The Times Tech Podcast
The Sunday Times 476 episodes Nov 8, 2026
From Silicon Valley to The City, tech journalists Danny Fortson and Katie Prescott bring you the inside track on the new industrial revolution. Co-hosted from San Francisco and London, this weekly podcast delivers the latest news and freshest interviews with the people creating the future. As West Coast Correspondent for The Sunday Times, Danny is on the ground to witness the technological whirlwind that first roared out Silicon Valley. From London, working as The Times' Technology Business Editor, Katie has seen the waves of boom and bust rolling through one of the world's financial capitals. Together they explore this strange new world of high finance and tech giants, explaining how we got here and what is just around the corner.
Episodes
Tinder and Hinge safety boss on finding love with AI
Is AI making it easier to find love? Two-thirds of UK singles say they’ve used AI in their dating lives, according to Match Group research. Yoel Roth, head of trust and safety at the company behind Tinder and Hinge, joins Katie Prescott to discuss how AI is changing online dating. The former Twitter safety chief also reflects on X four years after leaving, why social media companies have taken a s
The US midterms: A Silicon Valley nightmare?
What do the US midterms mean for Big Tech? While the elections have been dubbed a referendum on President Trump, in many states, tech bosses and AI were also on the ballot. Elon Musk became the Republicans’ most prominent financial backer, donating an incredible $446 million to the unsuccessful campaign. But public backlash to data centres, fears about AI and the dislike for the billionaires devel
Jaron Lanier on Silicon Valley’s new gods and AI addiction
Has Silicon Valley become “addicted to addiction”? Computer scientist and futurist Jaron Lanier joins Danny Fortson to discuss why he thinks AI companies are repeating the mistakes of social media - and why treating chatbots as a new species is taking the industry in the wrong direction.He explains why he’s sceptical of promises of AI-powered abundance, shares his alternative idea to addictive cha
What Anthropic’s IPO filing reveals about tech and power
Anthropic has launched its historic IPO filing ahead of its blockbuster stock market debut. It offers the first glimpse inside the company’s finances, including both the mountain of money it’s sitting on and spending. So what do the numbers tell us? Is Anthropic really worth $2 trillion?Beyond the finances, the S-1 offers a rare look inside Anthropic and the unusual power structures that govern it
Bear Robotics co-founder on using AI to teach robots how to think
Humanoid robots are all over social media: making beds, doing backflips, even outrunning Usain Bolt. But how much of it is real and how much is hype?This week, Danny and Katie are joined by roboticist and co-founder of Bear Robotics Bren Pierce. He’s been building humanoid robots for more than twenty years.They discuss how AI is finally giving robots ‘brains’ to understand the physical world, why
Why are tech giants giving away their billions?
Anthropic has pledged to give away 5% of its shares to a fund that will make donations for the quote unquote “public good”. These shares could be worth between 75 and $100 billion. Days later, Elon Musk posted on X that he would give one of his SpaceX shares to every child in America. These could be worth over $10 billion. So, what’s behind these recent pledges? Danny and Katie question whether te
Bending Spoons CEO on going public, buying old tech brands and The Matrix
Bending Spoons has become one of Europe’s most unusual tech companies by buying well-known tech businesses and rebuilding them. Katie Prescott speaks to CEO Luca Ferrari about taking the company public, choosing the US over Europe and transforming businesses such as AOL and Evernote. He also explains why Bending Spoons never sells the companies it buys, and why being the CEO of a public company ca
Is AI a national security threat?
MI5 has warned that AI is "supercharging" security threats to the UK, while Britain’s AI minister said it was “inevitable” that Britain is going to be hacked by rogue AI agents.Danny and Katie look at the growing security fears around AI, including the FBI investigating a case involving a former OpenAI employee accused of planting a covert recording device at the company’s San Francisco
Facebook Whistleblower on Mark Zuckerberg, Meta AI and The Social Reckoning
Five years after leaking thousands of internal Facebook documents, whistleblower Frances Haugen joins Times Tech to talk about The Social Reckoning, Aaron Sorkin’s new film about her story and the sequel to The Social Network.She talks about Hollywood’s current obsession with Silicon Valley, how attitudes towards Big Tech have changed since she blew the whistle and what Mark Zuckerberg, Meta and t
Who pays when AI agents go rogue?
