Machines Will Do the Work

Tracey Spicer AM is a multiple Walkley Award winning author, journalist and broadcaster who has anchored national programs for ABC TV and radio, and Network Ten. In 2019 she was named the NSW Premier’s Woman of the Year, and accepted the Sydney Peace Prize alongside Tarana Burke for the Me Too movement. Her new book, Man-Made: How the bias of the past is being built into the future, is about artificial intelligence. Tracey is thrilled to be coming back to her home town for the Brisbane Writers Festival. 

Prof. Marek Kowalkiewicz is a Professor and Chair in Digital Economy at QUT Business School. Listed among the Top 100 Global Thought Leaders in Artificial Intelligence by thinkers360, Marek has led global innovation teams in Silicon Valley, was a Research Manager of SAP's Machine Learning lab in Singapore, a Global Research Program Lead at SAP Research, as well as a Research Fellow at Microsoft Research Asia.

Richard King is an author and critic based in Fremantle, whose work has appeared in The Australian, The Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, The Independent, The Monthly, Griffith Review, The Sydney Review of Books, Meanjin, Overland, New Matilda, Australian Book Review, The Best Australian Poems, The Best Australian Science Writing and a host of other publications. His first book, On Offence: The Politics of Indignation, was published by Scribe in 2013, and his second, Here Be Monsters: Is Technology Reducing Our Humanity? was published by Monash University Publishing in 2023. His latest book is Brave New Wild: How Technology Will Save the Planet (and Other Dangerous Fallacies). King is a contributing editor to Arena Quarterly, focusing on the relationship between culture and technology. His website is bloodycrossroads.com. 

Dr Leah Henrickson is a Lecturer in Digital Media and Cultures at the University of Queensland. She is the author of Reading Computer-Generated Texts (Cambridge University Press, 2021) and numerous peer-reviewed articles about how we understand text generation systems and output, artificial intelligence, and digital media ecosystems. Dr Henrickson also studies digital storytelling for critical self-reflection, community building, and commercial benefit. She regularly supports projects and organisations in their digital storytelling efforts as consultant and advisor.