Meta has officially launched premium subscription tiers across Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp. Does this mean we&#x27;ll finally be able to rid ourselves of ads on social media? Plus, it&#x27;s been a rough few weeks for the &#x27;clankers&#x27;. During Vivid, nearly 90 drones fell from the sky into Sydney Harbour. And they&#x27;re not alone. Humanoid robots are finding creative new ways to embarrass themselves in public. Why have we seen so many of them out and about, if they&#x27;re not ready? And, a growing number of people are actively searching for ways to avoid AI-generated search results. How big will this emerging market become? GUESTS: Seamus Byrne, technology researcher and PhD research candidate with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADMS). Josh Taylor, technology reporter for The Guardian. Seamus and Josh mentioned a few tech products during the chat. They are: search engine alternatives StartPage and Kagi; RSS aggregator Feedly; and dice roller Roll Hammer. ------------ This episode was produced on the lands of the Gadigal and Burramattagal people. ------------ Get in touch: We&#x27;d love to hear from you! Email us at downloadthisshow@abc.net.au Find all the episodes of Download This Show on the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

Would you pay to use Instagram?

Download This Show

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** Download This Show

## Transcript

[SPEAKER_A] ABC Listen.

[SPEAKER_B] Podcasts, radio, news, music and more. When was the last time you really looked at your kettle, your umbrella, the hallway mirror or even a gravestone? Every one of them was designed by someone for a reason. And those choices are still shaping how you live. The ordinary isn't ordinary at all. That's By Design with me, Anthony Burke. Find it on the ABC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[SPEAKER_C] If there's one word you're guaranteed to hear more and more often, it's clanker. A term borrowed from Star Wars, it's fast becoming the internet's catch-all for robots, autonomous machines and AI in general. And It's been a rough week or so for the clankers. Drones have fallen into Sydney Harbour, humanoid robots have stumbled through public demos, and we are glued to our tiny handheld screens watching it all. So why do we find robot fails so entertaining? My name is Rae Johnston, and welcome to Download This Show on ABC Radio National. Now joining me to unpack some of the biggest stories in tech right now is Seamus Byrne, tech researcher and PhD candidate with the ADMS. Seamus, welcome back.

[SPEAKER_B] Yeah, good to be here.

[SPEAKER_C] And Josh Taylor, technology reporter for The Guardian Australia. Welcome back, Josh.

[SPEAKER_A] Great to be back with you.

[SPEAKER_C] Now, Meta has officially launched subscription tiers across Instagram and Facebook and WhatsApp, adding premium features for users willing pay a monthly fee. Seamus, take me through the paid tier features. What would we be paying for exactly?

[SPEAKER_B] That's actually a more complicated question than you would think. We have a WhatsApp Plus, we have a Facebook Plus, we have an Instagram Plus, and then that's not even touching on the other Meta One AI offerings that they've also been introducing. But the key ones that I think most people are going to care a lot about is Instagram Plus, And so on that one, we're seeing things like extending story expiries, creating multiple story audiences. So actually being able to split up who might see your stories. Even tricky things like previewing stories, which basically means you can look at stories but not actually let the person see that you have seen the story. Separate from special creator program things that are also happening. But then over on WhatsApp, you get things like premium stickers, pinning chats, Premium ringtones. Like, so it's so much of it is like just little fluffy extras, like new app icons to choose from. So just, it does feel like a lot of fluffy extras for people who use these things so much. They're like, yeah, give me more stuff in that.

[SPEAKER_C] Let me do all the extra bonus things. And Josh, how much are we going to be paying for this if we want all those little extra bonus things?

[SPEAKER_A] Yeah, I mean, they've said that the Instagram Plus and Facebook Plus will cost about US $3.99 each, an...

Would you pay to use Instagram?

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.

Would you pay to use Instagram?

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.