Where’s the AI Off Switch? Sophie Gee, Shae O Omonijo and Reuben Rideaux, with Daniel Browning

Sophie Gee is a professor in the English Department at Princeton University. At the University of Sydney is the inaugural Vice-Chancellor's Fellow and co-director of the Eleos Collaboration in the Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Community and Leadership). The Collaboration builds academic knowledge that is compassionate and communal.

She is a novelist, journalist and scholar, and her most recent book is a history of 18th-century novels, eating rituals and empire called The Barbarous Feast (Princeton University Press, 2026). Sophie is co-host of the Secret Life of Books, a podcast about classic books.

Shae O Omonijo is a humanist and writer working at the intersection of technology and the humanities. She is the founder of Critical Thinking Labs, a think tank dedicated to preserving human intelligence in an age of accelerating automation, and the creator of the Critical Thinking Bot, a tool built to sharpen, rather than replace, human reasoning. She is a PhD candidate at Harvard University, where she also earned her master's degree, and completed her undergraduate studies with honours at the University of Chicago. Her Substack bestseller, AI, the Humanities, and the Future of Work, explores what we stand to lose and what we must protect, as artificial intelligence reshapes how we think, work and understand ourselves. Shae speaks internationally on the future of critical thought in the age of AI.

Reuben Rideaux is Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology at The University of Sydney and Lead AI Researcher at Explore Science. He combines computational modelling, brain imaging and psychophysics to study perception and cognition. He has a particular interest in developing new methods for understanding brain function and dysfunction, such as bio-inspired artificial intelligence systems, high-resolution functional MR spectroscopy and neural decoding. He has been awarded over $2.5M in competitive research funding, published over 40 scientific papers and received national and international recognition for his research, including being named one of the Top 20 Under 40 Biomedical researchers in Australia (2022). 

The inaugural Professor of Cultural and Creative Industries, Daniel Browning is an Aboriginal writer, journalist, radio broadcaster, documentary maker and sound artist. In his previous role as Editor, Indigenous Radio, at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, he led the Indigenous Radio Unit, overseeing the longstanding flagship programs Awaye! and Speaking Out, as well as establishing the language revival podcast Word Up. 

A visual arts graduate and self-described “failed artist”, Daniel went on to host The Art Show and Arts in 30 podcasts, soothing ABC audiences with a voice once described as “like honey dripping over a rock by a rainforest stream”. 

In nearly three decades at the national broadcaster, he worked as a general and specialist arts reporter, digital journalist, newsreader, sub-editor, producer, presenter, manager and senior executive across several divisions, including News and Current Affairs, triple j, ABC Indigenous and Radio National. Daniel is a widely published freelance writer, public interlocutor, arts communicator and cultural critic.