FT Tech Tonic

FT Tech Tonic

Author: Financial Times Language: English Episodes: 100
From the Financial Times, FT Tech Tonic steps beyond the breathless headlines and gadget launches to explore how technology is fundamentally reshaping our lives, economies, and social structures. This isn't just a series about the latest app; it's a deep, considered examination of the forces driving the digital age and their often unintended consequences. Each episode grapples with the complex interplay between innovation and its real-world impact, drawing on the FT's global reporting expertise to provide clarity and context. You'll hear conversations that dissect the power dynamics in Silicon Valley, investigate the ethical dilemmas of artificial intelligence, and explore how entrepreneurship is being redefined across different cultures. The podcast digs into the substance behind the hype, asking whether emerging technologies truly deliver on their promise to improve society or if they introduce new perils we are only beginning to understand. By weaving together threads from technology, business, and culture, the discussions offer a nuanced perspective that challenges simplistic narratives. Tune in for thoughtful analysis that connects the dots between boardroom strategies, algorithmic biases, and the everyday experiences that define our increasingly connected world.
Episodes
China's race to tech supremacy: Shenzhen speed [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 26:16
How did China go from tech imitator to innovator? The FT’s James Kynge reports from Shenzhen, known as China’s Silicon Valley, where he explores the city’s vast electronics markets with inventor Noah Zerkin, an American…
Coming soon: China, the new tech superpower [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:07
In a new season of Tech Tonic, longtime FT China reporter James Kynge travels around the world to see how China is pushing towards tech supremacy. Will China be able to get an edge in crucial technological areas? What do…
Introducing: Swamp Notes from The FT News Briefing [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:11
If you have questions about this year's US presidential election, we have answers.Swamp Notes is a new podcast from the FT News Briefing. Listen every Saturday morning as our journalists analyse and discuss the latest ha…
Introducing Untold: The Retreat [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:57
Introducing Untold, a new podcast from the special investigations team at the Financial Times. In its first series, The Retreat, host Madison Marriage examines the world of the Goenka network, which promotes a type of in…
Superintelligent AI: Conscious Machines [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 26:27
As the race to human-level AI accelerates, researchers are increasingly confronted with the question of what it would mean to develop conscious AI. Will sentience emerge naturally from powerfully intelligent artificial s…
Superintelligent AI: Transhumanism etc. [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 25:59
What are the ideas driving the pursuit of human-level AI? In the penultimate episode of this Tech Tonic series, hosts Madhumita Murgia and John Thornhill look at some of the futuristic objectives that are at the centre o…
Superintelligent AI: can chatbots think? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:36
Are generative AI systems such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT really intelligent? Large language models such as GPT 4 appear to use human-level cognitive abilities when they engage in legal reasoning, write essays or solve complex…
Superintelligent AI: The Utopians [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:48
If even AI companies are fretting about the existential threat that human-level AI poses, why are they building these machines in the first place? And as they press ahead, a debate is raging about how we regulate this em…
Superintelligent AI: The Doomers [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:47
In the first episode of a new, five-part series of Tech Tonic, FT journalists Madhumita Murgia and John Thornhill ask how close we are to building human-level artificial intelligence and whether ‘superintelligent’ AI pos…
Coming soon: Superintelligent AI [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 4:10
In a new series of Tech Tonic, FT journalists Madhumita Murgia and John Thornhill look at the concerns around the rise of artificial intelligence. Will superintelligent AI bring existential risk, or a new renaissance? Wo…