7am

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 Himbrechts
See 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 Coch
See 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.org
See 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. Hong
See 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 Schiefelbein
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.