AI companies are investigating a growing number of incidents where agents have gone rogue and done things which would be considered crimes if committed by a human. But when AI causes serious damage, who is responsible and crucially, who pays? Katie’s been speaking to London’s major insurers who have been war-gaming scenarios where AI causes harm and asking who would ultimately pick up the bill. Th
BONUS: AI governance - how business can adopt AI safely
This episode of The Times Tech Podcast is in paid partnership with ServiceNow.How do you navigate the rapid pace of AI development in business?With Matt Higham, ServiceNow’s chief digital and technology officer for UK and Ireland, we ask how companies can use AI governance to dodge the pitfalls thrown up by AI, and embrace the opportunities safely. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more i
The Interview: Replit CEO on the contradictions at the heart of AI doom
This week, Danny speaks to Amjad Masad, co-founder and CEO of Replit, a ‘vibe-coding’ company which enables anyone – coder or not – to build software simply by telling AI what they want it to do.Amjad makes the case that we’ve lost the original joy of computing, leaving everyday users "at the mercy" of Silicon Valley giants.He also pushes back on the current wave of AI doomerism, arguing
Why is Anthropic asking people to fund AI doom?
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 D
The Interview: Ordnance Survey CEO on AI reinventing maps
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 K
Why OpenAI and Anthropic should fear Meta Muse
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
The Interview: Nu Quantum CEO on how quantum computing could solve the energy crisis
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 the
The battle to control AI: Who gets to write the rules?
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 Interview: Bill Gates on AI risk, regulation and the "vacuum of US leadership"
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 of
Is there a 10% chance AI “could kill all humans”?
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 o
The Interview: Cohere CEO on why democracies need sovereign AI
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 tha
Apple after Tim Cook and is Anthropic worth $2 trillion?
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
BONUS: Can AI help us live healthier lives?
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 Sé
The Interview: Irregular CEO on the race to stop AI models going rogue
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, the
Meta’s $17bn settlement: The end of social media as we know it?
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 this
The Meta trial that could change Facebook and Instagram forever
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’ i
How Nvidia became AI’s ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’
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. To
SpaceX’s AI gamble and the crackdown on AI slop
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
China vs USA: Should Trump ban open-source AI?
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 for
OpenAI's rogue agent and Silicon Valley’s China problem
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 P
BONUS | Will.i.am: will AI repeat the mistakes of social media?
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 b
Will.i.am: musicians will survive AI
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 differ
Can beautifying AI data centres save them from backlash?
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 Katie
BONUS: The hidden technology behind Wimbledon
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 Entertainment
PayPal’s Max Levchin on Donald Trump, Elon Musk and mega-IPOs
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 admi
Why Europe fears America’s AI power
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
Keir Starmer vs Big Tech - the UK's under-16s social media ban
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', intens
Anthropic's warning: AI will start building itself
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
BONUS: How to turn AI pilots into real business value
This episode of The Times Tech Podcast is sponsored by KPMG.Businesses are spending heavily on AI, but is it actually changing how they work? Katie Prescott is joined by Paul Henninger, UK Head of Technology and Data and Global AI Leader at KPMG, and Professor Alan Brown from the University of Exeter Business School, author of Making AI Work for Britain, to ask why so many AI pilots fail to become
Move over Harvey Specter! The rise of AI lawyers
