Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI TECH SCROLL: X’s location feature chaos, Twitch in under-16s ban, Roblox CEO on user safety + female founder chat

Transcript

MINI TECH SCROLL: X’s location feature chaos, Twitch in under-16s ban, Roblox CEO on user safety + female founder chat · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  Hey everyone, and welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
• 0:03
  culture podcast bring you the biggest stories from social
• 0:05
  media, the creator economy, and the digital space every Monday
• 0:09
  through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.
• 0:11
  My name is Annabelle and I'm your Wednesday Mini Tech Scroll
• 0:14
  host and also the deputy editor of the youth digital media brand
• 0:17
  Centennial World. Welcome back to Mini Tech
• 0:21
  Scroll. Before we get into the stories
• 0:23
  today, I just wanted to let you know if you are watching this on
• 0:27
  the day it has been uploaded, this is actually being
• 0:30
  prerecorded. I recorded it yesterday for you,
• 0:33
  so Tuesday the 25th of November. And that is because Lauren and I
• 0:38
  have a pretty big day tomorrow or today.
• 0:42
  If you're watching this on Wednesday, we are actually doing
• 0:45
  red carpet coverage, so we thought it would be best for me
• 0:49
  to prerecord so we could just focus on that tomorrow.
• 0:53
  I'm sure Lauren will speak about it more on Thursday if you guys
• 0:58
  are interested. And also, you could probably see
• 1:01
  it on our socials. Maybe I don't tend to post a lot
• 1:05
  on my Instagram, which is something that Lauren tries to
• 1:09
  encourage me to do. But who knows, maybe we'll be
• 1:12
  posting. And before we get into the
• 1:14
  stories, I also wanted to add that we actually have our last
• 1:18
  female founder interview as part of our campaign with Blackbird
• 1:21
  for mini Tech scroll at the end of today's episode.
• 1:24
  So definitely stay tuned for that.
• 1:26
  I think it is a really interesting interview.
• 1:29
  Other than all that, Please remember to rate, review and
• 1:32
  subscribe and star rate US on Spotify.
• 1:35
  We also have a buy me a copy link in our description if you
• 1:38
  are so inclined. But let's get into the stories.
• 1:41
  The first story I wanted to talk about today is actually one
• 1:44
  that's been swelling around tech journalist circles this week.
• 1:48
  But this is basically how users have noticed that various
• 1:51
  political accounts on X have been astroturfing.
• 1:54
  So astroturfing, if you are unfamiliar with it, is
• 1:57
  essentially A deceptive marketing slash PR tactic that
• 2:01
  is about creating the appearance of widespread grassroots support
• 2:06
  for a person, product or movement when such support may
• 2:10
  not actually exist. And the conversation around all
• 2:14
  of this actually started on X when the platform introduced a
• 2:17
  feature that showed users where various accounts are based.
• 2:21
  And this update was actually announced at the end of last
• 2:24
  week. Quote in a couple of hours,
• 2:26
  we'll be rolling out about this account globally, allowing you
• 2:29
  to see the country or region where an account is based.
• 2:32
  This will be accessible by tapping the sign up date on
• 2:35
  profiles. This is an important first step
• 2:37
  to securing the integrity of the global town square.
• 2:40
  We plan to provide many more ways for users to verify the
• 2:43
  authenticity of the content they see on X.
• 2:46
  So I definitely can see the merit of a feature like this.
• 2:49
  I can't think it can be valuable on an app like X because ever
• 2:54
  since obviously Elon Musk took over and it became X, so much of
• 2:58
  it has been completely delegitimized.
• 3:00
  Like you can just think of verification as one example.
• 3:03
  So in theory, I think having more context about where a
• 3:06
  poster is posting from can be valuable simply to understand
• 3:10
  more maybe about their sociopolitical context.
• 3:13
  Of course, I do think there are privacy concerns.
• 3:16
  I think a lot of people enjoy platforms like X and Reddit for
• 3:20
  the anonymity it can give them. But from a consumer perspective,
• 3:23
  I can definitely see the value of an update like this.
• 3:26
  After the feature dropped, Internet Sleeve started checking
• 3:29
  various famous Twitter accounts to see where the user's country
• 3:33
  of origin was. And many journalists,
• 3:36
  publications and social media users have had a particular
• 3:39
  focus on MAGA accounts, finding out that many of the most
• 3:43
  popular popular pro Trump mega profiles are actually not based
• 3:46
  in the United States. In a piece for the Garbage Day
• 3:49
  newsletter, Ryan Broderick went through some of the most popular
• 3:53
  accounts and where they're based, so I'll read out the
• 3:56
  examples he gives. Now quote a network of fan
• 3:59
  accounts for Trump's family members including at Eric Trump
• 4:01
  Fan one at Baron T News under Score and at Trump Chi News are
• 4:06
  all run out of Macedonia, known for its extensive troll farms
• 4:10
  targeting American right wingers.
• 4:12
  An account called at Emma under score Brunette 95, which
• 4:15
  describes itself as an American patriot and relationship coach
• 4:19
  has over 600,000 followers is based in West Asia.
• 4:23
  And while these MAGA accounts are definitely the ones that
• 4:26
  have been making the most noise online or at least the most
• 4:30
  headlines in various publications.
