The Artificial Human

AI startups in New York are offering free home cleaning—as long as it’s okay to have everything filmed in order to train robots. Aleks Krotoski and Kevin Fong ask: how far off is a ChatGPT moment for robotics? Robots are nothing new, and online you’ll find endless videos of cutting-edge machines doing everything from backflips to breakdancing. So with all the breakthroughs in other areas of AI, wh...

Aleks Krotoski and Kevin Fong explore a curious contradiction: why do we bristle at AI‑generated emails and writing, even while many of us quietly rely on them ourselves? What does this reveal about how we judge not only the output of these technologies, but the people who use them — while still excusing our own behaviour? To unpack this double standard, they begin with Katrina Collier, recruitmen...

Aleks and Kevin look beyond the headlines to uncover why Silicon Valley is seeing thousands of job losses across some of its biggest tech companies, as the industry pivots towards AI. What does this shift mean for entry-level roles that AI can now perform? And has the rise of “vibe coding” effectively eliminated the need for junior coders? Is this an early sign of AI taking over the very roles tha...

The 2026 World Cup is just around the corner, with England and Scotland heading overseas to play for their countries. FIFA has called it the most technologically advanced tournament yet, with all 48 teams given access to the same AI tools, designed to democratise elite football intelligence. So how will this year’s competition look, with every team now using AI as part of their training and strate...

Aleks Krotoski and Kevin Fong examine the decisions shaping the adoption of military AI in the United States and beyond, asking whether governance is keeping pace — or whether responsibility is being left to the technology’s creators. A recent dispute between Anthropic and the Pentagon revealed that commercial contracts, rather than clear policy, are helping to define how AI can be used by the mil...

The recent strikes in Iran were planned, executed and assessed with Ai. Aleks Krotoski and Kevin Fong find out how Ai is transforming war and asking is the human still meaningfully in the loop? We hear from Keith Dear, ex-RAF intelligence officer and one of the first people to advise Number 10 on the potential of Ai for the military. He'll explain how Ai is being used in decision making in conflic...

As part of the BBC's AI Unpacked week Aleks Krotoski and Kevin Fong join an audience of pupils, teachers and education experts to ask if artificial intelligence is the future of learning. Recorded at University College London in their bicentennial year, the programme asks how we can use this revolutionary tool to equip the next generation for a future where Ai will be everywhere.  The panel featur...

Chat GPT, Gemini etc are most people's idea of artificial intelligence. But are the limitations of the large language models (LLMs) that underpin them an obstacle to achieving Ai that understand the world beyond what its learnt from the internet. That's increasingly the opinion of leading researchers who despite the industries fixation with LLMs are voting with their feet and setting up their own...

Aleks and Kevin look at how Ai chatbots and summaries might kill the web as we know it. When people get all the answers they want from their AI, can the sites they've scraped for content survive if no one visits them? Sajeeda Merali of the professional publishers association discusses the challenges her members face. And the original disruptor of spreading information, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wale...

In the final instalment of our AI Bubble mini-series, Aleks and Kevin take a look at what it would mean if the AI bubble were to burst - not just for the industry, but for the future of AI itself. They’re joined by Adrian Lepers, Head of Monetization Operations and Strategy at Hugging Face. Sitting right at the centre of the open-source AI ecosystem, Adrian shares how Hugging Face sees its role in...

In part two of their exploration of the economics of Ai Aleks and Kevin ask, what are the consequences of the anticipated financial bubble bursting, and would a crash stop there? There's massive uncertainty over whether the Ai industry can make enough money to warrant the astronomical sums being invested, making 2026 a make-or-break year for the sector in the eyes of many experts. We're joined by...

Aleks and Kevin explore the biggest story in the Ai business. Markets are growing sceptical that the eye-watering sums being invested in Ai will show a return and comparisons with the dot-com crash are being widely made - so is the Ai bubble about to burst? Over the next three episodes we'll explore the Ai business landscape, look at the evidence for a bubble and consider the consequences of a 'ma...

