Marcus and Michael broadcast this first video podcast from the Bunker, after taking measures to obscure the location (security, opacity and non-disclosure is baked in to the SAA culture, given we focus on Australia’s Defence organisation…).

The first chunk of the episode gets into the important but superficial debate in Australia about OpenAI and Anthropic’s push to operate in Australia only if the Albanese Government loosens data protection laws on copyright to allow the companies to do large scale, free, data harvesting. It covers SAA’s new report “AI, national security & copyright” available at this link. Odd that the incredible power of AI can solve the world’s impossible maths problems, break global cyber security & probably cure cancer – but the AI firms can’t work out how to pay content creators for the work.

The Grumpies explain what datasets are useful to AI for national security purposes and what are just commercially valuable to the AI firms. Surprisingly, Powderfinger’s back catalogue isn’t much help with counter-terrorism or military targeting.

The video version is here on Spotify.

and here on YouTube here,

Apple video is still to come (audio for now).

The episode also discusses the courageous UK Government decision to “cut steel” on the first SSN-AUKUS submarine in 2027, before a detailed design of the sub is finished. Cutting steel without a design is a lead indicator of a troubled program, so the UK move is all bad news for the AUKUS fraternity and UK and Australian submariners who want boats.

The episode ends with a celebration: 20 years of effort from the project team in Defence HQ acquiring the Triton long range surveillance drone has delivered – 29 hours of high quality surveillance in its first year. Australia is getting less surveillance hours out of its shiny P-8 aircraft and Triton fleets covering our huge EEZ than we did from the old turbo prop P-3 aircraft. Progress can be strange.