A strange new experiment where AI agents run their own societies free from humans has raised questions about whether we can really trust these bots to act on our behalf. In the study by Emergence AI, agents attempted thefts, physical assaults, and even arsons – all inside a simulated world.So what happens when AI agents move from experiments into real workplaces? This week on The Times Tech podcas
Why the Pope is taking on Silicon Valley and AI
Pope Leo has warned that Big Tech has too much power over humanity’s future. Danny Fortson and Mark Sellman discuss what his warning on AI means and why Anthropic was at the Vatican. Meanwhile, in the UK, Sir Keir Starmer is weighing tougher rules on children’s social media use after doctors compared its harms to smoking. Plus, the CEO of Proxima Fusion talks about how to power AI by recreating th
Inside Elon Musk’s trillion dollar mission to colonise Mars
Two big events have put Elon Musk in the spotlight. First, a jury has dismissed Elon Musk’s case against Sam Altman and OpenAI after three weeks of testimony. But while this blockbuster trial was taking place, the Tesla CEO was making plans to get his other company, SpaceX, onto the public stock market. The space exploration company has filed for a huge IPO that will likely be the larges
The incredible stakes of Elon Musk's trial against OpenAI
Sam Altman took the stand this week to defend himself and his company against a lawsuit by Elon Musk. The three-week long trial has featured some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley, including Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella and OpenAI cofounder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever. As the trial nears its end, Danny Fortson and Katie Prescott talk about why the stakes are so high and debate
Elon Musk vs OpenAI and the Met Gala tech takeover
The Met Gala has been dubbed the “Tech Gala” after a heavy Silicon Valley presence and sponsorship from Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez. But as tech billionaires try to win over culture, Elon Musk’s court battle with OpenAI is exposing the messy origins of the AI boom.Danny Fortson has been covering the California trial, now in its second week, where OpenAI president Greg Brockman has taken the stan
AI in security and defence: is tech making us safer?
Alphabet, Google's parent company, has reportedly signed a deal allowing the Pentagon use of its AI for classified purposes. It's just one of many recent deals between Silicon Valley tech companies and the US military. Meanwhile, tech company Palantir says future AI warfare is inevitable and is calling on big tech bosses to "participate in the defence of the nation". Danny Fortson and Katie P
How to build your AI agent
Meet Norman: the launch of the OpenClaw AI agent has "opened the next frontier of AI to everyone" says Jensen Huang, chief exec of the tech giant Nvidia. But as these agents start doing work that once got done by humans, this latest technological revolution has provoked questions about what the future of human work - and jobs - will look like. Katie Prescott has built her own agent, Norman, and in
Is AI anxiety fuelling real world hostility?
The race among top AI companies to build ever more powerful systems is accelerating, and so are fears about losing control. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is at the centre of the debate, which came to a head last week after the New Yorker released an investigation about him, and a series of attacks took place near his home. Danny Fortson and Katie Prescott discuss how we got here and why Altman is becoming
Why data centres became a target in the Iran war
Iran has been bombing US owned data centres in the Persian Gulf, damaging physical infrastructure and disrupting cloud services across the region. Meanwhile in the UK, the combined value of new data centres approved last year officially overtook office buildings. Katie Prescott and The Times's technology correspondent Mark Sellman look at how this critical infrastructure is reshaping energy, infra
Social media ban for children and Big Tech’s Big Tobacco moment
Should under-16s be banned from social media? After landmark US rulings against Meta and YouTube over addictive design features, pressure is building on Big Tech. Danny Fortson and Katie Prescott speak to online safety campaigner Baroness Kidron about whether this is tech’s 'Big Tobacco' moment, how the UK is tackling online safety, and what it means for children, including the growing risks of AI
Forget your employees – how hard is your AI agent working?
A new trend is emerging in Silicon Valley – engineers are using more and more of AI agents to do their jobs. At some companies like Meta, AI usage is reportedly being linked to performance. But it’s also fuelling a growing anxiety, if AI can do your job better and faster, where does that leave you? Danny Fortson and Katie Prescott discuss the paranoia currently consuming Silicon Valley, what this
Will this AI actress be the next Oscar winner?
