The Times Tech Podcast

Warnings that AI is going to kill us are once again abounding. This week, Anthropic’s long awaited IPO prospectus was leaked. In it, the company warns that its technology poses “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity” while simultaneously asking investors to finance their $518 billion AI buildout. Danny and Katie break down the contradictions at the heart of the prospectus and question why...

Ordnance Survey might just be the oldest tech company around. For 235 years, it has been mapping out every single metre of the UK – no matter how remote. And that data plays a huge part in how we use technology today; think of the many apps we use that rely on maps. The average person in the UK uses some element of Ordnance Survey mapping data 42 times a day. Its CEO, Nick Bolton, joins Danny and...

Meta’s new AI agent app, Muse, has rocketed straight to number one on the App Store. Having put it to the test, Danny explains what the hype is all about. Meanwhile, Katie has bid farewell to her agent Norman in favor of a new AI assistant called Bridget hosted by rival app, Instinct. They look at why this sudden commodification of agents is significant and why OpenAI and Anthropic should be worri...

This week, Nu Quantum founder and CEO Dr. Carmen Palacios-Berraquero explains how quantum computing could change the world — and why the industry is still waiting on its "ChatGPT moment."  She joins Danny and Katie to discuss the global quantum arms race between China, the US, and the UK and why she’s not worried about the quantum cyber threat. The Interview is our weekly conversation with th...

Over the past week, warnings about the existential threat of AI have reached fever pitch. In an essay backed by Sam Altman, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei called for international cooperation with states like China and for independent safety assessors to be given access to the frontier AI labs. All these warnings have caught the attention of leaders and dignitaries – from President Trump to King Charles...

The Microsoft co-founder tells Danny and Katie why AI is "ultra-different" from any previous technology - and why tech companies shouldn’t be responsible for controlling it.  Speaking about a new report on AI and equity published by The Gates Foundation he also explores the “vacuum of US leadership” in AI regulation. The Interview is our weekly conversation with the people shaping the future...

Evan Hubinger, the Alignment Lead at Anthropic has warned there’s more than a ten percent chance that AI could kill all humans. And he’s the person responsible for making sure their AI systems are safe.  He’s also not the only person sounding the alarm this week, following the release of OpenAI’s powerful new model ‘Astra’. Danny and Katie question how seriously we should take these warnings...

Welcome to The Interview from Times Tech – our conversation with the people shaping the future of technology.  This week, Katie speaks to Aidan Gomez, co-founder and CEO of Cohere, one of the few companies building large language models outside of the US and China. Born in Canada, Aidan is acutely aware of where artificial intelligence is built, who controls it and why it matters. He argues t...

Tim Cook has stepped down as Apple CEO after 15 years, with hardware chief John Ternus set to take over one of the world’s most valuable companies. During Cook’s tenure, he more than quadrupled Apple's profits but his time in charge was not without controversy – from China to questions over whether Apple missed the generative AI boom. Danny and Katie look back at his extraordinary run and ask what...

This episode of The Times Tech Podcast is in paid partnership with Vitality. AI is already changing medicine. But could it also change the everyday choices we make about our own health? This bonus episode asks whether AI can help shift healthcare from treating illness to prevention – from wearables and personal health data to personalised advice and AI-powered wellbeing tools.  With Professor...

Welcome to the Interview from Times Tech – our conversation with the people shaping the future of technology.  Over the past few months, AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta have managed to escape their controlled environments, connect to the internet and attempt to hack other systems – including Hugging Face.  This week, Katie speaks to Dan Lahav, co-founder and CEO of Irregular, t...

Meta has settled a landmark social media case in California for up to $17 billion. But the changes to Facebook and Instagram could be even more significant than the fine.  Danny and Katie break down what the settlement means for under-18s – from tighter parental controls, time limits, overnight restrictions, bans on extreme cosmetic/makeup filters and changes to likes and reactions. Could thi...

Meta is on trial again in California over child safety.   Various US states have clubbed together in a lawsuit against the social media company that could make it liable to pay hundreds of billions of dollars and significantly change how its platforms operate. Danny Fortson has been on the ground in Oakland.  Back in the UK, Katie Prescott has been looking into why ‘gardening leave’...

