Explore every episode of the podcast FT Tech Tonic
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Telegram case: Pavel Durov | 03 Sep 2024 | 00:34:52 | |
The FT’s Innovation editor John Thornhill and San Francisco tech correspondent Hannah Murphy have in the past both met and interviewed Pavel Durov, the secretive founder of Telegram who was arrested in France for alleged failure to address criminality on the messaging app. In the first episode of a two-part series, they discuss how Durov went from free speech hero to a wanted man, and what the charges against him mean for the future of Telegram – and Big Tech – and the limits of free speech. Does his arrest flag a turning point in the regulation of social media platforms? Want more? Pavel Durov, Telegram’s self-mythologising founder How Telegram chief Pavel Durov miscalculated on moderation Emmanuel Macron hits back at claims Telegram chief’s arrest is political The Durov case is not about free speech Russian lawmakers hit back at arrest of Telegram chief Pavel Durov in France This episode of Tech Tonic is presented by John Thornhill and Hannah Murphy. The producer is Persis Love. Edwin Lane is senior producer. The executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Sound engineering by Breen Turner. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| The trouble with deepfakes: Beyond control? | 29 Aug 2024 | 00:22:44 | |
Anita was scrolling on Twitter when she found someone had made deepfake porn of her, without her permission. But that was just the start of her problems; she found it was difficult and expensive to get the deepfakes taken down and nigh-on impossible to prevent their proliferation online. So, what guardrails can regulators and tech companies put in place to prevent the spread of deepfakes and protect those whose likeness has been stolen without their consent? Technological fixes, such as deepfake detection software and deepfake watermarking exist, but can the technology keep up with the ever-improving capacities of generative AI? Host Hannah Murphy speaks to Hany Farid, digital forensics expert at the University of California, Berkeley; Nina Schick, CEO and founder of Tamang Ventures, author and Qlik AI Council member; and Sweet Anita, Twitch streamer. Tell us what you think of Tech Tonic and you could be in with a chance to win a pair of Bose QuietComfort 35 Wireless Headphones. Complete the survey here. Want more? Google upgrades search in drive to tackle deepfake porn India tells tech giants to police deepfakes under ‘explicit’ rules Political deepfakes top list of malicious AI use, DeepMind finds Clips: sweet_anita Twitch Since publication, Mastercard, one of the companies mentioned in this episode, sent the following response: 'Purchases of nonconsensual deepfake content are not allowed on our network. When we see or are made aware of specific instances of such activity, we investigate the allegations and take action to ensure compliance with both local laws and our rules and standards.' This series of Tech Tonic is presented by Hannah Murphy. The producer is Persis Love. The senior producer is Edwin Lane. Our executive producer Manuela Saragosa. Additional production help from Josh Gabert-Doyon. Sound design by Breen Turner and Samantha Giovinco. Original music by Metaphor Music. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Coming soon: China, the new tech superpower | 07 May 2024 | 00:01:07 | |
In a new season of Tech Tonic, longtime FT China reporter James Kynge travels around the world to see how China is pushing towards tech supremacy. Will China be able to get an edge in crucial technological areas? What does China’s attempt to leapfrog the west look like on the ground? A six-part series looking at China’s tech industry. Presented by James Kynge. Edwin Lane is the senior producer. The producer is Josh Gabert-Doyon. Executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Sound design by Breen Turner and Samantha Giovinco, with original music from Metaphor Music. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Eric Topol on making healthcare more human | 17 Jun 2019 | 00:29:27 | |
Hannah Kuchler talks to American cardiologist Eric Topol about his book Deep Medicine, which looks at the potential for artificial intelligence technology to help free up doctors to spend more time with their patients. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| New season starts on Monday | 12 Jun 2019 | 00:00:50 | |
Tech Tonic, the podcast that looks at the way technology is changing our lives, is returning for a news season starting on Monday 17th June. We’ll be talking to Eric Topol, the US cardiologist, about the ways in which the work of doctors can be enhanced by AI, Nathan Jurgenson on social media and the selfy, and John Browne, former head of BP, on engineering and the future of civilisation, and many more. So tune in next week Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Andrew Ng on building an AI workforce | 17 Apr 2019 | 00:24:23 | |
Artificial intelligence expert Andrew Ng talks to John Thornhill about his concern that AI technology is concentrating wealth in the hands of a few and why we need to spread AI skills and understanding across society. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Rana Yared on investing in fintech | 10 Apr 2019 | 00:23:24 | |
John Thonhill talks to Rana Yared, a partner and managing director at Goldman Sachs’ Principal Strategic Investments, about how technology is transforming the banking industry. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Marcus du Sautoy on creative AI | 03 Apr 2019 | 00:26:52 | |