Conan O’Brien joked at the Oscars that he might be the last human to host the Academy Awards. It got Danny and Katie thinking about AI's influence on the creative industry – from Hollywood, podcasting and beyond. They speak to Eline Van der Velden, the creator of AI actor Tilly Norwood, who argues that AI performers could be a more “ethical alternative” to traditional acting. So is AI empowering c
The $14 billion Nscale story and how founders succeed in Silicon Valley
British AI data-center company NScale has hit a $14.6 billion valuation after raising another $2 billion but its rapid rise is raising eyebrows. Danny Fortson and Katie Prescott examine the meteoric story of founder Josh Payne and the questions surrounding his business. They’re joined by Alice Bentinck, CEO of Entrepreneurs First, to discuss what it really takes to build the next generation of tec
Bonus episode: Will quantum computing change everything?
Quantum computing has been called the next big technological revolution, potentially as transformative as AI. Governments are investing billions, banks are already experimenting with the technology, and startups are racing to turn decades of research into real-world systems. In this episode, originally from The Business, another podcast from The Times, James Palles-Dimmock from UK startup Quantum
Anthropic vs Pentagon: How AI is changing war
An explosive fallout between AI giant Anthropic, OpenAI and the US Department of War has ignited a fierce debate in Silicon Valley about who gets to decide how artificial intelligence is used in defence. Former Pentagon adviser and founder of Primer.ai, Sean Gourley, joins Danny and Katie to explain how this technology is already embedded in military operations, and explore whether
Inside Nvidia: The company powering the AI gold rush
Do Nvidia’s latest results confirm a tech boom or signal the makings of a bubble? Danny Fortson and Katie Prescott ask how a once-niche graphics chipmaker ended up at the centre of global tech, geopolitics and the stock market. Author Stephen Witt joins them to explain Jensen Huang’s rise and the company’s extraordinary dominance.Guest: Stephen Witt, Author of The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, N
BONUS: Agentic AI explained – The next phase of artificial intelligence
This episode of The Times Tech podcast is sponsored by PwC.Artificial intelligence is entering a new phase. It’s no longer just about chatbots generating text or analysing data. The next frontier is agentic AI systems that can coordinate tasks, make decisions and act with a degree of autonomy. In this sponsored bonus episode, brought to you by PwC, Katie Prescott speaks to Lilia Christofi, Partner
AI safety meets OpenClaw – what India’s AI summit tells us
As world leaders and tech bosses gather for India’s AI Impact Summit, Danny Fortson and Mark Sellman ask if these global summits are shaping AI or struggling to keep up with it? They also hear from Carina Prunkl, lead author of the new International AI Safety Report, about risks, jobs, autonomy and whether safeguards are keeping pace with technology. Plus, OpenAI snaps up viral agent OpenClaw
Nikola Mrksic on PolyAI, Super Bowl ads, and the future of voice AI
Nikola Mrksic, CEO of Nvidia-backed London startup PolyAI, joins Danny and Katie to talk about AI voice assistants transforming customer service. He explains why voice AI is finally working, how PolyAI handles real-world calls and real-world accents, and what happens to jobs when bots can do the work of thousands. Plus, the ‘SaaSpocalypse’ – the $1 trillion sell-off that signals investors may
Bonus episode: The ‘secret sauce’ of success - With Octopus Energy CEO, Greg Jackson
Today’s episode is from The Business – The Times’ flagship podcasts covering business, finance and the economy.Octopus Energy has gone from market entrant to market leader in just 10 years. Greg Jackson, chief executive and co-founder is at the forefront of this business success story. The secret sauce? It’s nothing to do with energy - it’s the Kraken software that links the company to its custome
Is OpenClaw about to burst the AI bubble?
A new open-source AI agent called OpenClaw has set Silicon Valley buzzing and with a single line of code, anyone can use it. Does this free tool threaten the AI business models behind trillion-dollar Big Tech IPOs, and could it signal a looming AI bubble? Plus, Danny Fortson and Katie Prescott also speak to Jurgi Camblong, founder and CEO of SOPHiA Genetics, about how AI is already being used in h
Is AI growing too fast for humanity?
Are we heading for the next ChatGPT moment? Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, has sparked debate about the growth of AI and its acceleration into a risky new phase. But is it real danger or Silicon Valley hype? Danny Fortson and Katie Prescott are joined by Barney Hussey-Yeo, CEO of UK fintech Cleo, on what it’s actually like building with AI right now and whether society is ready for the next turning p
Can Europe rely on Silicon Valley in the age of Trump tariffs?