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  I will say I have seen examples across the political spectrum
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  where accounts promoting issues or ideology or messaging
• 4:39
  associated with one side of the political spectrum are not in
• 4:43
  the expected country of origin. I've seen examples on the right,
• 4:47
  which of these MAGA accounts as well as on the left, and I just
• 4:50
  thought that was worth flagging before we continue anyway, the
• 4:54
  MAGA account specifically have prompted significant discourse
• 4:57
  across social media. For example, there has been some
• 5:00
  claims among more left-leaning American users that the
• 5:04
  prominence of international based MAGA accounts affirm that
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  certain foreign actors might be trying to manipulate American
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  voters and thought there can be truth to this, but I'm not sure
• 5:14
  if this is the whole story. In the same piece for Garbage
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  Day, Ryan Broderick held a similar sentiment.
• 5:20
  He noted that rather than a foreign actors influencing
• 5:23
  domestic politics, it goes to show how the Republican Party in
• 5:27
  the US have become so reliant on X for policy and messaging where
• 5:33
  they can't operate without it. As he writes quote, they use X
• 5:37
  to coordinate propaganda, create policy, and as a jobs board for
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  Trump's second administration, using its likes and shares in
• 5:43
  the place of actual leadership. And now we know that a
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  staggering amount of the accounts Republicans have been
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  relying on for viral feedback are either apolitical con
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  artists milking their hatred for clicks or pitiful, anonymous
• 5:56
  fascists lapping America's culture war because they can't
• 5:59
  wage one at home. It's proof that the American
• 6:02
  Right has spent the better part of the last decade letting
• 6:05
  algorithmic spam tell them what they want to hear, astroturfing
• 6:09
  themselves into believing that some silent majority out there
• 6:12
  believes in their worthless mag out crusade.
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  Interestingly, this is all come about in the same week that the
• 6:18
  Pew Research Center published a report documenting US social
• 6:22
  media habits and X has actually managed to hold on, even though
• 6:26
  the platform, like we have spoken about repeatedly at this
• 6:29
  point, has declined drastically in quality and reliability over
• 6:33
  the past few years. According to the data, 21% of
• 6:36
  American adults say they use X, and while this also may be on
• 6:40
  the lower end compared to other social media platforms, X turned
• 6:43
  out to be more popular than its competitors in Threads, Blue
• 6:47
  Sky, and even Truth Social. But yes, I am very curious to
• 6:51
  hear what you guys think about this story, especially if you
• 6:54
  are based in the US. What was interesting to me
• 6:57
  though is someone who obviously lives outside the US is how I
• 7:01
  was surprised many American journalists and users seem to be
• 7:05
  by the amount of MAGA accounts outside the US.
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  This was not a shock to me at all.
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  MAGA has really moved beyond being a domestic political
• 7:16
  movement to an internationally impactful cultural 1.
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  And I'm thinking of Australia as an example here because
• 7:22
  obviously that is where we're based and we have a lot of
• 7:25
  Aussie listeners, so I feel like it's valid.
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  But we have definitely been seeing the creeping
• 7:30
  Americanization of Australia for quite a while now.
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  An increasing portion of Australia's media, public
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  figures and politicians are very Trumpy, choosing to essentially
• 7:41
  import the culture war and various US political issues to
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  Australia. I feel like abortion,
• 7:48
  immigration and increasing tendencies of conspiratorial
• 7:52
  thinking are particularly salient examples here.
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  Granted, I will say I do think Australia would be particularly
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  influenced by the US for a multitude of reasons.
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  Obviously we're both English speaking nations and long term
• 8:05
  allies, but there is definitely a cohort of Australian public
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  who embrace MAGA, so it's not surprising to me to see that
• 8:13
  extended in other places like social media.
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  Although I can definitely understand why it's unsettling
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  for these MAGA accounts to quote UN quote blindly support the
• 8:24
  movement across the world. Because the people running these
• 8:27
  accounts wouldn't be the ones who have to directly deal with
• 8:31
  the fallout of various policies and the changes that would be
• 8:34
  impacting Americans in their daily life.
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  And seeing these accounts kind of legitimize it and in turn,
• 8:41
  politicians taking it as American public opinion and
• 8:44
  validation is definitely A cause for concern.
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  But yeah, I feel like I went in a bit of a ramble there.
• 8:51
  Definitely share your thoughts though.
• 8:53
  Is this something that surprised you?
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  Is this something you expected? How do you feel about it?
• 8:58
  Yeah, I'm curious. Speaking of Australia, tech and
• 9:01
  politics, this actually brings us to our next story and I
• 9:04
  wanted to give a little bit of an update on the Under 16 social
• 9:08
  band here in Australia. We've been talking about this a
• 9:11
  lot. It's probably this and the
• 9:13
  TikTok ban in the US that have become some of our most
• 9:17
  frequently mentioned topics or consistently mentioned topics I
• 9:21
  guess. But we are getting close to when
• 9:23
  the ban comes into effect here in Australia.
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  So I would expect more updates coming from me whether you like
• 9:29
  it or not. If you aren't in Australia or
• 9:32
  not familiar with the ban, I will take another moment to
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  explain, even though I have done this multiple times, but you
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  know, we got to get the basics down.
