Kate Crawford has been trying to understand how AI systems are built for more than a decade. She’s the co-founder of the AI Now institute, a leading AI researcher at Microsoft, and the author of Atlas of AI: Power, Politics and the Planetary Cost of AI. Crawford was studying AI long before this most recent hype cycle. So I wanted to have her on the show to explain how AI really works. Because even though it can seem like magic, AI actually requires huge amounts of data, cheap labour and...

Doctor Eric Topol says medicine has become decidedly inhuman – and the consequences have been disastrous. Topol is a cardiologist and one of the most widely cited medical researchers in the world. In his latest book, Deep Medicine, he argues that the best way to make health care human again is to embrace the inhuman, in the form of artificial intelligence.

Earlier this year, Elon Musk’s company Neuralink successfully installed one of their brain implants in a 29 year old quadriplegic man named Noland Arbaugh. The device changed Arbaugh’s life. He no longer needs a mouth stylus to control his computer or play video games. Instead, he can use his mind. The brain-computer interface that Arbaugh uses is part of an emerging field known as neurotechnology that promises to reshape the way we live. A wide range of AI empowered neurotechnologies may...

When Eugenia Kuyda saw Her for the first time – the 2013 film about a man who falls in love with his virtual assistant – it didn’t read as science fiction. That’s because she was developing a remarkably similar technology: an AI chatbot that could function as a close friend, or even a romantic partner. That idea would eventually become the basis for Replika, Kuyda’s AI startup. Today, Replika has millions of active users – that’s millions of people who have AI friends, AI siblings and AI...

In the last few years, artificial intelligence has gone from a novelty to perhaps the most influential technology we’ve ever seen. The people building AI are convinced that it will eradicate disease, turbocharge productivity, and solve climate change. It feels like we’re on the cusp of a profound societal transformation. And yet, I can’t shake the feeling we’ve been here before. Fifteen years ago, there was a similar wave of optimism around social media: it was going to connect the world,...

We are living in an age of breakthroughs propelled by advances in artificial intelligence. Technologies that were once the realm of science fiction will become our reality: robot best friends, bespoke gene editing, brain implants that make us smarter. Every other Tuesday Taylor Owen sits down with someone shaping this rapidly approaching future. The first two episodes will be released on May 7th. Subscribe now so you don’t miss an episode.

On the season finale, host Taylor Owen and author Azeem Azhar discuss the future of tech governance, Web3 and Elon Musk’s attempts to buy Twitter.

As cryptocurrencies move from the fringes to the mainstream, regulators are taking notice. Journalist Ephrat Livni outlines this evolution and the impact of government intervention on what was once considered a threat to the status quo.

Web3 is being called the future of the internet, but the reality is it’s already here. Crypto expert Shermin Voshmgir takes us through what it all means and how, as she frames it, it’s up to us whether it becomes a tool of freedom or control.

A couple of years ago, the idea of science extending the human lifespan to 150 years or beyond was the stuff of science fiction. The rapid pace of technology is making that a possibility, according to some scientists, but Matthew D. LaPlante isn’t sure society is ready for a world dominated by centenarians.

We focus a lot on the internet’s potential to transcend borders. But writer and political analyst Nanjala Nyabola explains how our experience of the internet is profoundly place-bound, with authoritarian regimes and their digital controls being the most extreme examples of why borders matter.

The Russia-Ukraine war looks different depending on where you are in the world. While the West has found unity on facts and information, a completely different narrative is present outside of English-language social networks. Ben Scott (Reset) and Frederike Kaltheuner (Human Rights Watch) unpack how the Russian information war is playing out across the world.

People in Silicon Valley tend to believe that innovation is driven exclusively by the free market, and that the best thing the government can do is get out of the way. But Margaret O’Mara says history tells us otherwise — the government has been supporting innovation from the start.

It’s become common knowledge that our devices are distracting us. But our attention has been deteriorating for decades now — long before the advent of digital technology. Johann Hari explains why modern life is eroding our capacity to think deeply, and what that means for our ability to solve society’s most pressing challenges.

Claire L. Evans explores the internet that was, through the stories of the women who shaped it. In highlighting these women’s innovations, Claire reveals a completely different history of computation and the internet, one that prioritizes community, trust and the production of knowledge — all things we need a lot more of today.

When Pulitzer Prize finalist Nicholas Carr wrote The Shallows in 2010, many were skeptical of his claims that the internet was changing the way our brains work. Twelve years later, it’s clear he was right. Taylor sits down with Nick to figure out how he saw everything so clearly — and where we’re headed.

Timothy Caulfield, professor of health law and science policy, joins host Taylor Owen to discuss how the Joe Rogan/Spotify COVID misinformation controversy reflects a moment of deep-seated mistrust in science and the weaponizing of the scientific process.

As much as the tech industry thinks it’s about the future, it’s astonishing how profoundly it replicates the past, including our colonial legacy. Animikii’s Jeff Doctor talks about how colonialism is embedded in tech and how tech reinforces colonialism.

Following the success of the General Data Protection Regulation, the European Parliament is working on three new policy proposals to further rein in big tech.

The discovery of neuroplasticity is one of neuroscience’s most important recent advances. Dr. Norman Doidge reflects on how technology is rewiring the brain and shares his views on the societal implications of these changes.

Hélène Landemore thinks that for a government to be truly democratic, it needs to involve citizen deliberation. She calls this radical proposal “open democracy.”

We take you back, to when fake news actually meant fake news, with Craig Silverman, the journalist who popularized the term long before Donald Trump. How did those early years of fake and lucrative viral stories made to look like real news get us to a US insurrection?

Nation-states are building arsenals of zero-day exploits and other cyber weapons to stage surveillance, intelligence gathering and military strikes in cyberspace.

It is important to keep that which makes us human at the centre, both when building and using new technology.