World leaders in Davos are talking about 'tech sovereignty', but can Europe or the UK really achieve digital autonomy when so much of the AI and cloud infrastructure is controlled by a handful of US firms? Danny and Katie talk to Hany Farid about the geopolitics of tech, and the fear of an 'AI kill switch' - is this scaremongering or a real concern?Guest: Hany Farid, UC Berkeley professor and Co‑F
Grok, deepfakes and who should police AI
What happens when AI gets it wrong? After a backlash over the misuse of Elon Musk’s AI tool Grok, new restrictions have been imposed on editing images of real people. Is this a sign that AI regulation is lagging, and who should be in charge – governments or Silicon Valley? This week, Danny and Katie are joined by AI computer scientist Kate Devlin from King’s College London to discuss why this mome
Tech in 2026 – AI winners, losers and what happens next
What will tech look like in 2026 and are we heading for an AI bubble, or a boom? To gaze into the crystal ball for the year ahead, Katie and Danny speak to VCs Hannah Seal from Index Ventures and Jon Callaghan of True Ventures in Silicon Valley, and get them to make their predictions for the year ahead and the innovations to watch out for – AI solving healthcare? Robots replacing brickies?Image: G
Holiday Special: Part 2 - Has AI already taken your job?
Continuing our big name-dropping look-back with Sam Altman, Lisa Su, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Satya Nadella, Matthew Prince, Arthur Mensch, Sir Demis Hassabis, Marc Benioff, and Dario Amodei, this is the second special Christmas edition of the pod – and this time we’re looking at what we’ve learned about the impact of AI on the real world since the Tech Pod started in October 2024 with DeepMind's
Holiday Special: Part 1 - AI Hope vs Hype!
In the biggest, most shameless holiday name-drop of the year, Katie and Danny bring you – in no particular order – insights from Sam Altman of OpenAI, AMD’s Lisa Su, Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Satya Nadella from Microsoft, Matthew Prince of Cloudflare, Arthur Mensch of Mistral AI, Sir Demis Hassabis of Google DeepMind, Marc Benioff from Salesforce, and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei.A whol
Are venture capitalists the new power brokers?
Who has power in the tech world now – governments, big tech, or the investors writing the cheques? Danny and Katie are joined by Harry Stebbings, founder of 20VC, on how venture capital shapes what gets built, who wins the AI race, and what 2026 could bring. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The humans training AI to be better
What is Artificial General Intelligence? How close are we to achieving it? And who exactly is building it? Danny and Katie look at the global race for artificial general intelligence and speak with Surge AI CEO Edwin Chen, whose company uses human experts to train frontier models from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google. He believes only human expertise will get AI to the next level.Image credit: Surge A
Realising the AI advantage for the UK
What does AI truly mean for productivity, growth, and innovation? Tech giants IBM are well placed to assess the impact of AI and what it takes for an organisation to transform to being AI-first. In this bonus episode - made in partnership with IBM - two of its leading strategists, Leon Butler, Chief Executive, IBM UK and Ireland, and Dr. Juan Bernabe Moreno, Director IBM Research in Europe, s
Can AI be you? (Or will the ‘bubble’ burst first?)
Danny talks to Dara Ladjevardian, co-founder of Delphi - a company that creates digital AI versions of... well, you! So, you can be you, more often. Answering queries, talking to your mom and making your own podcast... if only! Katie, meanwhile, is considering the Bank of England's warning of a potential AI bubble being deepened by the use of debt to help underpin $5 trillion of investment to buil
The Budget and the battle for tech entrepreneurs
The British Chancellor, Rachel Reeves has delivered her now annual Budget Statement - a sort of economic State of the United Kingdom address to parliament. And in it she promised to work with founders and investors to make the UK an "even more attractive place" to grow their business - "if you build here, Britain will back you!" So is Danny likely to join entrepreneurs in San Francisco and Dubai f
Nvidia and the AI Bubble? What bubble!
