For Tech's Sake

In this episode of For Tech’s Sake, Elaine and Jenny draw parallels between the tech industry and ‘fast fashion’ – notorious for its short production cycles and disregard for the environment and sustainability. Joining us for this conversation is Luísa Vasconcelos E Sousa, the new country manager of Swappie in Ireland, who introduces us to a more circular alternative for smartphone purchases. For links to the stories and reports discussed in this episode, and other resources, check out fortechssake.info. For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody and this episode was guest-produced by Dan Wilcox. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you understand money? Neither do we, to be honest. And now that digital platforms are creating their own forms of finance – often without the restrictions of any pesky regulation – the meaning of ‘money’ continues to evolve. To get our heads around the changing nature of money, we spoke to Rachel O’Dwyer, a lecturer in digital cultures at the National College of Art and Design and the author of Tokens: The Future of Money in the Age of the Platform. Rather than deep-dive on the tech underpinning the likes of digital currencies and NFTs, we explore the cultural notion of value and how the digital world is disrupting and manipulating that. You can get Tokens wherever you find good books and you can follow Rachel’s work @rachelodwyer on Twitter. — Here’s a report on the NFT crash: https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/21/95_percent_nfts_worthless/ — Here’s some background on M-Pesa and recent calls for it to be regulated like a bank: https://techcabal.com/2023/03/09/m-pesa-lawsuit/ — And here’s a story from the Silicon Republic archive about Bruce Willis (allegedly) giving out to Apple over iTunes and ownership: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/life/updated-yippee-ki-yay-apple-will-bruce-willis-sue-over-itunes-inheritance — For further listening you might enjoy our full-length interview with Aoife Barry on shifts in online culture, where we also discussed how the internet is becoming increasingly transactional. This is available for HeadStuff+ Community members right here: https://headstuffpodcasts.com/show/for-techs-sake/episode/v2-3_bonus-aoife-barry-author-of-social-capital/ We’ll also release Rachel’s full interview for HeadStuff+ Community members next week, and we’ll be back in a fortnight with an all-new episode. For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody. Thank you to Dan Wilcox for production, Matt Mahon and Dall-E for our graphics, Claudia Grandez for her social media support, and all at the HeadStuff team. If you want to support The HeadStuff Podcast Network, for our sake, for tech’s sake and for many more great podcasts, visit HeadStuffPodcasts.com. And follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr Patricia Scanlon is Ireland’s first AI ambassador, and she sees it as her duty to start a national conversation on AI and, especially, ethical AI. She joined us to talk about the kind of work that needs to be done to build better AI, and we wondered why that isn’t already the done thing. Patricia is also the founder of SoapBox Labs, which builds kid-focused speech recognition technology. Follow her @ScanlonPatricia and their work at @soapboxlabs on Twitter (we’re not calling it X). You can read more about Patricia and her role as Ireland’s AI ambassador here: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/ai-ambassador-patricia-scanlon-chatgpt-ethical-ai And some more links as promised in the episode: — Cringeworthy product placement for Bing in Hawaii Five-0 (not Miami Vice as Elaine mistakenly thought): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfHuZ5qrYX4 — Background on the EU AI Act: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/ai-act-passed-eu-parliament — Some background on OpenAI’s efforts to ensure the safety of ChatGPT: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/openai-chatgpt-ai-safety-data-hallucinations — What you need to know about Bard, Google’s ChatGPT rival: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/google-bard-eu-europe-available-ai-chatbot-languages — A look at how hands-on piloting skills are diminishing as a result of automation: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/business/automated-planes.html — Our season one episode on AI with Abeba Birhane: https://pod.fo/e/1856e8 — A great chart illustrating the dramatically shortening route to 100 million users: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/threads-100-million-users/ — A bit of background on Threads, Meta’s Twitter rival which was released shortly before we recorded this episode: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/business/threads-twitter-rival-eu-data We’ll release Dr Patricia Scanlon’s interview in its entirety for HeadStuff+ Community members next week, and we’ll be back in a fortnight with an all-new episode. For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody. Thank you to Julie Hassett and Dan Wilcox for production, Matt Mahon and Dall-E for our graphics, Claudia Grandez for her social media support, and all at the HeadStuff team. If you want to support The HeadStuff Podcast Network, for our sake, for tech’s sake and for many more great podcasts, visit [HeadStuffPodcasts.com] (http://headstuffpodcasts.com/). And follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you ever wanted to hear two nerds talk to an expert about sex, you’re in luck! In this episode, we speak to Dr Caroline West, a sex educator with a master’s in sexuality studies and a PhD in feminism and pornography, and she teaches us a thing or two about sex and dating in the digital age, from digital intimacy to dick