John Thornhill talks to Oxford mathematician Marcus du Sautoy about his book: The Creativity Code: How AI is Learning to Write, Paint and Think Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| James Vlahos on voice technology | 27 Mar 2019 | 00:23:04 | |
Elaine Moore talks to American journalist James Vlahos about the chatbot he created to keep the memory of this father alive and about the potential uses and misuses of voice technology. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Peter Schwartz on automating the brain | 20 Mar 2019 | 00:24:25 | |
Peter Schwartz, senior vice-president of strategic planning at Salesforce, futurist and author, talks to John Thornhill about the impact on our society of the next wave of technology. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Tim Berners-Lee on reshaping the web | 12 Mar 2019 | 00:25:17 | |
John Thornhill talks to Tim Berners-Lee about the achievements of the world wide web which he invented 30 years ago, what he thinks has gone wrong and what he is doing to help fix some of these problems. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Jack Conte on crowdfunding for creators | 06 Mar 2019 | 00:25:33 | |
John Thornhill talks to Jack Conte about Patreon, the platform he invented to help creative artists receive a steadier income from modern-day patrons. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Jeni Tennison on data ethics | 27 Feb 2019 | 00:24:46 | |
John Thornhill talks to Jeni Tennison, chief executive of the Open Data Institute, about her work in helping to develop best practice for the use and sharing of data. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Introducing: Swamp Notes from The FT News Briefing | 05 Feb 2024 | 00:01:11 | |
If you have questions about this year's US presidential election, we have answers. Swamp Notes is a new podcast from the FT News Briefing. Listen every Saturday morning as our journalists analyse and discuss the latest happenings in US politics. We’ll go beyond the horse race for the White House and offer a global perspective on the election. You can subscribe to Swamp Notes here or wherever you get your podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| James Williams on the attention economy | 20 Feb 2019 | 00:25:47 | |
Former Google employee James Williams talks to John Thornhill about his book: Stand Out of Our Light: Freedom and Resistance in the Attention Economy and why he turned to philosophy to try to understand how the tech industry is undermining our free will. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Shoshana Zuboff on surveillance capitalism | 13 Feb 2019 | 00:27:05 | |
John Thornhill talks to the social scientist Shoshana Zuboff about her book, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, and what we need to do to reclaim the more benign impacts of the digital revolution. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Will Marshall on mapping the earth | 06 Feb 2019 | 00:24:51 | |
John Thornhill talks to Will Marshall, whose San-Francisco-based start-up is helping companies like Google and Monsanto, as well as governments and NGOs, to observe day-to-day changes on the earth’s surface using data gathered in space. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Taavet Hinrikus on disrupting the banks | 30 Jan 2019 | 00:23:40 | |
John Thornhill talks to Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder of Transferwise, about shaking up the lucrative money transfer business and how he helped build a tech unicorn that is not only highly valued but is profitable too. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| AI and software's 'singular moment' | 23 Jan 2019 | 00:28:34 | |
John Thornhill talks to Chris Bishop, director of Microsoft’s Cambridge research lab, about the potential for exponential growth in the development of software, thanks to machine learning. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| The risks and rewards of gene-editing | 16 Jan 2019 | 00:29:57 | |
Robin Lovell-Badge, developmental biologist and geneticist, talks to FT science columnist Anjana Ahuja about the gene-edited babies controversy in China and about the potential for new gene-editing techniques to transform the treatment of diseases like cancer and muscular dystrophy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Vivienne Ming on solving human problems | 09 Jan 2019 | 00:31:30 | |
John Thornhill talks to Vivienne Ming, a theoretical neuroscientist, entrepreneur and artificial intelligence guru about her work in trying to make technology work for the benefit of humans Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Diego Piacentini on GovTech | 02 Jan 2019 | 00:27:57 | |
The former Amazon executive tells John Thornhill how he applied the lessons he’d learnt at the US technology company to help transform Italians’ experience of dealing with government. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Trust in the digital age | 26 Dec 2018 | 00:31:00 | |
John Thornhill talks to the academic and author Rachel Botsman about the evolution of trust in the digital age and the way technology has undermined our faith in institutions Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Graphcore's next generation chip technology | 19 Dec 2018 | 00:25:28 | |
Nigel Toon, founder and chief executive of Graphcore, talks to John Thornhill about the chip technology his company is developing and its potential to speed the advance of machine learning. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Introducing Untold: The Retreat | 12 Jan 2024 | 00:01:57 | |