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  Last year, legislation passed through parliament that would
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  essentially set a minimum age for social media from when it
• 9:47
  passed, which was the end of last year.
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  Social media platforms have had essentially 12 months to roll
• 9:52
  out systems to be able to enforce the age restrictions.
• 9:56
  And since then, the various updates that have come out and
• 9:59
  analysis by this move by the government has been continuously
• 10:03
  debated, especially around how it would be possible to
• 10:07
  institute the ban and which platforms will be included.
• 10:11
  And I have reported previously on the discourse around the
• 10:15
  platforms that could be included.
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  One of the big stories that emerged earlier this year was
• 10:20
  about YouTube and how even though it was initially exempt
• 10:24
  from the ban, it is now included.
• 10:27
  At this point in time though, it is looking like under sixteens
• 10:31
  will be able to go on YouTube without an account once the ban
• 10:35
  has been instituted, which I fear might make certain
• 10:38
  inappropriate content more accessible, especially the fact
• 10:41
  that teen users also won't be allowed to report content
• 10:45
  because they won't have an account to report it from.
• 10:46
  But aside from YouTube, another controversial decision was that
• 10:50
  4 Chan has seemingly managed to escape the ban, which I have
• 10:53
  reported on in a previous episode of mini tech.
• 10:56
  But yes, that brings us to our update for today.
• 10:59
  And the latest update is that Twitch is the next platform to
• 11:02
  be included in the ban. As a statement from Australia's
• 11:05
  E Safety Commissioner Reid's quote, we've informed Twitch
• 11:07
  that we consider it an age restricted social media platform
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  in accordance with Australia's social media minimum age
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  legislation. Following its own
• 11:15
  self-assessment, we assess Twitch as meeting the criteria
• 11:18
  for an age restricted social media platform.
• 11:21
  This is because it has a sole or significant purpose of online
• 11:25
  social interaction with features designed to encourage user
• 11:28
  interaction, including through live streaming content.
• 11:31
  From December 10, age restricted social media platforms will be
• 11:34
  required to take reasonable steps to prevent under sixteens
• 11:37
  from having accounts on their platform.
• 11:39
  Obviously, this is really the 11th hour to be including
• 11:42
  another platform in the ban. And also it has been reported
• 11:46
  that this list of social media platforms that will be banned
• 11:50
  for under sixteens actually remains quote UN quote dynamic.
• 11:53
  So I presume other platforms will be added down the line.
• 11:56
  But I do think the inclusion of Twitch might pose questions
• 12:00
  around Discord, even though it is primarily a messaging app,
• 12:04
  but the two are fairly intertwined.
• 12:06
  So I'm curious what will happen with that.
• 12:08
  Twitch is complying with the decision with the ABC reporting
• 12:12
  that quote. A Twitch spokesperson said no
• 12:14
  underage users would be permitted to sign up for a
• 12:16
  Twitch account as of December 10th, and any Australian users
• 12:19
  under 16 would have their accounts deactivated in the
• 12:22
  months afterwards. Aside from Twitch, there's also
• 12:25
  been updates about Pinterest. It is being revealed that
• 12:28
  Pinterest would actually be excluded from the ban because it
• 12:30
  is quote more commonly used by individuals collating images for
• 12:34
  inspiration and idea curation. I have seen some commentators
• 12:38
  talk about how this is interesting because Pinterest is
• 12:41
  increasingly become overrun by AI and also may negatively
• 12:46
  affect body image of young girls specifically, so it still has
• 12:50
  the potential to be harmful. I definitely think it's
• 12:53
  interesting to see what platforms are being included in
• 12:56
  the ban and which ones aren't. Many pundits have noted that it
• 13:00
  seems somewhat inconsistent and a little bit arbitrary.
• 13:04
  And even though more have recently been added, there are
• 13:08
  so many questions around how the ban will actually work.
• 13:10
  So I'm very much keeping an eye on this.
• 13:12
  I will keep you updated. In a similar vein, also speaking
• 13:15
  about young kids on social media, the last story I have
• 13:18
  today is about this interview with the Roblox CEO, David
• 13:22
  Bouzouki that has been circulating.
• 13:25
  So basically, David appeared on the Hard Fork podcast by the New
• 13:28
  York Times, where the conversation has been described
• 13:32
  as quote UN quote tense by the publication and many others.
• 13:36
  So I thought I would give a quick highlight of what people
• 13:39
  are talking about. South David Bazooki was brought
• 13:41
  in to discuss the new age gating policy that Roblox is rolling
• 13:45
  out, which is basically Face ID age checks for Roblox users.
• 13:49
  As the announcement on the website reads quote, Roblox is
• 13:53
  the first online gaming or communication platform to
• 13:55
  require facial age checks to access chat, establishing what
• 13:59
  we believe will become a new industry standard.
• 14:01
  This innovation supports age based chat and limits
• 14:05
  communication between minors and adults.
• 14:07
  Obviously there are many questions around how accurate
• 14:10
  the Face ID scan will be, but at this point it's obviously
• 14:14
  difficult to tell. But let's go back to the
• 14:17
  interview. So the conversation went through
• 14:19
  kind of what prompted Roblox to institute this policy, as well
• 14:23
  as explaining how the update will work.
