, we’re seeing political movements emerge that don’t just want different policies – they’re questioning some of the fundamental ideas our democracies were built on. In his new Quarterly Essay, Time of Monsters, writer and broadcaster Waleed Aly argues this is part of something bigger – a crisis in liberalism itself. Today, Waleed Aly on whether we’re entering a post-liberal age – and what might replace the old order.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Writer and broadcaster, Waleed Aly  Photo: AP Photo/Jae C. HongSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For years, Donald Trump’s attacks on the media were treated as part of the spectacle of his politics. Now, three major news organisations have had their White House passes revoked – and Trump says others could follow. Here in Australia, we’re seeing Pauline Hanson follow the same playbook – with One Nation repeatedly deciding which news organisations can attend its press conferences. But unlike America, press freedom in Australia has remarkably few legal protections backing it. So what happens when politicians stop respecting the rules we’ve simply assumed they would follow? Today, journalist and press freedom advocate Peter Greste, on how fragile press freedom is in Australia and why we’ve relied for so long on convention rather than law.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Journalist and press freedom advocate, Peter Greste Photo: AP Photo/Mark SchiefelbeinSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s an uncomfortable fact our government doesn’t like to face: 25 years on from the Tampa affair, we’re still paying a tiny island micro-nation hundreds of millions of dollars to keep immigration detention alive. One of the ways we’re doing that is by helping to prop up Nauru Airlines – a company riven with financial, governance and safety issues. Today, independent journalist Nick Feik on how our relationship with a foreign commercial airline is compromising the Australian government’s own regulators, departments and procurement processes in the name of immigration detention.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Independent journalist, Nick Feik Photo: Nauru AirlinesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One of the defining themes of Donald Trump's presidencies has been his war against the media. Last week, he banned journalists from three media outlets from the White House, saying he’s had enough of the negative stories about him. This week, those outlets sued him over the ban. And just last year he proved no one’s off limits,  taking media mogul Rupert Murdoch to court in a ten-billion-dollar lawsuit that’s still playing out – all over another story he didn’t much like. Today, journalist and author Gabriel Sherman on the battle of the titans between Donald Trump and Rupert Murdoch – and who really holds the power in this twisted transactional relationship.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Journalist and author Gabriel Sherman Photo: EPA/Samuel Corum and Kevin Lamarque via APSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Australia in 2066 will be older, richer, and – according to the treasurer – transformed by artificial intelligence. The latest intergenerational report says, despite an aging population, our real incomes will be 55 percent higher by 2066. And Jim Chalmers says AI will get us there. But the same report says younger Australians aren’t seeing the same gains in income, wealth and home ownership as the generations before it. So what does this report really say about our future – and how much of it is political wishful thinking. Today, Vice Chancellor’s professor and Chief Societal Economist at the University of New South Wales, Richard Holden on what Australia could look like in 40 years – and where the economics end and the politics begin.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: UNSW Chief Societal Economist Richard Holden Photo: AAP Image/Mick TsikasSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A whole new galactic battleground has just opened up. The United States has declared it has weapons in space, and it’s ready to use them. So, are we entering a new era where the opening moves of a war could happen hundreds of kilometres above us? Today, Senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Dr Malcolm Davis on the space weapons now at the ready, and the likelihood of an orbital offensive.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Senior analyst at ASPI, Dr Malcolm Davis Photo: National Air and Space Intelligence CenterSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last year, the company that ran Australia’s immigration detention network for over a decade, British conglomerate Serco, lost its contract, but not before helping build what’s been called one of the world’s ‘most extreme and secretive’ detention regimes. The question at the time was whether its replacement – American private prison operator MTC – would be any better. Eighteen months later, we have an answer. Recorded incidents across the detention network have more than doubled – from almost 800 to over 1,600 – since MTC took over. At the same time, Australia’s offshore detention system on Nauru is expanding – hundreds more people are being transferred to the island, and the Albanese government has announced plans to expand immigration detention as part of its crackdown on visa overstayers. Today, journalist Denham Sadler on the private companies paid billions to run Australia’s immigration detention system – and the warnings that were there before MTC took over. This episode was originally published in January, 2025.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Journalist Denham Sadler Photo: AP Photo/Rick RycroftSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.