Introducing Untold, a new podcast from the special investigations team at the Financial Times. In its first series, The Retreat, host Madison Marriage examines the world of the Goenka network, which promotes a type of intensive meditation known as Vipassana. Thousands of people go on Goenka retreats every year. People rave about them. But some people go to these meditation retreats, and they suffer. They might feel a deep sense of terror, or a break with reality. And on the other side, they’re not themselves anymore. Untold: The Retreat launches Jan. 24. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| What robots can teach humans | 12 Dec 2018 | 00:35:26 | |
John Thornhill talks to Maja Pantic, Professor of Affective and Behavioural Computing at Imperial College in London, about her work testing the boundaries of human robot interaction. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Making the most of work chat | 05 Dec 2018 | 00:26:21 | |
Stewart Butterfield, co-founder and chief executive of San Francisco-based Slack tells John Thornhill how his fascination for technology that facilitates human interaction came about. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Artificial intelligence that learns on the fly | 28 Nov 2018 | 00:18:10 | |
Physicist Zdenka Kuncic tells FT science editor Clive Cookson about the difference between software-based and hardware-based approaches to artificial intelligence and her work to develop autonomous intelligent systems for potential use in space and in medical devices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| The business of cybercrime | 21 Nov 2018 | 00:23:59 | |
Sociologist Jonathan Lusthaus spent seven years talking to cyber criminals. He tells Hannah Kuchler what he discovered about the extent of their involvement with organised crime and what he thinks it would take to persuade them to put their talents to better use. His book: Industry of Anonymity: Inside the Business of Cybercrime, was published by Harvard University Press. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Technology and the human brain | 14 Nov 2018 | 00:26:01 | |
Murali Doraiswamy, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, Duke University Health System, tells Shannon Bond about his research into potential technological solutions to neurological and mental health disorders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Investing in deep tech | 07 Nov 2018 | 00:21:44 | |
Investor Alice Newcombe-Ellis tells John Thornhill about her strategy for discovering and investing in the next generation of disruptive technology companies Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Puncturing the AI hype | 31 Oct 2018 | 00:23:45 | |
Zia Chishti's latest business venture Afiniti uses artificial intelligence to match customers and employees, but he tells John Thornhill he sees the technology as evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, and offers his thoughts on the dos and don'ts of investing in AI. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Who sets the internet standards? | 24 Oct 2018 | 00:24:29 | |
Hannah Kuchler talks to American social scientist and cyber security expert Andrea Little Limbago about the worrying lack of agreement among governments on how best to promote the beneficial aspects of the internet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| David Sanger on cyber warfare | 17 Oct 2018 | 00:30:44 | |
John Thornhill talks to the New York Times journalist about his latest book: The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage and Fear in the Cyber Age. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Adrian Lovett on fighting for a better web | 10 Oct 2018 | 00:27:14 | |
Web Foundation president and CEO Adrian Lovett talks to John Thornhill about open data, net neutrality and widening global internet access. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Superintelligent AI: Conscious Machines | 12 Dec 2023 | 00:26:27 | |
As the race to human-level AI accelerates, researchers are increasingly confronted with the question of what it would mean to develop conscious AI. Will sentience emerge naturally from powerfully intelligent artificial systems? Or is consciousness incompatible with disembodied AI? As some human users become more attached to romantic chatbots, will the moral questions surrounding conscious AI become more pressing? In the final episode of our series on artificial general intelligence, the FT’s John Thornhill and Madhumita Murgia speak to Eugenia Kuyda, founder and chief executive of Replika, Anil Seth, professor of cognitive and computational neuroscience at the University of Sussex, and Henry Shevlin, director of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge. Clips: TalkTV Links: Sci-fi writer Ted Chiang: ‘The machines we have now are not conscious’ Google places engineer on leave after he claims group’s chatbot is ‘sentient’ The golden age of AI-generated art is here. It’s going to get weird EU agrees landmark rules on artificial intelligence Tech Tonic is presented by Madhumita Murgia and John Thornhill. Senior producer is Edwin Lane and the producer is Josh Gabert-Doyon. Executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Sound design by Breen Turner and Samantha Giovinco. Original music by Metaphor Music. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Jocelyn Bell Burnell on new frontiers in astronomy | 03 Oct 2018 | 00:22:26 | |