• 14:26
  And through the conversation, David Buzuki clarifies that the
• 14:29
  face scans will be only one of many ways essentially to verify
• 14:33
  ages, so will be complemented with a variety of other tools.
• 14:37
  And of course, we know that safety measures are extremely
• 14:40
  necessary on Roblox, with many lawsuits levelled against the
• 14:43
  platform about predators influencing children in one way
• 14:46
  or another. This is something we have talked
• 14:48
  about at length here before, but I saw when I was researching
• 14:51
  this episode that according to Futurism, there are, quote, 20
• 14:54
  federal lawsuits against the company bringing children safety
• 14:58
  on the platform to national attention.
• 15:00
  So this is definitely an extremely important conversation
• 15:03
  to be having. But there were a couple of
• 15:05
  points in this interview that did not land well with social
• 15:09
  media users. The first was when the host
• 15:11
  Casey Newton asked, quote, how do you think of the problem of
• 15:15
  predators on Roblox, to which David said as an opportunity,
• 15:19
  quote, UN quote, in the way that Roblox is having the ability to
• 15:23
  shape safe communication online. I think we should start by just
• 15:26
  talking about the the scope of the problem here.
• 15:29
  What what has LED you to this point and how do you think of
• 15:31
  the problem of predators on Roblox?
• 15:34
  We think of it not necessarily just as a problem, but on the
• 15:38
  opportunity as well. How do we allow young people to
• 15:41
  build, communicate and hang out together?
• 15:44
  How do we build the future of communication at the same time?
• 15:48
  So we, you know, we've been, I think in a good way working on
• 15:52
  this ever since we started. Many social media users, though,
• 15:55
  felt like this wording was rather insensitive and kind of
• 15:59
  undermining the extent of the problem.
• 16:01
  And this was kind of a theme that went on throughout the
• 16:04
  interview, or at least how people perceived it.
• 16:07
  For example, the interviewer later noted a major problem with
• 16:10
  how Roblox essentially allow children to meet predators where
• 16:14
  they can then move to another platform.
• 16:16
  And that is where dangerous conversations can really take
• 16:19
  place. This has been an issue that is
• 16:21
  being discussed extensively in media.
• 16:24
  And while David Bazooki acknowledged it, he also
• 16:26
  categorically denied it. And this sentiment kind of
• 16:29
  intensified when the conversation turned towards
• 16:32
  talking around big tech platforms, growth versus safety.
• 16:36
  And this is the point that many people have brought up.
• 16:39
  Essentially the host, the podcast ended up bringing up a
• 16:41
  report arguing that Roblox was compromising child safety in
• 16:45
  order to report growth to its investors, to which David
• 16:49
  Bouzouki ended up responding, quote, fun.
• 16:51
  Let's keep going down this where he then went on to ask the
• 16:54
  journalist whether he'd done his own research on the topic, which
• 16:57
  is, I feel extremely disrespectful because obviously
• 17:00
  the journalist had done work previously on this.
• 17:04
  But in an attempt to kind of explain Roblox's position, he
• 17:09
  kind of spoke about how a dip in safety spending might be linked
• 17:13
  to the adoption of AI systems that can do the work for them.
• 17:17
  Last year, activist fund and short seller Hindenburg Research
• 17:21
  came out with a report arguing, among other things, the
• 17:23
  roadblocks was, quote, compromising child safety in
• 17:26
  order to report growth to investors.
• 17:29
  One of the things they pointed to was that there had been a
• 17:32
  decline in your spending on trust and safety.
• 17:35
  You have denied that. Why?
• 17:36
  What did they have wrong? So fun, let's keep going down
• 17:41
  this. And so First off, Hindenburg's
• 17:45
  no longer in existence, correct? So you should report on that.
• 17:50
  They went out of business for some reason.
• 17:53
  The other thing is, have you researched that information?
• 17:59
  Because you're you're asking me about this, I'm curious if
• 18:01
  you've done your own research. I have I have done some research
• 18:05
  about. And what's your take on that?
• 18:07
  Well, I'm asking you. Many listeners and social media
• 18:10
  users kind of saw this approach. It's extremely defensive and
• 18:14
  like I said, it hasn't landed well.
• 18:16
  It has also left many social media users questioning how
• 18:19
  Roblox talks about and treats child safety internally, whether
• 18:24
  they actually see it as an issue that they are contributing to or
• 18:28
  it is just something that is native to the Internet.
• 18:31
  Of course, this is in the broader context of various
• 18:33
  lawsuits that have been levelled towards the company, as I've
• 18:35
  already mentioned, but also the fact that David Bazooki has been
• 18:38
  fairly vocal about how he wants to introduce dating into Roblox
• 18:42
  down the line. I will say that I've also seen
• 18:44
  some people kind of be empathetic to David Bazooki
• 18:47
  saying that no kind of sane person would be wanting to allow
• 18:52
  this on their platform. So they were like, I can kind of
• 18:55
  see where he's coming from getting defensive on this topic.
• 18:57
  But I don't know, I feel like if you are a CEO of a major tech
• 19:01
  company, like you have to have your wits about you.
