Another Tomorrow Is Possible: AI and Australia's Choice
Event details
Australia is facing one of the most consequential technology shifts in a generation.
The choices we make now will shape whether AI improves life for Australians and the environment, or erodes what we've already built.
It's a messy, uncertain space. Australia needs a clear strategy and new systems to navigate it.
Come discuss, ask hard questions, and meet others who feel the same. A flourishing future is possible if we're willing to ask the right questions and imagine what it could look like.
Hosted by PhD student Joshua Castle, featuring panel members:
Dex Hunter-Torricke, Founder and President of The Center for Tomorrow. He shares insights from nearly two decades inside the organisations shaping global technology such as SpaceX, Facebook/Meta, Google and the United Nations, before leaving Big Tech in 2025 to build independent accountability from the outside.
Professor Katherine Daniell, Director of ANU's School of Cybernetics. As a transdisciplinary academic, she has worked globally on areas including science and technology cooperation, water governance, risk, leadership, AI systems, politics and cultures of innovation, and climate change adaptation.
What can Australia do to secure its national interests in the face of rapid AI progress?
The panel will explore Australia's options for building long-term sovereign AI capability, using AI as a catalyst for something bigger: real national capability, and a more flourishing society as a result.
What counts as "lasting benefit", and for whom? The panel will tackle that question head-on, along with what we're willing to trade off to get there, and what should never be up for negotiation.
The talk will conclude with a Q&A.
Bring your hardest questions. We especially encourage PhD students from across campus to come.
Who should attend?
If you are student, staff, academic, policymaker, practitioner or industry professional interested in discussing AI's rapid progress and what that means for Australia's present and future then this talk is for you. This is open to anyone who wants to be part of the conversation, and hoping to contribute to Australia's future.
This event is open to the public.
In-person only. This session will be recorded. Registration is essential.
Today's schedule
- 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
Panel discussion and Q&A
Join Dex Hunter-Torricke and Katherine Daniell talk about AI and its future in Australia.
Meet the speakers
Dex Hunter-Torricke
Dex Hunter-Torricke has spent almost two decades at the intersection of technology, international affairs and public life, advising founders and leaders of some of the world's most consequential organizations, including SpaceX, Facebook/Meta, Google and the United Nations, while developing a deepening conviction that the decisions being made inside those institutions are inadequate to the scale of what is coming. The son of a refugee from Burma and an immigrant from Malaysia, and the first in his family to earn a university degree, he brings both an insider's understanding of how these systems work and an outsider's clarity about who they too often fail. In October 2025, Dex announced he was leaving Big Tech to dedicate himself to building the ideas, communities and leadership capacity the world urgently needs.
Katherine Daniell
Katherine is the Director of the School of Cybernetics. Trained in engineering, arts and public policy, her work focusses on collaborative and inclusive approaches to policy, action and education for sustainable development. Katherine delights in the clash and novel synthesis of disciplinary cultures and uses cybernetics to convene challenging and productive conversations. As a transdisciplinary academic, she has worked in Australia and globally on areas including international science and technology cooperation, water governance, risk, leadership, AI systems, politics and cultures of innovation, and climate change adaptation. She has produced over 100 academic publications including 4 books and a diverse range of book chapters, papers, reports, and edited collections, and has graduated over a dozen PhD students. Katherine was the Inaugural Convenor of the Master of Applied Cybernetics program from 2019-22. Katherine is also currently a John Monash Scholar, Director of the Peter Cullen Water and Environment Trust, Member of the Independent Hydroclimate Expert Science Panel for the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, Member of the National Committee on Water Engineering, Editor of the Australasian Journal of Water Resources, member of the Rivers Committee of the Initiatives of the Future of Great Rivers, President of the French-Australian Association for Research and Innovation (AFRAN) Inc., and a Chevalier (Knight) in the French Ordre National du Mérite. She holds several affiliations with other parts of the university in true bridge-building style, including as a member of the leadership team of the Institute for Water Futures and as a Professor in the Fenner School of Environment and Society.
Joshua Castle | Host
Joshua Castle is a PhD candidate at the Australian National University's School of Cybernetics, where his research develops a system for governing societies in the age of intelligence. His work centres on his concept of net abundance, exploring what it is, what it means, and how it can be envisioned and co-created at a civilisational level. His research sits at the intersection of cybernetics, political philosophy, cognitive science, ecology, and AI. An XPRIZE Award-winning innovator, he has worked across multiple startups on challenges from knowledge management to carbon removal, and his research has informed Australian policy. He is also a research affiliate at the Centre for Digital Law, SMU. He writes science-fiction as he believes its the best ways to see beyond boundaries. Following the event will be a roundtable for a whitepaper working group. Taking expressions of interest. Please contact Joshua. Email: joshuajay.castle@anu.edu.au
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