Clive Cookson talks to astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell about her decision to give away her $3m Breakthrough Prize in physics and about what she sees as the most exciting new areas of future research. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Tristan Harris on digital Frankensteins | 26 Sep 2018 | 00:28:00 | |
The former Google employee turned campaigner has made it his mission to alert society about the dangers of using computer algorithms to capture our attention. He tells John Thornhill why he co-founded the Centre for Humane Technology and what it does. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Liberty and morality in the AI era | 19 Sep 2018 | 00:25:05 | |
Jamie Susskind, author of Future Politics, Verity Harding of Google DeepMind, and Tabitha Goldstaub, co-founder of CognitionX, discuss liberty and morality in the AI era in a panel debate recorded at the FT’s recent FT Weekend Festival in London. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Irene Ng on redistributing the economic power of data | 12 Sep 2018 | 00:23:51 | |
Entrepreneur and academic Irene Ng talks to John Thornhill about the Hub of all Things - a microserver that allows people to own and control their own data. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| What's next for Dropbox? | 05 Sep 2018 | 00:26:24 | |
Drew Houston, co-founder of the business software company, tells John Thornhill how he caught the entrepreneurial bug and what's next for Dropbox. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Tech Tonic returns | 29 Aug 2018 | 00:01:35 | |
John Thorhill and guests return for a news series of Tech Tonic, the show that looks at the way technology is changing our lives. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| How can we make governments smarter? | 09 May 2018 | 00:24:27 | |
Robyn Scott talks to John Thornhill about her company Apolitical, a global news and networking site that seeks to share knowledge and spread best practice among the world's top civil servants Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| The new AI battleground | 02 May 2018 | 00:22:09 | |
Nicole Eagan, chief executive of Darktrace, tells John Thornhill corporate networks have become the new battleground in a cyberwar waged by criminals and state actors using artificial intelligence Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Terah Lyons on fashioning the AI future | 25 Apr 2018 | 00:27:32 | |
John Thornhill talks to Terah Lyons, founding executive director of the Partnership on AI, a US initiative that brings civil society groups into a debate with big tech companies to promote the benefits of machine intelligence. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| What we can learn from ancient DNA | 18 Apr 2018 | 00:21:10 | |
David Reich, professor of genetics at Harvard, talks to Clive Cookson, the FT's science editor, about how the genomic revolution is affecting paleontology and the study of human pre-history. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Superintelligent AI: Transhumanism etc. | 05 Dec 2023 | 00:25:59 | |
What are the ideas driving the pursuit of human-level AI? In the penultimate episode of this Tech Tonic series, hosts Madhumita Murgia and John Thornhill look at some of the futuristic objectives that are at the centre of the AI industry’s quest for superintelligence and hear about the Extropians, a surprisingly influential group of futurists from the early 1990s. Anders Sandberg, senior research fellow at Oxford university's Future of Humanity Institute, sets out some of the ideas developed in the Extropians mailing list while Connor Leahy, co-founder of Conjecture and Timnit Gebru, founder of the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR) explain why they worry about the Extropians’ continued influence today. Free links: OpenAI and the rift at the heart of Silicon Valley We need to examine the beliefs of today’s tech luminaries OpenAI’s secrecy imperils public trust Big tech companies cut AI ethics staff, raising safety concerns Tech Tonic is presented by Madhumita Murgia and John Thornhill. Senior producer is Edwin Lane and the producer is Josh Gabert-Doyon. Executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Sound design by Breen Turner and Samantha Giovinco. Original music by Metaphor Music. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. Clips: Alcor Cryonics Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Julia Shaw on a bot you can trust | 11 Apr 2018 | 00:25:30 | |
Psychologist Julia Shaw talks to John Thornhill about her research into the fragility of human memory and how this helped her design a software tool that can be used to record and report workplace harassment Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| The consumer awakening | 04 Apr 2018 | 00:29:52 | |
How can we fix the digital future? Writer and Silicon Valley critic Andrew Keen tells John Thornhill our best resource is human agency and the power of consumers to reject products that they have lost faith in Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Facebook and Google: platforms or publishers? | 28 Mar 2018 | 00:47:05 | |
The big tech platforms where many people get their news wield significant power. How do they work with publishers, and are they doing enough to combat "fake" news? FT global media editor Matt Garrahan put the questions to a panel of experts at the FT's Future of News conference in New York earlier this month. Guests are Campbell Brown, head of news partnerships at Facebook, Emily Bell, director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, Jason Kint, chief executive of Digital Content Next and Richard Gingras, vice president of news at Google. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||