• 19:04
  Like, it's not worth becoming defensive over such a serious
• 19:06
  topic like this. And I feel like there's always
• 19:09
  work to be done in the space. OK, that finally brings us to
• 19:13
  Lauren's interview. Thanks to Blackbird, Lauren sat
• 19:16
  down with Smitty Banguera BE, founder and director of Chloris
• 19:20
  Labs. Welcome Smitty to the podcast.
• 19:23
  Thank you. Thanks so much for joining us.
• 19:25
  I'm so excited to chat with you about what you're building, what
• 19:28
  you've been doing. So as an intro, tell us about
• 19:32
  yourself and about what you're building.
• 19:34
  Chloris Labs. So about me, I'm an engineer by
• 19:37
  training. So we're building Chlorus with
• 19:39
  the intent of closing the diagnostic gap in Women's
• 19:42
  Health. On average it takes not average
• 19:44
  median, it takes four years to get diagnosed with a chronic
• 19:47
  illness and it's as common as one in two women in Australia
• 19:50
  and that scales globally as well.
• 19:52
  So we want to close that gap as well as improve the care process
• 19:56
  after diagnosis. So that's the intention of
• 19:59
  Chlorus. Wow, I love that.
• 20:01
  So what inspired you to start something like this?
• 20:05
  So last year I got diagnosed with a chronic illness.
• 20:07
  It took me about 5-6 years to get diagnosed.
• 20:11
  And you know, I was studying the whole time, working the whole
• 20:13
  time, and it really, really got in the way of my life, right?
• 20:17
  And then after I did get diagnosed, it was like a sigh of
• 20:19
  relief that oh, it is something I didn't make it out.
• 20:21
  I'm not like just a hypochondriac.
• 20:24
  But it was also like, oh, this is like, this is my whole life
• 20:27
  now. That's what it felt like.
• 20:29
  And it shouldn't feel that way. So I want to hopefully change
• 20:32
  that for other women going through it and make that process
• 20:35
  faster because six years is a, it's a long time.
• 20:37
  It's a big part of your life. Even four years is a, it's a
• 20:39
  big, big chunk of your lives, right?
• 20:41
  Especially when you're young, it can feel like your world is kind
• 20:43
  of coming down on your. Yeah.
• 20:45
  Of course, yeah. Did you come up with this idea
• 20:48
  then after your diagnosis? Was it something you were
• 20:51
  thinking about while you were like studying?
• 20:54
  Take me through that process. Yeah, so I got diagnosed last
• 20:57
  year and I continued working full time because I was like,
• 20:59
  I'm just going to get on with it.
• 21:01
  But then I started asking more questions and looking for
• 21:03
  community, community because I felt like I was kind of alone in
• 21:06
  this process. And I realized everyone around
• 21:09
  me had a chronic illness, like most women in my life had a
• 21:11
  chronic illness. And so I started talking to my
• 21:13
  GP, my endocrinologist, And I was like, why do you think it
• 21:16
  took so long? And like, why do you think it
• 21:18
  takes so long for so many people?
• 21:20
  Like, why is it so hard? And they, they told me like a
• 21:23
  few different things. There was like, there's an
• 21:24
  education gap. Like most doctors aren't taught
• 21:27
  about Women's Health specifically unless they're like
• 21:29
  electively taking it on. So that baseline off Women's
• 21:32
  Health doesn't really exist in our, you know, medical education
• 21:36
  system. And it's also doctors are under
• 21:38
  so much pressure. When you think about it, you go
• 21:41
  to your GP, it's your first point of contact and they're
• 21:43
  only available for 1520 minutes at a time.
• 21:46
  And they're seeing like hundreds of patients over a course of a
• 21:49
  week. So the amount of pressure on
• 21:51
  them is huge. And they're doing the best they
• 21:54
  can, right, to specialize their care for each and every single
• 21:58
  patient and take care of them in the most pressing way in that
• 22:01
  appointment. So it's a lot of pressure on
• 22:03
  them. There's a lack of education.
• 22:04
  The, the guidelines are ever evolving.
• 22:06
  The, the literature is ever evolving.
• 22:08
  And like in the Women's Health space, because it's so poorly
• 22:11
  researched and there's a big push for research, it's, it's
• 22:14
  changing like what we know about Women's Health, like what are
• 22:17
  the root causes? What causes different things to
• 22:19
  happen? What makes things worse, what
• 22:20
  makes things better? And it's, it's pretty hard to
• 22:23
  keep up with that one if you have a chronic illness itself,
• 22:26
  like just focusing on one chronic illness and what makes
• 22:29
  that better or worse is a mountain of a task in itself.
• 22:32
  But imagine like taking care of like hundreds of people with
• 22:36
  various chronic illnesses and complex conditions.
• 22:39
  So we want to make that process simpler for them.
• 22:41
  So tell me how you guys are doing that or how you plan to?
• 22:44
  Do that, yeah. So how we're doing that is we've
• 22:46
  created a connected system. So we have one part for the
• 22:49
  woman. So we have an app that allows
• 22:51
  them to bring everything together.
• 22:53
  Like they can put down what they're feeling, what's going
• 22:55
  on, what their family history is, you know, what other people
• 22:58
  might be telling them. Like, you know, the TikTok
• 23:01
  influences that are like, oh, you have this or like you take
• 23:04
  this to make you feel better about this, like a safe space
• 23:07
  for them to check what's going on, but also keep everything in
• 23:10
  one place that supports their GP.
