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Cory Doctorow is the author and tech critic who brought us the term ‘enshittification’ – which refers to the gradual decline in the quality of digital platforms and services over time.
Now he’s warning that what we’ve been led to believe is the inevitable march of AI towards world domination isn’t that inevitable after all, and actually what we’re marching towards could be the end of the AI bubble.
Because every time you ask ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini a question, companies like OpenAI are losing money. The more we use, the more they lose.
And while those AI giants burn through billions of dollars a year, gambling that eventually they’ll figure out how to turn it into a profitable business, the world’s economy is hanging in the balance.
Today, Cory Doctorow, on why the AI boom is being pushed into every part of our lives and what happens when the bubble bursts.

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Cory Doctorow is in Australia this August for appearances at Sydney’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas, and in Melbourne at The Capitol, presented by The Wheeler Centre and Now or Never. His new book, The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI, is out via Verso

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Guest: Author Cory Doctorow
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Alan Joyce was once one of Australia’s most admired business leaders.
By the time he left Qantas, he had become one of the country’s most hated men.
His final years at the airline were marked by unlawful sackings, cancelled flights, withheld refunds and a collapse in public trust. But in a new memoir, Riding the Jet Stream, Joyce defends many of the decisions that made him a symbol of corporate arrogance and public distrust.
Today, former Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce, on what he believes Australians got wrong about him – and whether he accepts responsibility for the damage done to the Qantas brand on his watch.

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Guest: Former Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce
Photo: AAP Image/Joel Carrett
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When Robert F Kennedy Jr was sworn in as Health and Human Services Secretary, his confirmation came off the back of a fiery questioning from Democrats and Republicans alike about RFK Jr’s record on vaccines. And under oath, RFK Jr denied he was against them.
But now, Reuters reports he considered scrapping the entire childhood immunisation schedule, removing polio and MMR vaccines, and spending five billion dollars investigating the disproven link between vaccines and autism.
Kennedy has spent two decades campaigning against vaccines, using his famous name to become one of the movement’s most prominent figures.
Today, we return to our conversation with investigative journalist Brian Deer, on Kennedy’s anti-vaccine campaign – and the deadly consequences of vaccine misinformation in Samoa.
This episode was originally published in February 2025.

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Guest: Investigative journalist Brian Deer
Photo: AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.
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Australia is one of the world’s biggest exporters of liquefied natural gas.
Over the past 25 years, the value of those exports has increased more than twentyfold. Yet revenue from the tax designed to capture the extraordinary profits made from petroleum resources has gone backwards.
This week, at its national conference, the Labor Party formally acknowledged that Australians deserve a "fairer return" from the resources beneath their land and seas.
But the party stopped short of backing the policy that forced the issue onto the agenda: a 25 per cent tax on gas exports that supporters say could raise up to $17 billion a year.
Today, Australia Institute co-chief executive Richard Denniss, on the unlikely alliance pushing Labor to take on the gas industry – and whether the party’s carefully chosen words will ever become an actual tax.

If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.

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Guest: Co-Chief Executive Officer at The Australia Institute, Dr Richard Denniss
Photo: AAP Image/Joe Castro
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In the East Room of the White House, Donald Trump made an extraordinary accusation of election interference: Beijing had illegally obtained the voter files of 220 million Americans.
He also accused US intelligence agencies of hiding the extent of China’s activity.
Later, Trump claimed a Homeland Security review had found around 278,000 non-citizens registered to vote.
Trump’s motivation, critics say, is to sow doubt ahead of the upcoming midterm elections – which he’s already made several attempts to reshape: from redrawing maps, to restricting voting, to firing the entire electoral commission.
Today, staff writer at The Atlantic David A. Graham, on Trump’s campaign to tilt the midterms and what he could still do before, during and after election day.

If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.

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Guest: Staff writer at The Atlantic David A. Graham
Photo: Saul LOEB / POOL / AFP
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.