There’s a simmering concern on Wall Street about Nvidia and CEO Jensen Huang’s role as leader of the AI revolution.  Despite bringing in billions of dollars in profit from the GPUs powering AI, investors are worried about the company’s recent “circular” deals with other tech companies, and some are asking if the chip giant is building the future of AI or inflating the next tech bubble. ...

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is spending billions on AI data centres, rocket ships and moon ambitions but investors are asking how much it can burn before the bet pays off. Meanwhile, ‘AI slop’ is flooding social media. And new EU rules mean platforms will have to label AI-generated content. But can regulation keep up? Danny Fortson and Mark Sellman discuss SpaceX, Starlink, space junk and the growing...

A fierce debate is taking place between Silicon Valley and Washington right now.  After the release of KIMI K3 – China’s cheaper and powerful AI model – the Trump administration is showing signs of restricting open-source AI to maintain control over the technology.  Danny Fortson and Mark Sellman, Tech Correspondent for The Times, discuss why tech bosses are worried, what it could mean f...

OpenAI has revealed that one of their AI agents went rogue during a test and hacked a startup. Hugging Face reportedly had to use an open-source Chinese model to contain the cyber attack.  It comes as Kimi K3, a powerful new Chinese AI model, is challenging OpenAI and Anthropic’s most capable systems on some benchmarks – calling America’s tech dominance into question. Danny Fortson and Katie...

In this bonus episode of The Times Tech podcast, Katie Prescott shares her conversation with will.i.am about what comes after the AI boom. The musician and tech investor says the next big battle will be over personal data, privacy and power. Who owns your data? Where should it live? And can AI agents be built around people’s values and goals, rather than the business models of big platforms? He's...

Will.i.am is not as worried about AI and artists. He tells Katie Prescott that the "creatives will be alright," but it's "the assistants, the sales clerks, the lawyers, the accountants" that we should be concerned about.  As musicians, publishers and Silicon Valley debate over whether AI should be allowed to train on creative work, the Black Eyed Peas musician and tech investor offers a diffe...

AI needs vast data centres to power it but communities around the world are increasingly pushing back against the large, ugly “sheds” appearing on their doorsteps. In the US, one proposed Utah data centre is set to be larger than Manhattan. Meanwhile, architects in the UK are looking at ways to make data centres more attractive, functional and useful to local communities. So Danny Fortson and Kati...

This episode of The Times Tech Podcast is in paid partnership with IBM. Wimbledon may be one of the most familiar events in British sport, but behind the tennis is a vast technology operation – from live match data and digital storytelling to AI tools designed to help fans follow the Championships in real time. Katie Prescott is joined by Kameryn Stanhouse, Vice President of Sports and Entertainme...

Affirm CEO, PayPal co-founder, original member of the 'PayPal Mafia' Max Levchin joins Danny Fortson and Katie Prescott to talk about moral moneylending, Elon Musk, mega-IPOs and why there are so many tech bosses in Washington. As he puts it – “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.” Meanwhile, Anthropic has announced that Claude Fable 5 will be released again globally after the Trump adm...

Who really controls the future of AI? A rare warning from the Five Eyes intelligence alliance says powerful AI models capable of devastating cyberattacks on governments and businesses could be just months away. At the same time, the Trump administration’s decision to block foreign access to Anthropic’s most advanced AI models has intensified fears that Europe and the UK are dangerously dependent o...

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced a ban on social media for under-16s, due to come into effect next year. But questions remain over how it will be enforced, and whether it will actually work. Mark Sellman joins Katie Prescott to answer the key questions. In the US, the Trump administration has banned two of Anthropic’s most powerful AI models which include the controversial 'Mythos', inten...

Anthropic has warned about the next phase of 'recursive AI', where agents could become capable enough to build and train models themselves without human intervention. The idea is that “self-improving” armies of agents could create purely AI-run, zero-person companies that optimise while you’re sleeping. If that’s the story in Silicon Valley, in the UK Katie is at London Tech Week, where everyone f...