
FT Tech Tonic
We are in the midst of a digital revolution, where the line between our physical world and cyberspace is blurring. Tech Tonic is the show that investigates the promises and perils of this new technological age. This season, FT innovation editor John Thornhill takes us into the emergency rooms, city centres and even cruise ships where tech innovation is solving some of the unprecedented challenges brought about by the pandemic, as he explores what this tech-driven world means for us all.
Alle Folgen
AI research and big tech
John Thornhill talks to David Barber, director of the UCL Centre for Artificial Intelligence in London, about how academic researchers can work with business and the wider community to create the best outcomes for society. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrNiklas Zennström and Tom Wehmeier on the state of European tech
Niklas Zennström, founder of Skype and Atomico and Tom Wehmeier, Atomico partner and author of The State of European Tech report, talk to the FT's John Thornhill about whether Europe is becoming a tech hub. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrDave Ferrucci on teaching computers to think
Dave Ferrucci, CEO, founder and chief scientist of Elemental Cognition, talks to Richard Waters, the FT's West Coast editor, about his efforts to train computers to use language to reason. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrGoogle's Kate Brandt on sustainable tech
Kate Brandt talks to John Thornhill about Google’s drive to minimise and offset the energy used in its operations and supply chains, and about its environmental insights explorer which helps cities find ways to reduce their carbon emissions. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrDigital technologies and the developing world
Economist Stefan Dercon tells John Thornhill about the findings of a research project he led, showing how, used wisely, technology can enable development, rather than just replace labour and put people out of work. Read his report here See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrENCORE: Jeni Tennison on open data
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, and about how Brexit will affect Britain's data economy. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrScott Kupor on VC funding
John Thornhill talks to Scott Kupor, managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz, about his book Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It, about the conditions needed to grow tech companies and the potential drawbacks of a venture capital dominated market. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrRana Foroohar on taming big tech
John Thornhill talks to FT colleague Rana Foroohar about her book Don’t Be Evil - How Big Tech Betrayed Its Founding Principles - And All Of Us See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrStuart Russell on losing control of AI
John Thornhill discusses how to make artificial intelligence safe for humans with Stuart Russell, professor of computer science and engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of new book ‘Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control’. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrJaan Tallinn on AI safety
John Thornhill talks to Jaan Tallinn, founding engineer at Skype and Kazaa, about his subsequent career as a tech investor and his concerns about AI safety. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrWanted: work for humans
Madhumita Murgia discusses what happens when robots can do most of the work humans do with Calum Chace of the Economic Singularity Club, Mike Wooldridge, professor of Computer Science at Oxford University and Kathryn Parsons, founder of Decoded See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrWhat kind of art can AI produce?
Mathematician Marcus du Sautoy puts his theories about creative AI to the test before a live audience at the recent FT Weekend Festival in London. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrJohn Maeda on designing the future
Design guru John Maeda tells Tim Bradshaw why he thinks a diversity of viewpoints and listening to what consumers want will be more valuable to the companies of the future than creating the next breakthrough technology. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrSarah Chan on neural interfaces
Bioethicist Sarah Chan contributed to a report this month on neurotechnology by the UK’s senior scientific academy. She talks to John Thornhill about the potential health benefits of neural interfaces but also the difficulty of regulating the commercial use of devices that interact with our brains. Read the Royal Society's report hereAll FT stories will be free to read on Wednesday September 18th when there will be a 24-hour paywall freeze. Here are a couple of recommendations to get you started:Neural interfaces should upgrade, not degrade, humansHow China dodged a trade war recession See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrAlice Bentinck on harnessing tech talent
Alice Bentinck, co-founder of Entrepreneur First, tells John Thornhill about her mission to harness the entrepreneurial talents of a new generation of people from diverse backgrounds. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrImproving decision making through AI
Vishal Chatrath, chief executive and co-founder of Prowler, tells John Thornhill how his company is helping to improve decision making in the worlds of finance and logistics. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrPriya Lakhani on AI's power to transform education
Priya Lakhani, founder and chief executive AI company Century Tech, talks to John Thornhill about her mission to improve the life chances of students around the world using AI-assisted learning. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrNicolas Berggruen on democracy in the digital age
John Thornhill talks to the billionaire investor and philanthropist Nicolas Berggruen about his book: Renovating Democracy: Governing in the Age of Globalization and Digital Capitalism See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrBen Goertzel on benevolent robots
Ben Goertzel talks to John Thornhill about his work for Hanson Robotics, the company that created the robot Sophia, about SingularityNET, the blockchain-based AI marketplace he founded, and about his belief that artificial general intelligence, transhumanism and benevolent robots are not too far in the future See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrFrances Arnold on directed evolution of enzymes
Nobel laureate Frances Arnold talks to Anjana Ahuja about her pioneering a work harnessing the power of nature to engineer enzymes, her long career and the challenges faced by women in science. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrDigital printing for the fourth industrial revolution
Joseph DeSimone, chief executive of Carbon, talks to Richard Waters about the manufacturing technique he invented that can craft objects in seconds using the power of light and digital projection systems See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrDirecting innovation towards sustainable growth
John Thornhill talks to economist Mariana Mazzucato about her work to promote collaboration between governments and companies to direct innovation towards sustainable and inclusive growth. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrPaul Clarke on robotics and digital twins
Paul Clarke, chief technology officer at the online grocery Ocado, talks to John Thornhill about how the use of robotics, machine learning and digital twins is taking the business to a new level and even helping to plan the cities of the future. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrJennifer Doudna on gene editing
Jennifer Doudna talks to Richard Waters, the FT's San Francisco bureau chief, about how she discovered the CRISPR Cas-9 system and how it is transforming the world of gene editing. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrJohn Browne on engineering the future
John Thornhill talks to Lord John Browne, former chief executive of BP, about his book: Make, Think, Imagine on engineering and the future of civilisation. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrNathan Jurgenson on social media and the selfie
Nathan Jurgenson, sociologist at Snapchat’s parent company Snap, talks to Tim Bradshaw about his book The Social Photo and about how the smartphone camera is changing the way we communicate See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrEric Topol on making healthcare more human
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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrNew season starts on Monday
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 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrAndrew Ng on building an AI workforce
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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrRana Yared on investing in fintech
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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrMarcus du Sautoy on creative AI
John Thornhill talks to Oxford mathematician Marcus du Sautoy about his book: The Creativity Code: How AI is Learning to Write, Paint and Think See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrJames Vlahos on voice technology
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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrPeter Schwartz on automating the brain
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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrTim Berners-Lee on reshaping the web
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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrJack Conte on crowdfunding for creators
John Thornhill talks to Jack Conte about Patreon, the platform he invented to help creative artists receive a steadier income from modern-day patrons. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrJeni Tennison on data ethics
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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrJames Williams on the attention economy
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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrShoshana Zuboff on surveillance capitalism
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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrWill Marshall on mapping the earth
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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrTaavet Hinrikus on disrupting the banks
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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrAI and software's 'singular moment'
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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrThe risks and rewards of gene-editing
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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrVivienne Ming on solving human problems
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 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrDiego Piacentini on GovTech
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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrTrust in the digital age
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 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrGraphcore's next generation chip technology
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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrWhat robots can teach humans
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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrMaking the most of work chat
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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrArtificial intelligence that learns on the fly
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 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
...mehrThe business of cybercrime
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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
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