Nvidia says AI demand is “off the charts”, and Jeff Bezos has launched a new $6.2 billion AI start-up, but Google’s Sundar Pichai is warning that no company will be safe if the bubble bursts. So what’s really going on? Bubble or no bubble? Danny and Katie dig into the numbers and speak to venture capitalist Suranga Chandratillake from Balderton Capital about how to spot the real bets from the hype
Lyft’s CEO on the end of driving
Could today’s teenagers be the last to sit a driving test? Danny Fortson and Katie Prescott look at the rise of self-driving cars, from Waymo’s cars in San Francisco to new UK laws on autonomous vehicles. They also hear from Lyft CEO David Risher who explain why your kids may never need to drive and what that means for cities, carmakers and the rest of us.Image: Getty Hosted on Acast. See acast.c
Who holds the power in the age of AI?
Katie meets Jensen Huang and Meta’s chief AI scientist Yann LeCun at No.10 as Nvidia hits a $5 trillion valuation. Plus, Danny and Katie discuss OpenAI’s $38 billion AWS deal and the Sam Altman–Satya Nadella interview, exploring what it all means for AI’s power, compute and future. And Katie reveals the tech-inspired Collins' Word of the Year – any guesses?Clips: BG2 Pod Hosted on Acast. See acast
Can AI be your friend?
Danny road tests a new kind of relationship – an always-listening AI pendant that eavesdrops in on your conversations and then texts you so it too can be part of your life story! 22-year-old inventor, Avi Schiffmann, calls it a “living digital being.” Is this the future of companionship, or a step too far? And Katie and Danny discuss OpenAI’s shift to a for-profit business – what it changes for Mi
How to stop Britain being a technological ‘vassal state’?
Danny Fortson and Katie Prescott reunite in London to unpack the biggest takeaways from The Times Tech Summit 2025 – from the race to power AI’s energy demands, to News Corp CEO Robert Thomson’s fight to make tech firms pay for content, and former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s warning that Britain has become a “vassal state” in global tech. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more inf
AI bubble & Cloudflare CEO on the AI content wars
As OpenAI’s chip spree rolls on, Danny Fortson and Katie Prescott ask the question – are we already in an AI bubble? And they hear from Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince about AI content wars and making LLM's pay for the content they use. Image: Getty Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The future of social media according to Bluesky's COO & Trump 'saves' TikTok
Danny and Katie are joined by Rose Wang, COO of BlueSky, the decentralised social network born out of Twitter, to discuss how it’s rewriting the rules of social media, why it’s turning down ad money, and whether an open, user-curated model can rival the giants. And they look at OpenAI’s six gigawatt chip deal with AMD, the growing warnings of an AI bubble and Donald Trump’s TikTok return.Image: Th
Equinix CEO Adaire Fox-Martin on AI’s growing demands on data centres
Danny and Katie look at California’s new AI safety law, OpenAI’s in-chat checkout, and the rise of AI “actors”, and how it all depends on one thing – data centres, the hidden plumbing of the internet. They’re joined by Adaire Fox-Martin, CEO of Equinix, which runs the giant facilities where the world’s data lives, to explain how the company is racing to keep up with demand and why it plans to add
'Smart thinking about energy and tech for small businesses'
In this bonus edition of the Times Tech Podcast we have teamed up with Smart Energy GB for a look at what smart meters can do for small businesses. There is more to tech than AI, and sometimes the most important tech developments are about getting the basics right. Katie Prescott has been talking to one small business in the North of England, and to an academic expert who has been studyi
Yahoo's CEO on the new challenges for the internet pioneer
Danny and Katie are joined by Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone to dive into the company’s journey — from its rise as an internet pioneer to its reinvention in the age of AI, as he shares details of his plans for the 30-year-old tech brand, and what the relationship needs to be between AI and Yahoo's content. Plus, Danny and Katie unpack the latest in AI’s breakneck growth, including Nvidia’s $100 billion dea
