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Digital Futures Summit

The Digital Futures Summit is an opportunity for leaders, educators and policymakers in the Australian and international screen and broadcast industries to discuss the impact, challenges and possibilities of technological change on labour, training and creativity.

This fourth summit will bring a range of conversations around creativity, pedagogy, ethics, Indigenous sovereignty and inclusion in the emerging age of AI. This live and interactive online event includes some of Australia’s and the world’s foremost AI experts from a range of different companies, universities and institutes. 

UPCOMING EVENTS

Session 1 – Learning with AI

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At the foundation of AI is a relationship between artificiality and intelligence, which raises compelling questions about cognitive processes, creative intelligence, and the development of technological behaviours. This session begins the Digital Futures Summit with a panel focused on interactions between the brain, literacy, and pedagogy in the use of AI in creative industries education, especially as it relates to screen and audio practice. 

Session 2 – Critical Making: AI in Screen and Audio Education

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AI in the classroom is a challenge for the education sector. For screen and audio education, navigating this challenge involved being open to how AI can enhance opportunities for creative, critical making in the learning journey while also being attuned to how such technologies can influence the nature of imagination and play in creative practice education. This panel discusses case studies on how AI can be used in the space. These case studies will provoke questions about creative practice-based learning, innovation in education, and consequences on access and inclusion to respond to the impact of rapid technological change in the classroom. 

Session 3 – Augmented Creativity: AI in the Creative Industries

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The increasing sophistication of AI means that tools for generative creation are more widely adopted by industry professionals in the screen and audio sectors. This panel convenes screen and audio industry leaders to explore the opportunities and challenges of experimenting with AI at the professional level and how adopting these tools might reshape professional production processes and workflows. Underpinning this discussion is the question of whether AI is just another tool to optimise professional practice or whether there are inherent limitations facing its standardised use in the screen and audio industries. 

Session 4 – Indigenous Sovereignty and AI: Storing Cultural Practices and Reclaiming Narratives through AI, Film, Radio and Beyond

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The session aims to explore how AI can be used as a tool in Film, Radio, Television and beyond to support our already existing Indigenous Knowledge (IK) systems. Looking at ways Indigenous Sovereignty and Indigenous Data Sovereignty can support the flourishing of future generations and to optimise for abundance rather than scarcity.

Session 5 – The Politics of AI: Navigating Ethics, Inclusion and Job Disruption in the Creative Industries

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This session explores some of the complexities surrounding AI and its use in the creative industries, from artists’ labour rights and ownership protection to the risk of embedded biases in the development of AI tools. With the widespread use and normalisation of AI in society and, particularly, the screen and audio sectors, these issues raise concerns about the inclusivity of voices, diversity of knowledge, and future workforce development. 

PAST EVENTS

2022 – Audio: Connectivity, Community and Audience

In our third edition of AFTRS’ Digital Futures Summit series, Audio: Community, Connectivity and Audience, we brought together the big brains in audio to talk about the intersection of sound, radio, and podcasting and the possibilities for connecting with audiences, old and new, in this world of digital disruption.

Visionaries and leaders from industry, education, and government sectors came together to discuss big questions facing Australia’s screen and broadcast industries in a global context.

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2022 – The Business of Australia’s Digital Future

This summit focused on the future of business in the Australian screen and broadcast sector, zeroing in on business models and leadership to capitalise on the innovations and growth of the digital age.

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2021 – Virtual Production

Held online, the first summit in AFTRS’ Digital Futures series looked at current and future practices and the opportunities that virtual production brings to the local industry. The summit explored how the industry can leverage digital technologies to “leapfrog” through change to accelerate growth opportunities.

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