pics. For obvious reasons, this isn’t an episode we would recommend for young, innocent ears, and we also discuss issues such as sexual violence online and offline. You can find out more about Caroline at IAmCarolineWest.com and be sure to check out her podcast, Glow West, for discussions on sex, sexuality, and the body, through a sexual wellness perspective. Dr Nicola Fox Hamilton’s work can be found here, and Dr Kate Dawson’s research on porn literacy is here. Coco's Law – otherwise known as The Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act – is explained here, and if you need to report intimate image abuse, go to Hotline.ie. Some more links you might find interesting: — An interview with Caroline on Silicon Republic — A recent article on sex-tech by Elaine, also featuring Caroline — Some further information on Hotline.ie — How educators are tackling the problems of bringing sex ed online — Some background on Replika AI and its ban in Italy — The long-distance kissing machine — Support your local Irish sex toy supplier at SexSiopa.ie We’ll release Caroline’s interview in its entirety for HeadStuff+ members next week, and we’ll be back in a fortnight with an all-new episode. For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody. Thank you to Megan Fox for production, Matt Mahon and Dall-E for our graphics, Claudia Grandez for her social media support, and all at the HeadStuff team. If you want to support The HeadStuff Podcast Network, for our sake, for tech’s sake and for many more great podcasts, visit HeadStuffPodcasts.com. And follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of For Tech’s Sake, we dive into the landfill of digital waste to turn up some nuggets of information we hope you’ll re-use. Tech waste involves more than just devices getting dumped, too. We also lose the precious and finite materials these devices contain. And, though it’s not apparent to us, our digital detritus of messages, selfies and endless streams of data has a physical footprint. To understand more, we spoke to Gerry McGovern, author of World Wide Waste and host of the podcast of the same name. You can follow Gerry on Mastodon at @gerrymcgovern@mastodon.green. We’ve also included a link his previous interview with Jenny on SiliconRepublic.com, as well as some other links listeners might find useful. https://gerrymcgovern.com/ Silicon Republic interview: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/enterprise/gerry-mcgovern-digital-pollution-e-waste World Wide Waste podcast episode with Josh Lepawsky: https://www.thisishcd.com/episode/josh-lepawsky-pernicious-myth-of-digital-as-ethereal Dublin’s Tog Hackerspace, which sometimes hosts a Repair Café: https://www.tog.ie/ Ireland’s repair and reuse directory: http://www.repairmystuff.ie/ This episode of For Tech’s Sake was hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody, and brought to you by Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network. Thank you to Megan Fox for production, Matt Mahon and Dall-E for our graphics, Claudia Grandez for her social media support, and all at the HeadStuff team. If you want to support The HeadStuff Podcast Network, for our sake, for tech’s sake and for many more great podcasts, visit HeadStuffPodcasts.com. And follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Claims of sentient AI have been largely debunked by experts, but there are still plenty of unsettling aspects of this technology that raise ethical questions. In this episode of For Tech’s Sake, Abeba Birhane, an expert in AI and cognitive science, helps us to better understand this fast-spreading technology and its limitations. We find out how AI can be at best unhelpful and annoying, and at worst prejudiced, powerful and completely opaque, particularly when the building blocks it's based on contain toxic materials. Read more about Abeba Birhane, the Gender Shades project, Blake Lemoine, and why sentient AI claims can be damaging on SiliconRepublic.com: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/mit-database-racist-misogynist-discovery-abeba-birhane https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/abeba-birhane-ucd-digital-colonialism https://www.siliconrepublic.com/business/microsoft-facial-recognition https://www.siliconrepublic.com/business/timnit-gebru-google-ai-scientist-fired-for-highlighting-bias https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/google-engineer-ai-sentient-lamda-chatbot https://www.siliconrepublic.com/business/sentient-ai-google-lamda-research-development-ireland-insight This episode of For Tech’s Sake was brought to you by Silicon Republic and The Headstuff Podcast Network. If you want to support The Headstuff Podcast Network, for our sake, for tech’s sake and for many more great podcasts, visit HeadstuffPodcasts.com. Follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While plenty of technology has been designed to make the world a safer place, it can also introduce a whole new way to abuse and exploit others. From stalker apps to location trackers, tech has given many abusers the opportunity to track, monitor and control others. While other seemingly innocuous devices such as smart doorbells and virtual assistants can have their settings manipulated for nefarious actions. Listen as Silicon Republic’s Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody discuss how these devices work, and how they can be misused. We also spoke to Louise O’Hagan, co-founder of Cyber Awareness Ireland, about the growing trend of tech-facilitated abuse and how easily our everyday devices can be used against us. For more information on this topic, check out: CyberAwarenessIreland.com SafeIreland.ie https://www.siliconrepublic.com/enterprise/safe-ireland-digital-domestic-abuse-technology-guide Online