• 23:12
  So that that's the GP side of it where we're building a tool that
• 23:16
  integrates into their existing systems that will bring together
• 23:19
  all that information about their patient because there's so much
• 23:21
  information, right? And also give them relevant
• 23:24
  insight into that patient, like what tests to order, what next
• 23:27
  steps might be relevant for this patient, any miss signs,
• 23:31
  relevant literature and the updated guidelines of what is
• 23:34
  best practice at the moment, stuff like that.
• 23:36
  So we have that connected system and after the woman has been
• 23:39
  diagnosed with something, it supports both the patient and
• 23:43
  the clinician to follow through on that care plan to understand
• 23:46
  what's helping, what's improving their day-to-day life versus
• 23:50
  what's making it harder. Like sometimes you end up with
• 23:52
  like 5 different supplements you need to take.
• 23:54
  Like I at one point needed to take vitamin D, calcium, iron,
• 23:58
  B12, magnesium, as well as like my normal medication and my
• 24:02
  endocrinologist like, you know, this is, this is a lot, a lot of
• 24:05
  medication or just supplements to take in one day.
• 24:07
  Like let's see if we can compound them.
• 24:09
  So we switched into taking like a once a week vitamin D.
• 24:12
  We switched into like maybe an iron infusion, AB12 infusion.
• 24:15
  So there's different things that can that can be helped with once
• 24:18
  you know the pressures and what's what's helping and what's
• 24:21
  difficult. How has this been received by
• 24:24
  the medical community? Is this something that you are
• 24:26
  bringing to physicians and teaching them about?
• 24:29
  Yeah, yes. So actually started with just
• 24:32
  the diagnostic support for GPS because that's where the big
• 24:35
  pain points are, like that's where they're under a lot of
• 24:37
  pressure and it felt like that's where we could make the most
• 24:39
  impact. And it is quite well received.
• 24:41
  They're they're quite involved in the process.
• 24:43
  Like we've, we didn't design it before talking to any GPS,
• 24:46
  obviously. Yeah.
• 24:46
  We spent a lot of time interviewing different GPS,
• 24:49
  asking their different pain points, what they're day looks
• 24:51
  like, what they're different patients are like, what they
• 24:53
  struggle with patients, what does work.
• 24:56
  We spoke to, like a variety of different GPS, GPS in like high
• 24:58
  socioeconomic areas, GPS in lower socioeconomic areas.
• 25:02
  And it really makes a difference, like the kind of
• 25:04
  information that comes through those channels.
• 25:06
  They're quite interested, they're quite involved.
• 25:08
  And I think it's being well received.
• 25:10
  It's just they're a very, very busy bunch of people.
• 25:13
  Yeah, of course. Yeah.
• 25:14
  So we try to spend most of our time understanding how we can
• 25:17
  best help them and make that their lives a bit easier.
• 25:20
  Yeah, awesome. Yeah.
• 25:21
  And then secondarily, we we created the app more so out of
• 25:25
  like a lot of demand, like a lot of women would come up to us
• 25:28
  being like, this is amazing. Like what you're doing.
• 25:30
  I really need this. And they're like, how can I
• 25:32
  help? And like what?
• 25:33
  What can I do to take more control of it?
• 25:35
  And we were like, oh, maybe, maybe we can help you in some
• 25:38
  way that can like channel, channel your information through
• 25:41
  because it is a very disconnected system that we
• 25:43
  have, right? Like just one solution or the
• 25:45
  other won't fix it. So we need to connect all these
• 25:48
  different points of contact and care because we are quite lucky
• 25:51
  in Australia that we have a fantastic public health care
• 25:54
  system, But it's, it's under incredible amounts of pressure.
• 25:57
  And so we need to work towards easing that and connecting the
• 26:00
  people involved because, you know, fear mongering isn't going
• 26:03
  to get us anywhere, right? And Women's Health, as I mean
• 26:05
  sure you are well aware of, is so under researched I'm sure
• 26:10
  it's underfunded as well. So this feels like a really
• 26:12
  massive step. I actually cannot believe that a
• 26:15
  system like this does not exist. Yeah, that's, that's a big
• 26:18
  amount of feedback we get. They're like, oh, this is, this
• 26:20
  is perfect. Like why doesn't it already
• 26:22
  exist? And that's exactly what we're
• 26:24
  working on, right? Like we want to work with
• 26:25
  authorities to better improve the systems and inform policy
• 26:29
  and that kind of stuff. Yeah, wow.
• 26:31
  OK. So tell me about the structure
• 26:32
  of your company, if you have partners, investors, cofounders,
• 26:37
  what your team looks like. So we only started about six
• 26:39
  months ago, okay. Love that early.
• 26:42
  Stages, early stages. We entered the PFL Cup earlier
• 26:45
  this year through UNSW. My cofounder is a UNSW master
• 26:49
  student, so that's how we kind of got involved in that.
• 26:52
  And it really just started as like an idea I had in my
• 26:54
  bedroom. Like I was just coding.
