Tech Life

Latest Episodes:

Have we had enough of podcasts? Jun 20, 2023

Show notes

Technology consultant Ann Charles on the future of podcasting after Spotify ditches some of its highest profile - and highest paid - broadcasters. Tom Nunlist, senior analyst at Trivium China, on how the authorities in Beijing are trying to regulate AI. And Alasdair Keane reports from Berlin's Green Tech Festival.

(PHOTO CREDIT: Getty images. A teenager listens to a podcast)

The EU takes action on AI Jun 13, 2023

Show notes

This week Zoe Kleinman travels to Strasbourg, France to meet Margrethe Vestager, the woman leading the EU's attempts to regulate AI. Reporter Tom Gerken has been following the protest has caused Reddit to effectively fall silent. Chris Vallance meets the team trying out 3D printing as a way to rebuild schools destroyed in the war in the Ukraine. And Amazon tell us what they're doing to combat fake online reviews - and we ask a consumer group to review their initiative.

(PHOTO: Margrethe Vestager and Zoe Kleinman at the European parliament, Strasbourg, France, copyright BBC).

Apple's big bet on virtual reality Jun 06, 2023

Show notes

Tech Life goes to Apple Park at Cupertino, California, for the launch of the Vision Pro Mixed Reality headset. Zoe speaks to analyst Leo Leo Gebbie, app developer Emma Partlow, and north America technology reporter James Clayton, and asks is this a breakthrough moment for virtual reality? Will the headset's price put people off? Has Apple finally had another Iphone moment or, under boss Tim Cook, has it lost the ability to make products that change the world?

(PHOTO CREDIT: By Loren Elliott Credit: Reuters Location: Cupertino, Ca, United States)

The drama about AI in Hollywood May 30, 2023

Show notes

Film-maker Justine Bateman on why she and her Hollywood colleagues fear AI will take their jobs. Drug safety campaigner Dominic Milton Trott on why he's taken his message to the darknet. And Shiona McCallum talks to the Romanian-American computer scientist Ion Stoica about AI, gender equality and what it's like being a billionaire

What's the deal with chips? May 23, 2023

Show notes

Tech Life explores the chips found in everyday tech, and why governments are competing to make them. We hear how scientists in New Zealand are turning underground broadband cables into a source of earthquake detection. Also in this programme how simulation tech is helping a South African HIV organisation reach more people and how AI could transform your next work out.

(Photo: Jim Wilson/Getty An employee holds a silicon wafer with chips etched into it)

Is Elon Musk's Twitter harming global political free speech? May 16, 2023

Show notes

The founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, tells us Elon Musk’s Twitter is making it harder for the internet to be open and free. Plus Shiona McCallum profiles Linda Yaccarino, the platform’s new CEO, with insight from Claire Atkinson, of Insider, whose known her for 20 years. Also: Sam Murunga, from BBC Monitoring, in Nairobi, on why TikTok is in trouble in Senegal. And Ben Derico reports on why voice actors are worried about the threat to their profession from AI.

(Photo: Supporters of Turkish President check their phone to look at early presidential election results in front of the Justice and development Party (AKP's) headquarters, 14 May, 2023. Credit: Ozan Kose/AFP/Getty Images)

A warning about AI from a founding father of the IT age May 09, 2023

Show notes

The inventor of the first Apple computer Steve "Woz" Wozniak tells us of his fears that AI will supercharge scams. BBC education correspondent Hazel Shearing reports on whether chatbots could help you pass your exams. Bhaskar Chakravorti Dean of Global Business at The Fletcher School, Tufts University, says chatGPT "mania" is distracting from all the other useful things AI could do. And tech reporter Alasdair Keane is in Liverpool, for Eurovision, for a tour of the tech powering an international song contest.

(Photo Credit: Co-founder of Apple Steve Wozniak attends the Digital X 2022 event by Deutsche Telekom on September 13, 2022 in Cologne, Germany. Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images).

Is digital life booming in Rio? May 02, 2023

Show notes

With the first Web Summit taking place in Brazil, Tech Life explores digital transformation in South America and India. We speak to some of those on the cusp of digital change and to the CEO of Salesforce India, Arundhati Bhattacharya. Also in this episode, would you confess your biggest secrets to the internet? We find out why lots of people are through the social account Fesshole and Alasdair Keane explores some of the tech being trialled at the coronation of King Charles.

(Photo: A marching band during the opening night of Web Summit Rio 2023. Credit: Stephen McCarthy/Getty Images)

'I sacrificed my soul': A Facebook moderator's story Apr 25, 2023

Show notes

This week, an update on the legal battle between Meta and former Facebook moderators in Kenya. One of them, Trevin Brownee, tells our reporter Chris Vallance that reviewing the most extreme content on the internet cost him his "human side." We ask what's the human cost of keeping the internet safe, and what do we owe those who do that work for us? Also this week, the weird and wonderful sounds of quantum computers in action. Professor Winfried Hensinger, who heads the Sussex Ion Quantum Technology Group and is the director of the Sussex Centre for Quantum Technologies, explains how they could change the world. And Professor Stephen Brewster, of the University of Glasgow’s School of Computing Science, and his colleague Ammar Al-Taie, on the difficulties of getting driverless cars to understand the complex and subtle interactions between cyclists and drivers.

(Photo: Kenyan lawyer, Mercy Mutemi (seated 4th R) along with fellow counsel follow proceedings during a virtual pre-trial consultation with a judge and Meta's legal counsel. She appeared on behalf of 43 former content moderators for Facebook who filed a complaint in Kenya against Meta, Facebook's parent company. Credit: Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images)

Is AI racing ahead too fast? Apr 18, 2023

Show notes

As Google's boss, Sunder Pichai, says he doesn't fully understand its AI products, tech investor Ian Hogarth tells us it's time for a public debate on the technology's future. Reporter Michael Kaloki joins us from Nairobi to explain how the legal battle between Facebook and its Kenyan moderators is intensifying. Alasdair Keane meets the amateur composer crafting the sound of all human knowledge for Wikipedia. And our Click colleague Lara Lewington tells us about the tech entrepreneur devoting his time - and money - to finding ways to extend healthy human life.

(Picture credit: Getty Images)

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