safety booklet: https://www.safeireland.ie/lets-talk-tech-online-safety-tips/ This episode of For Tech’s Sake was brought to you by Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network. Thank you to Gearóid Farrelly and Amy O’Dwyer for production, Matt Mahon and Dall-E for our graphics, Claudia Grandez for her social media support, and all at the HeadStuff team. If you want to support The HeadStuff Podcast Network, for our sake, for tech’s sake and for many more great podcasts, visit HeadstuffPodcasts.com. Follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Digital transformation is a buzzword in all business right now, and some businesses are deciding to push ahead with new tech adoption without consideration for the people it will impact. While some elements of digital transformation can lead to better operations, some of it is truly tech for tech's sake, and lead to job displacement and bad service. Listen as Silicon Republic’s Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody dissect what digital transformation actually means beyond the buzzword. To find out more, we also spoke to Joan Mulvihill, the digitalisation and sustainability lead at Siemens. Read more about Joan Mulvihill and her thoughts on digital transformation on SiliconRepublic.com: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/enterprise/digital-transformation-joan-mulvihill-siemens You can also check out Silicon Republic’s Digital Transformation Week, which covers this topic in more detail: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/series/digital-transformation-week/ This episode of For Tech’s Sake was brought to you by Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network. Thank you to Gearóid Farrelly and Amy O’Dwyer for production, Matt Mahon and Dall-E for our graphics, Claudia Grandez for her social media support, and all at the HeadStuff team. If you want to support The HeadStuff Podcast Network, for our sake, for tech’s sake and for many more great podcasts, visit HeadStuffPodcasts.com. Follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s been 60 years since John F Kennedy famously said, “We choose to go to the moon.” But why? Space exploration comes at the cost of billions and on the back of some stellar innovation spanning decades in development. Is it all really worth it? Listen as Silicon Republic’s Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody peer into space-tech and marvel at our fascination with whatever truths are out there. To find out more, we also spoke to Prof Tom Ray and Dr Patrick Kavanagh, two Irish scientists who worked on the James Webb Space Telescope.   Read more about their work at DIAS and the JWST on SiliconRepublic.com: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/james-webb-telescope-irish-scientists-dias-nasa  This episode of For Tech’s Sake was brought to you by Silicon Republic and The Headstuff Podcast Network. If you want to support The Headstuff Podcast Network, for our sake, for tech’s sake and for many more great podcasts, visit http://HeadstuffPodcasts.com Follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You know we love sustainability so we were very excited to learn about plans for digital product passports, which could slow down fast fashion, boost our right to repair and help shoppers make more informed choices.  Explaining this transformative tech for us are Dr Grace Walsh and Dr John Dooley from the CONNECT Research Ireland Centre for Future Networks and Communications. You can check out ForTechsSake.info for links to more resources, or find out more about CONNECT at ConnectCentre.ie and keep up with their research by subscribing to their newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jenny and Elaine are back in studio and catching up after Elaine was zooming around San Francisco in a driverless taxi. But how close are we to seeing fully autonomous cars on every road? Will Tesla’s Cybercab have enough in its computer vision system to see where it’s going? And how safe are self-driving cars, really?  We put all these questions to Dr Aisling O’Driscoll, a researcher at the CONNECT Research Ireland Centre for Future Networks and Communications. At CONNECT, Aisling is discovering how connecting vehicles to create a vast information-sharing network can help improve autonomous capabilities, as well as overall road safety and transport efficiency. You can check out ForTechsSake.info for links to more resources, or find out more about CONNECT at ConnectCentre.ie and keep up with their research by subscribing to their newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For Tech’s Sake is back with a very special mini-series in partnership with the CONNECT Research Ireland Centre for Future Networks and Communications. Starting from Science Week, we’ll be releasing a new episode every week for five weeks, exploring the intersection of science, art and society with CONNECT researchers. In this preview episode, hear from CONNECT’s director Prof Dan Kilper about what to expect. Find out more about CONNECT at ConnectCentre.ie, and check out ForTechsSake.info for links to more resources. FTX x CONNECT is brought to you by your hosts Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody, in partnership with CONNECT and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, and produced by Hilary Barry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Despite all our “wireless” connectivity and “cloud” computing, the internet we enjoy today relies on extensive cables that cross seas and oceans, and our island on the edge of Europe has had a crucial role to play in this global network, both in the past and present. In this episode, we get a history lesson in telecommunications from Deryck Fay, author of Connecting A Nation, who