Are generative AI systems such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT really intelligent? Large language models such as GPT 4 appear to use human-level cognitive abilities when they engage in legal reasoning, write essays or solve complex problems. Hosts John Thornhill and Madhumita Murgia speak to Emily Bender, professor of computational linguistics at the University of Washington, to find out what’s really happening under the hood, and also hear from Pablo Arredondo of CaseText, which develops AI tools for lawye...
Nov 28, 2023•29 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast If even AI companies are fretting about the existential threat that human-level AI poses, why are they building these machines in the first place? And as they press ahead, a debate is raging about how we regulate this emergent sector to keep it under control. In the second episode of a new, five-part series of Tech Tonic, FT journalists Madhumita Murgia and John Thornhill hear from Anthropic’s co-founder, Jack Clark; Dan Hendrycks, founder of the Center for AI Safety; Yann LeCun, chief AI scient...
Nov 21, 2023•25 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast In the first episode of a new, five-part series of Tech Tonic, FT journalists Madhumita Murgia and John Thornhill ask how close we are to building human-level artificial intelligence and whether ‘superintelligent’ AI poses an existential risk to humanity. John and Madhu speak to Yoshua Bengio, a pioneer of generative AI, who is concerned, and to his colleague Yann LeCun, now head of AI at Meta, who isn’t. Plus, they hear from Eliezer Yudkowsky, research lead at the Machine Intelligence Research ...
Nov 14, 2023•29 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast In a new series of Tech Tonic, FT journalists Madhumita Murgia and John Thornhill look at the concerns around the rise of artificial intelligence. Will superintelligent AI bring existential risk, or a new renaissance? Would it be ethical to build conscious AI? How intelligent are these machines anyway? The new season of Tech Tonic from the Financial Times, drops mid-November. Presented by Madhumita Murgia and John Thornhill. Senior producer is Edwin Lane and producer Josh Gabert-Doyon. Exe...
Oct 31, 2023•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast A hardware revolution in recording devices and a software revolution in artificial intelligence has convinced some scientists that humans will eventually be able to ‘translate’ animal and even plant sounds into human language. But what would be the consequences of humans learning to ‘speak whale’, chat with bats or converse with elephants? The FT’s innovation editor John Thornhill and producer Persis Love explore the ethics of potential human-to-animal communication. Presented by John Thornhill,...
Sep 19, 2023•25 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast A hardware revolution in recording devices and a software revolution in artificial intelligence is enabling researchers to listen in to all kinds of conversations outside the human hearing range, a field known as bioacoustics. Some scientists now believe these developments will also allow us to ‘translate’ animal sounds into human language. In a new season of Tech Tonic, FT innovation editor John Thornhill and series producer Persis Love ask whether we’re moving closer to being able to ‘speak wh...
Sep 19, 2023•29 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast The Canadian scientist and author Karen Bakker, who died unexpectedly in August this year, was a leading voice in the bioacoustic research community. Her 2022 book, The Sounds of Life, explained how it might one day be possible to create a kind of Google Translate for animals and was the inspiration behind this Tech Tonic series. This episode contains the full interview that we recorded with her. We are posting it as a tribute to her remarkable work. Free links: Google Translate for the zo...
Sep 19, 2023•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Some scientists believe that rapid advances in artificial intelligence may also hold the key to decoding animal sounds, allowing us to ‘translate’ them into human language. In a new season of Tech Tonic, FT innovation editor John Thornhill and series producer Persis Love explore how the same technology that powers ChatGPT is being applied to research in animal communication. Could we one day learn to ‘speak whale’ or even chat with bats? And if so, can we trust ourselves to do so responsibly? Pr...
Sep 12, 2023•1 min•Transcript available on Metacast A bonus episode to go with our Quantum Revolution season. The FT’s John Thornhill and Madhumita Murgia host a panel of experts at the Founders Forum conference, discussing the promise of quantum computing and the state of the quantum industry today. Featuring Steve Brierley, founder and chief executive of Riverlane, a company building the algorithms and software for quantum computers; Ilana Wisby, CEO of Oxford Quantum Circuits, a company building commercially available quantum compute...
Aug 22, 2023•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Who is Sergei Leontiev? To the US asylum system, he’s an exiled Russian banker who was persecuted by the state and forced to flee. To Russia, he’s said to be responsible for massive fraud. On The Russian Banker, a new series from the Financial Times, reporters Courtney Weaver and Stefania Palma try to uncover the truth, and find a story that tells us about Russia today and how people in the west build stories about who’s good and who’s bad. The Russian Banker is a special series ...
