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, critic and poet based in Fremantle. Raised in the United Kingdom, he gained an MA in Literary History and Cultural Discourse and worked in publishing before moving to Australia. His work appears widely, including in The Australian, The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, The Independent, The Monthly, Griffith Review, The Sydney Review of Books, Meanjin, Overland, New Matilda, Australian Book Review and 3 Quarks Daily (for whom he wrote a regular column between 2016 and 2018), The Best Australian Poems and The Best Australian Science Writing. His first book, On Offence: The Politics of Indignation, was published in Australia and the United Kingdom. King writes regularly for Arena, focusing on the relationship between culture and technology. His website is bloodycrossroads.com. His latest book is Here Be Monsters: Is Technology Reducing Our Humanity? (Monash University Publishing, 2023).

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.