• 26:55
  I was coding away in her dorm room, and I was like, oh, what
• 26:58
  do you think of this? Like, do you think it would help
• 27:00
  you? Do you think this might help
• 27:01
  someone else? And they're like, yeah, this is
• 27:03
  sick. Like, yeah, it's crazy how this
• 27:04
  is actually working because the big problem in, like, diagnostic
• 27:08
  space is that it's highly inaccurate.
• 27:09
  Like it's, it hallucinates a lot, like it can give a lot of
• 27:13
  misinformation. So it's really important.
• 27:15
  That's heavily regulated, right? And it's, it's not at this
• 27:17
  point. So we'd like to improve that
• 27:19
  space and we don't want to replace doctors.
• 27:22
  Like we need to enhance their abilities and enhance their
• 27:24
  capacities so that they're able to help more people.
• 27:27
  So it really just started just me in her bedroom, like hurting
• 27:30
  away just for a bit of fun. And like, I tested it out as I
• 27:34
  put in all my like medical history and that kind of stuff.
• 27:37
  And it came, came out right. And I have a fairly rare
• 27:39
  condition. So I was very surprised and I
• 27:41
  was like, oh, I wonder if this is scalable.
• 27:43
  I wonder if this would work for more people if we got more
• 27:46
  information, if it would get better and, you know, have some
• 27:49
  impact. So that's how it started.
• 27:51
  And then we gave like a little like, we went to like an
• 27:54
  information session for Pfc and the program manager was like,
• 27:58
  OK, get on the stage and like, give a quick one minute pitch.
• 28:01
  And I'm not a public speaker. Like, I, I kind of hate that
• 28:04
  stuff. Yeah.
• 28:05
  Like I, I'd rather have a one-on-one conversation and
• 28:07
  like, get to know the person. And I'm much more, much prefer
• 28:10
  listening to people. Yeah.
• 28:12
  So I was like, oh, shit. Oh my God.
• 28:14
  And then I got in there and I was like, you know, have you
• 28:16
  ever faced this problem? Like what if we did this?
• 28:18
  Like, how would you feel about that?
• 28:19
  And like, it was well received. Like all the women in the room
• 28:21
  were like this. Yes, yes.
• 28:23
  Like the men were a little bit confused, but they were like,
• 28:25
  OK, yeah. And it was well received.
• 28:26
  And they so like, yeah, you should absolutely like go ahead
• 28:28
  with this. And we went into Peter Farrell
• 28:30
  Cup and then there's a round where you have to like do a
• 28:32
  quick one minute pitch to get a mentor.
• 28:35
  And we did that and we didn't get assigned a mentor.
• 28:37
  So we reached out to someone else in the UNSW
• 28:40
  entrepreneurship space and we're like, can you help us find a
• 28:42
  mentor? Because we didn't get assigned
• 28:44
  1. So we just kept going.
• 28:45
  We just kept asking for help. And we got assigned like
• 28:48
  incredible Doctor Joseph for he's absolute legend.
• 28:52
  Honestly, I could talk about him for probably an hour about how
• 28:55
  much he's helped us out because like, even though he's not a
• 28:58
  woman, like he's, he's been really instrumental in
• 29:00
  connecting us with the right people, pointing us in the right
• 29:02
  direction, helping us understand the regulation and really like
• 29:06
  tap into the medical space rather than, you know, just
• 29:09
  Wellness or just, you know, exercise, that kind of stuff.
• 29:12
  And we got connected with him. And then we got connected to our
• 29:14
  other mentor, which is Doctor Dennis and Sayor.
• 29:17
  And those are two official advisors in the medical space.
• 29:19
  And then how it actually started was I reached out to a
• 29:22
  researcher based in Bond University that was doing
• 29:25
  research on a specific condition on quality of life.
• 29:28
  And I was like, hey, can I help out?
• 29:29
  Like, is there anything I can do?
• 29:30
  These are my skills. I'm probably more of a tech bro
• 29:33
  than a scientist, but like, you know, is there anything I can
• 29:35
  do? Like, I'll build you a
• 29:36
  dashboard. Yeah.
• 29:37
  Should I do a PhD? Like, I don't know how to help,
• 29:39
  but I want to. Yeah.
• 29:40
  Yeah. And she was like, yeah, there's
• 29:41
  like, all these technical issues.
• 29:43
  And that's how we kind of initially found the tech gap.
• 29:45
  Yeah. So that's kind of our board.
• 29:47
  We're not looking for investors at the moment, but happy to
• 29:50
  chat. Yeah.
• 29:50
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 29:51
  Yeah, yeah. OK.
• 29:51
  So you are well. Equipped.
• 29:53
  I hope so. I mean, there's much more like
• 29:55
  we want to make create like an official medical board.
• 29:57
  So we have a sounding board of understanding what's happening
• 29:59
  on the ground. And secondarily, we want like a
• 30:01
  security board because a huge problem in healthcare security,
• 30:04
  right? And we don't talk about that
• 30:05
  enough. What's been a highlight for you
• 30:07
  so far? I think about two months ago
• 30:10
  now, we, we won 2 Dean awards at the Pedophile Cup, which was
• 30:14
  quite monumental. Like I was not expecting it at
• 30:17
  all to be honest. We won the Dean of Medicine and
• 30:19
  Health and the Dean of Science awards, which was really
• 30:22
  incredible. Like we've been able to have so
• 30:23
  many conversations since because of those awards and the people
• 30:26
  that, you know, were were able to listen to what we were trying
• 30:29
  to share. So that's been a big highlight.