Aug 18, 2023•2 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the final episode of this Tech Tonic season, FT correspondents weigh in on the trends that will determine the future of social media. From Meta’s Threads to artificial intelligence, we ask how platforms will look and feel in years to come. The FT’s deputy Lex editor, host Elaine Moore, speaks with social media reporter Cristina Criddle, global technology correspondent Tim Bradshaw and San Francisco-based tech reporter Hannah Murphy. Plus, we hear from Evan Henshaw-Plath, one of the creators o...
Aug 01, 2023•21 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast Can we get rid of the bad bits of social media and keep the good? Is it possible to create a more positive social media experience than the one we get from the platforms that dominate the landscape today? In this episode, Elaine Moore asks what the social media platforms of the future should look like, and whether platforms designed for smaller groups of users with shared interests are the way forward. We hear from writer and tech historian Benj Edwards about the BBS era of t...
Jul 25, 2023•26 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast Social media today is less about making friends and more about following popular content creators. While those creators are starting to hold some power over the platforms themselves, they’re also looking to become less reliant on the platforms that have enabled them to find fame and fortune online. What does it mean for the future of social media platforms? Our producer Josh Gabert-Doyon travels to the VidCon convention in Anaheim, California to speak to the people at the heart of the creator ec...
Jul 18, 2023•27 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast There’s a growing feeling that social media is bad for us: bad for society and bad for our wellbeing. That trend has culminated in a new wave of legislation in the United States aiming to address social media’s impact on young people’s mental health. But in this episode, Elaine Moore, deputy editor of the FT’s Lex column, looks at some of the unanswered questions over whether social media really causes us harm, and what legislation will mean for the future of the social media business model. Are...
Jul 11, 2023•26 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast Mark Zuckerberg used advertising to turn Facebook into the first global social media giant, boasting 3bn users around the world. But today there are questions about the business model that has powered it for the past 15 years, and what Zuckerberg’s new focus on building the Metaverse means for the platform that started it all. Elaine Moore speaks to veteran Silicon Valley investor Roger McNamee, one-time advisor to Zuckerberg; writer and researcher Tim Hwang, author of Subprime Attention Crisis;...
Jul 04, 2023•27 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast Elon Musk took over Twitter with the promise of promoting free speech and making the loss-making platform profitable again. But his critics say he’s destroying Twitter’s culture and driving it to bankruptcy. How much danger is the company really in? In the first episode in a new series of Tech Tonic, Elaine Moore, deputy editor of the FT’s Lex column, asks whether Musk will save Twitter or destroy it. In this episode we hear from Evan Henshaw-Plath, one of the original creators of Twitter; Rumma...
Jun 27, 2023•29 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast Social media platforms have defined our experience of the internet for nearly two decades. But as host Elaine Moore, deputy editor of the FT’s Lex column, outlines in this new six-part season of Tech Tonic, there are signs of trouble. User growth at some of the biggest platforms is slowing down, privacy changes are making it harder to make money and data scandals and disinformation mean platforms have lost some of the trust of their users. Meanwhile, younger users call Instagram cringeworthy and...
Jun 23, 2023•57 sec•Transcript available on Metacast There’s been a lot of big finance and economics news in 2023. Whether it's stories about rising interest rates, tech industry layoffs or bank runs, it can almost feel like you need an MBA just to make sense of it all. That’s why the Financial Times is launching a bonus series called Behind the Money: Night School. Over the next five weeks, this show will help you understand the concepts behind the biggest economic stories of this year. U.S. managing editor Peter Spiegel chats with FT journ...
Apr 21, 2023•1 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the final episode of this series, we hear how radical quantum ideas are reshaping our fundamental understanding of the universe. Nobel Prize winner Anton Zeilinger tells the FT’s Madhumita Murgia about the future of teleportation and the quantum internet; quantum computing pioneer David Deutsch makes the case for the theory that we live in a multiverse; and FT innovation editor John Thornhill speaks to physicist Carlo Rovelli about relational quantum mechanics. Presented by Madhumita Murgia a...
Apr 11, 2023•24 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast Quantum computers aren’t the only form of groundbreaking technology that use quantum physics. Madhumita Murgia hears from Dr. Margot Taylor, neuroscience researcher at The Hospital for Sick Children, who’s using quantum sensors to unpick the mystery of how autism first appears in the brain. And we speak to Matthew Brookes, physics professor at Nottingham university in the UK, who helped build the quantum brain scanner she’s using. Plus, John Thornhill speaks to Stuart Woods from Quantu...
