Is this AI’s Black Mirror Moment?

AI – friend or faux?

In the wake of social media’s role in fuelling division and misinformation, we now face a new frontier—one that blurs the boundaries between reality and illusion. Are we hurtling into the future of artificial intelligence before we have even recovered from the digital chaos caused by social media?

Join Dr Karl and a panel of leading experts as they delve into the urgent questions surrounding AI’s rapid rise where:

• Large language models are prone to hallucination, confidently generating fiction disguised as fact.
• Deepfakes distort visual reality.
• AI’s unnervingly fluent speech creates the illusion of connection, while quietly reshaping how we relate to others, and to truth itself.

As machines grow more human in tone, we’re turning to it not just for information, but for guidance, companionship, even comfort. But could this growing dependence be making us lonelier, more deluded and dangerously misinformed? Are we becoming more connected or more isolated? Could our increasing reliance on intelligent machines be quietly altering how we think, feel, and relate to one another?

This thought-provoking discussion will explore how these technologies are reshaping not only our world, but our relationships, our trust in truth, and even our sense of self.

Don’t miss this timely conversation on the promises and perils of AI.

SPEAKERS
Dr Anna Broinowski is a Walkley Award–winning filmmaker, nonfiction author and Sydney University GenAI screen researcher who specialises in using innovative technologies and narrative modes to interrogate countercultural subjects.

Dr Micah B. Goldwater is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Sydney. He completed his PhD in Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin in 2009, and then held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Northwestern University until joining the University of Sydney in 2013. He takes an interdisciplinary cognitive science approach to researching how to help people think better.

Dr Karl Kruszelnicki just loves science to pieces and has been spreading the word in print, on TV and radio, and online for more than thirty years. The author of 48 books (and counting), Dr Karl is a lifelong student with degrees in physics and mathematics, biomedical engineering, and medicine and surgery. Since 1995, he has been the Julius Sumner Miller Fellow at the University of Sydney. In 2019, he was awarded the UNESCO Kalinga Prize for the Popularisation of Science.

Dr Jonathan K. Kummerfeld is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Computer Science at the University of Sydney. He works on making artificial intelligence (AI) systems like ChatGPT more useful by improving their core technology and developing new ways for people to use them, including addressing the problem of ‘hallucinations’ in AI-generated computer code.

MODERATOR
Rae Johnston is a multi-award-winning STEM journalist and broadcaster, and the host of ABC Radio National’s Download This Show, ABC Radio Sydney’s Sunday Mornings (broadcasting state-wide), and iHeartRadio’s Weird Tech podcast. She also travels the country as a TV host on NITV’s Going Places with Ernie Dingo, ABC’s Back Roads and SBS’s The Secret DNA of Us.
Rae currently serves on the boards of both the Telstra Foundation and Swinburne University of Technology.

Co-presented with the University of Sydney

EVENT DETAILS
📍 Sydney Opera House – Concert Hall
🎟 Tickets: $45 + $8.95 booking fee per transaction
🔗 Book now: sydneyoperahouse.com/curious/black-mirror-moment
👉🏽 Please note: All seating is General Admission (Unreserved).

🤝 PRE-SHOW MEET & GREET – 12:30PM
Before the conversation begins, join fellow guests at the Concert Hall Theatre Bar for a relaxed pre-show gathering. Enjoy premium Australian wines, crafted cocktails, and a selection of delicious light bites whilst taking in some of the best views of Sydney Harbour.
Please note that drinks and refreshments purchased at our theatre bars must be consumed in the designated foyer spaces and cannot be taken into venues unless otherwise advised.
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