• 30:32
  And do you have any advice for aspiring female founders?
• 30:36
  I think find something that keeps you awake at night, like
• 30:39
  that's something that really, really bothers you, like
• 30:42
  something you really want, really want to change and then
• 30:45
  find a way to change it because you have so much power.
• 30:48
  Like the determination that I've seen women have is unlike no
• 30:51
  other, not to discount men, but the the determination that it
• 30:54
  goes into like going on that uphill battle is, is something
• 30:59
  else. Yeah, we can stick it out.
• 31:01
  Yeah, yeah, you can stick it out like if you can get through like
• 31:03
  so much period pay, Yeah, yeah. All this stuff that just happens
• 31:07
  because you're a woman. Yeah, you can definitely build a
• 31:10
  business and definitely build a robust 1.
• 31:12
  So don't. Don't let anyone tell you that
• 31:14
  you can't do. It and I also love what you said
• 31:15
  about find something that keeps you up at night, because that's
• 31:19
  actually such I, I say something similar about like building
• 31:23
  Centennial is like always say when people say like, how did
• 31:26
  you know you were ready? I'm like, I literally couldn't
• 31:28
  stop thinking about it. Like it's all I thought about.
• 31:30
  I mean, it's still all I think about, but you know, like,
• 31:32
  especially before I launch, I'm like, this is all I thought
• 31:34
  about for months and months and months and months until finally
• 31:37
  my husband was like, just go do it.
• 31:38
  Like come on. And it was like, I couldn't not
• 31:42
  do it. Like I couldn't not try it.
• 31:43
  Exactly. Exactly.
• 31:45
  Like it's, it's something, it has to be something that keeps
• 31:48
  you up and something you want to do all the time.
• 31:50
  Because that is what it is, right?
• 31:52
  You, you kind of have to do it. Yeah, all the time.
• 31:54
  Otherwise, you're not going to go very far.
• 31:56
  Yeah, absolutely. OK, so tell us what's next for
• 31:59
  Chloros Labs? We're about to stop testing.
• 32:03
  So if you want anyone wants to sign up, if you have a chronic
• 32:06
  illness, we're the people for you.
• 32:08
  Yeah, yeah, we're about to start testing that kind of stuff.
• 32:13
  So that's, I think that's quite exciting for me.
• 32:16
  It's a bit boring. It's just a lot of like finding
• 32:18
  bugs and that kind of stuff. But it's so important because
• 32:20
  when you look at a larger scale, like you don't want that to
• 32:22
  happen on like of course, hundreds of thousands of people.
• 32:26
  So we want to get that ironed out and really see how we can
• 32:29
  best support people with chronic illness.
• 32:32
  And then long term, what do you see?
• 32:34
  The vision. For your brand.
• 32:35
  That's such a hard question. I've been recently telling
• 32:38
  people I don't want to think about 5 to 10 years from now
• 32:41
  because as long as I'm doing something I care about that's
• 32:43
  helping other people, I'll be happy.
• 32:45
  But for Chorus in particular, I think there's some conversation
• 32:49
  that some people are like, you could sell and exit and you'd be
• 32:52
  an exited founder, which would be very cool.
• 32:55
  Or you can go another pathway, but I think in five years, we'd
• 32:59
  like to be the the standard for chronic care support, whether
• 33:04
  that means, you know, just through the diagnostic tool.
• 33:07
  We want to see the impact that change.
• 33:09
  We want to see that we close down that gap a little bit more
• 33:12
  people getting referred in a more timely manner, people
• 33:15
  getting tested in a more timely manner, people following through
• 33:19
  on their care plan because I am notorious for not following
• 33:22
  through on my care plan because it seems like a mountain of
• 33:24
  work. So we really want to close that
• 33:26
  that gap that happens in those settings.
• 33:28
  There's probably so much opportunity for community.
• 33:31
  Yes as well. Yes.
• 33:32
  We really want to focus on community building.
• 33:35
  Perhaps we should start event planning and like get women
• 33:38
  together, do like a chronic friendly Pilates class or
• 33:42
  something like that, or like puppy show guide or.
• 33:45
  Yeah, just that would be so fun. Like I'd love to do that.
• 33:47
  I used to do a bit of event planning at uni, so that might
• 33:50
  be fun to get into. Yeah, I love that.
• 33:51
  Yeah. Well, that's amazing.
• 33:53
  Thank you so much for sharing your journey with us.
• 33:56
  What you're doing is so impactful.
• 33:58
  It's going to be amazing and I'm so excited to continue watching
• 34:01
  your. Journey, thank you so much.
• 34:02
  Well, that is everything from mini tech scroll today.
• 34:05
  I hope you guys enjoyed this week's episode.
• 34:07
  I also really hope nothing super dramatic broke overnight because
• 34:11
  obviously I didn't cover it, but Lauren will speak to you guys
• 34:14
  tomorrow and I will see you next week.
• 34:17
  Thanks for listening. Bye.