Apr 04, 2023•22 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast The Port of Los Angeles is one of the world’s busiest — and most inefficient. It’s now using an early quantum computing application to help solve its logistical bottlenecks. Has it made a difference? The FT’s John Thornhill investigates. We hear from truck drivers at the Port of Los Angeles ; Matt Schrap, CEO of the Harbor Trucking Association; SavantX co-founder Ed Heinbockel, who helped bring quantum computing to the port ; and Alan Baratz, president of D-Wave Systems. Plus, John and FT ...
Mar 28, 2023•25 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, Tech Tonic dives into the science at the heart of quantum computing. How do technologists use unexplained subatomic phenomena to build powerful computers? FT artificial intelligence editor Madhumita Murgia tells the story of quantum physics with the help of Sean Carroll, a theoretical physicist at Johns Hopkins University and hears from University of New South Wales professor Michelle Simmons to understand how engineers exploit weird quantum physics. Presented by Madhumita Murgi...
Mar 21, 2023•25 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast Tech companies including Google, Microsoft and IBM are all working on plans for a commercially viable quantum computer. They say that these machines will be able to solve climate change, help develop new pharmaceutical drugs and transform our economy. But harnessing quantum physics requires overcoming massive challenges. As researchers tinker away on uber-sensitive, ultra-cold quantum computers and investors become increasingly interested in the potential commercial applications – some peo...
Mar 14, 2023•21 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast In the cybersecurity world they call it Q-Day, the day when a quantum computer will be built that can break the encryption of the internet. John Thornhill and Madhumita Murgia speak to cybersecurity expert and former professional hacker Mark Carney about password cracking, and why quantum computers would be so good at it. Renowned mathematician Peter Shor recounts how he became the first person to discover that quantum computers could upturn the encryption that underpins much of the internet. Ja...
Mar 07, 2023•26 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast Tech companies and labs around the world are building a revolutionary new computer. Quantum computers harness the mysteries of quantum physics to perform calculations that seem impossible. The people building them say they’re going to change the world. In a new season of Tech Tonic, FT tech journalists Madhumita Murgia and John Thornhill investigate the race to build a quantum computer, the impact they could have on security, innovation and business, and the confounding physics of the quantum wo...
Feb 28, 2023•1 min•Transcript available on Metacast Billions of dollars are being spent by tech companies and investors on new technology to fight climate change. In the final episode of this series of Tech Tonic, Eric Toone, from Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund, tells FT columnist and host Pilita Clark why he believes technologies such as carbon capture and nuclear fusion can make a difference. But climate academic Mark Jacobson of Stanford University argues that renewables such as wind and solar mean we already have all the techno...
Nov 22, 2022•24 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast Nuclear fusion is the reaction that powers stars and scientists say replicating it on Earth could produce all the energy we’ll ever need without the CO2. But no one has yet made a fusion reactor that actually produces more energy than it uses. Fusion researchers say that’s all about to change, and private fusion start-ups say they’re getting close to building working nuclear fusion power stations. In the latest episode of Tech Tonic’s climate tech series, Pilita Clark visits the UK’s pionee...
Nov 15, 2022•24 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast The joke about hydrogen is that it’s the fuel of the future, and always will be. But green hydrogen is made from renewable energy and emits only water vapour, so amidst the fight to reduce carbon emissions, has green hydrogen’s moment now finally arrived? In the latest episode of Tech Tonic’s climate tech series, Australian billionaire mining mogul Andrew Forrest, the executive chair of Fortescue Metals Group, tells host Pilita Clark why he’s betting green hydrogen will play a key role in decarb...
Nov 08, 2022•24 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast As more people fly, aviation is on track to becoming a much bigger problem for climate change. Host Pilita Clark, FT columnist and climate journalist, looks at the potential for a more sustainable aviation industry, a sector that’s struggled to come up with new technology to cut its emissions. Could we end up being forced to cut back on flying altogether? Producer Josh Gabert-Doyon travels to Farnborough Airshow, and we hear from Zero Petroleum’s Paddy Lowe, Boom Supersonic’s Blake Scholl, and e...
Nov 01, 2022•25 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast Direct air carbon capture - taking carbon dioxide straight out of the air around us - sounds like science fiction. In this episode Pilita Clark visits Iceland to meet the engineers and scientists at the forefront of this new tech. Can carbon capture scale up quick enough to have an impact on climate change, or is it just an excuse to allow fossil fuel companies and emitters to keep polluting? Check out stories and up-to-the-minute news from the Technology team at ft.com/technology Presented by P...
Oct 25, 2022•24 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast 