Aleks and Kevin explore the world of Ai agents, artificial intelligence that can go out and act in the world on your behalf. And with festive season only weeks away, what they really want to know is could it do your Christmas shopping for you? They hear from Peter Cross, ex-customer experience director at John Lewis and Waitrose, and author of Start with the Consumer, about whether an Ai could eve...

Aleks & Kevin explore how people turned to Ai to solve Charlie Kirk's murder, enhancing grainy CCTV pictures or asking chatbots to help them investigate, but did it help or hinder? They're joined by Lauren Fichten and Julia Ingram from US broadcaster CBS; they watched in real time as the Ai generated content began to trickle in after the shooting finally reaching a frenzy of activity. They the...

A report by the National Centre for Social research show that political orientation shapes attitudes toward AI technologies and their regulation. With people on the right more open to Ai while those on left are more sceptical. Aleks Krotoski and Kevin Fong explore why that might be the case and whether it has implications for how quickly people adopt Ai tools. They speak to Helen Margetts from the...

According to the Harvard Business Review companionship has become the number one use case for generative Ai. But what if the model gets updated and the Ai chum you've been confiding in and sharing your life with disappears? Who picks up the pieces and do the creators of these technologies be more careful? Aleks Krotoski and Kevin Fong explore the latest and most high-profile incident of this when...

For years disabled and marginalised communities have fought for representation in what we see in the media. Aleks and Kevin find out if AI risks undoing all those hard-won victories. Presenters: Aleks Krotoski & Kevin Fong Producer: Peter McManus Sound: Sean Mullervy

What would make you want to exercise? Is it the thrill of being discovered as the next football legend? Or maybe the threat of a scary drill sergeant shouting at you? Join Aleks and Kevin at the starting line, as they set out to discover how AI could help reshape your fitness goals. From what the high end athletes are using to track their progress and how that trickles down to everyday users, to h...

Haven’t had your A.I. question answered yet? We’re making up for it. Aleks and Kevin are in the hot seat for an episode dedicated to tackling the A.I. questions left in our inbox. With insights from experts, and questions from you the listener, they'll cover everything from AI verbal abuse and how AI is being used on our streets, to how it can help with your overflowing inbox, and whether AI dream...

As more and more of us use Ai chat bots inevitably people will start asking them about their problems. Aleks and Kevin ask if there's a risk they do more harm than good? They talk to Ryan Broderick who turned to Ai when going through a rough patch with his mental health. He's now seeing a human therapist and has a fascinating perspective on the advice his chat bot gave him. But are the potential r...

Aleks Krotoski and Kevin Fong ask if espionage is about to be revolutionised by Ai. Around the globe intelligence agencies are getting excited about the potential of Ai. Not only in what we know its good at, crunching huge amounts of data looking for patterns but also in identifying and exploiting human weakness. Who might be turned to spy for you and how can they be manipulated. And when a spy is...

When Chinese AI startup DeepSeek released their R1 model on the world it sent shockwaves through Silicon Valley. Out of nowhere was an AI that performed as well as any of big tech's products but had been built at a fraction of the cost and with a fraction of the resources. Now the dust has settled they’re asking themselves whether the driving idea of bigger models, trained on ever bigger datasets...

When a Norwegian man idly asked ChatGPT to tell him something about himself he was appalled to read that according to the chatbot he'd been convicted of murdering two of his children and had attempted to kill a third. Outraged, he contacted Open AI to have the information corrected only to discover that because of how these large language models work its difficult if not impossible to change it. H...

Books are at the heart of an ongoing AI controversy with 7.5 million books being used to train AI without the authors’ knowledge or consent. So, should AI be allowed to steal books? Aleks Krotoski and Kevin Fong speak to award-winning author Kate Mosse about the growing debate over AI and authorship. They’ll also explore how the publishing industry is responding and whether AI systems have the leg...

Aleks and Kevin step into the world of actors “banking” their voices for use after death. With the help of AI your favourite actor can continue to appear on screen for years after they've gone. But what does that really mean? What’s a performance without the actor behind it? Benjamin Field is the producer behind the AI Sir Michael Parkinson podcast, where the late interviewer talks to new guests t...