appears alongside Elaine in the upcoming documentary, The Cable that Changed the World. We also follow this development to the present day, and examine Ireland’s continued critical position in protecting the internet’s infrastructure. The Cable that Changed the World will air on RTÉ One, August 12th at 9.35pm. You can connect with Deryck Fay at DFIT.ie and pick up a copy of his book online or in stores. And check out ForTechsSake.info for links to some of the stories we discussed here. For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody and produced by Hilary Barry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Elaine and Jenny look at the risks of working with robots – and it’s not just that they might steal your job. For this discussion, they are joined by Tom Deegan, a health and safety consultant at Mackin EHS who has become the go-to guy for risk assessments in workplaces introducing robotics and cybernetics, ensuring that the bots behave and everyone is safe. (You might even say he’s a robo-cop.) You can find out more about Mackin EHS at MackinConsultancy.com or connect with Tom on LinkedIn. And check out ForTechsSake.info for links to some of the stories – and the many robots – we discussed here. For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody and produced by Hilary Barry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We often look at the mental and emotional effects of technology on For Tech’s Sake, and this episode we have expert help in understanding it all in the form of cyberpsychologist Dr Nicola Fox Hamilton, a lecturer on the topic at IADT. You can follow Nicola on Instagram @nicolafoxh and on X @foxnic, and check out her work on her website, NicolaFoxHamilton.com. And head to ForTechsSake.info for some relevant links and resources. For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody and produced by Hilary Barry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Algorithms – they’re everywhere! But what the hell are they, how much influence do they wield and what makes them tick? This episode we’re joined by Megan Nyhan to explain it all. Megan is a PhD researcher at D-Real where she is working on a framework for designing ethical and trustworthy AI recommender systems. Be sure to find her on LinkedIn if you are interested in Encode Justice and AI 2030. And head to ForTechsSake.info for all the links and resources for this episode. For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody and produced by Hilary Barry. CONTENT NOTE: This episode includes some discussion on eating disorders, and if you are affected by or seeking support on these issues, check out these resources from Bodywhys. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we're looking at health data all the way from the cradle to the grave, and beyond! Helping us on this journey is Prof Ciara Heavin, co-director of the Health Information Systems Research Centre at University College Cork and founder of CommPAL, a software platform using AI to better allocate specialist palliative care. Follow Ciara on X @c_heavin and get links and resources for this episode at ForTechsSake.info. For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody and produced by Hilary Barry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Everyone's talking about kids and tech, but is the internet responsible for young people's anxieties? And are bans an effective way of moderating behaviour? We looked at the research and spoke to an expert in early childhood education, Paula Walshe, who believes we can do better at teaching positive tech use from a young age. Paula is a PhD researcher and assistant lecturer with Dundalk Institute of Technology. You can find out more about her work on TheDigitalEarlyChildhoodEducator.ie and you can also check out her own podcast, the ECE Quality Ireland Podcast – and keep an eye out for her book on STEAM in early childhood education coming out later this year. As always, you can find links to the stories discussed in this episode at ForTechsSake.info. For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody and produced by Hilary Barry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did you know there are bins in Dublin connected to the internet? They are part of what’s known as the internet of things, or IoT, which is turning into something of an internet of trash for reasons other than the bins. To explain this, we have Prof Dirk Pesch, the director of Advance CRT, which is a Science Foundation Ireland centre for research and training focused on advanced networks for sustainable societies. You can follow Dirk on X (@DirkPesch) and you can find links to the stories and silly things discussed in the episode at ForTechsSake.info. For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody and produced by Hilary Barry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2024 is a major year for voters worldwide, but with tech being used to push all sorts of manipulative messaging and agendas, how can we trust what we see online during an election cycle? In this episode, we have Liz Carolan explaining how she remains (mostly) hopeful in the face of these threats to democracy, and giving us tips on how to muddle through the misinformation. Liz is a strategist and campaigner for tech and democracy, and the founder of Digital Action, a globally connected organisation campaigning to protect democracy and human rights from digital threats. Subscribe to her updates at TheBriefing.ie and check out ForTechsSake.info for links to the stories discussed in this episode and more resources. For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody and produced by Hilary Barry. CONTENT NOTE: This episode contains swearing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices