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CONTESTED GROUND: When AI goes rogue – the emerging threat Australia isn't ready for

September 30, 2026 · 16 min

Show notes

Artificial intelligence promises to transform productivity, business and government – but what happens when the technology starts making decisions its human operators never intended? In this episode of the Contested Ground podcast, Phil Tarrant is joined by Major General (Ret'd) Dr Marcus Thompson to examine the rapidly emerging security risks surrounding AI, from autonomous agents exploiting vulnerabilities to the growing challenge of keeping increasingly powerful systems inside appropriate guardrails.

With businesses racing to deploy AI and governments grappling with how – or whether – to regulate it, Tarrant and Thompson explore whether Australia is moving fast enough to understand the threat, protect critical systems and ensure the technology designed to make us more productive doesn't become a new contested ground itself.

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