Times Tech

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 that sovereign AI is becoming essential to democracies as technology becomes a source of economic, cultural and geopolitical power.

He reflects on his remarkable life, from growing up in an off-grid log cabin in rural Ontario, to emailing Nobel Laureate Geoff Hinton as an undergrad, securing a job at Google Brain, and now leading Canada’s national champion.

Watch on YouTube

Get in touch: techpod@thetimes.co.uk
Presenter: Katie Prescott, Technology Business Editor, The Times
Producer: Marnie Duke
Executive Producer: Priyanka Deladia
Video Producer: Bronwen Latham
Image: Cohere

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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 comes next for Apple.

Meanwhile, Anthropic is racing towards a potential $2 trillion IPO and has one-upped SpaceX with plans to tell investors they see over $30 trillion in potential revenue opportunities – roughly equivalent to America’s GDP. But how are they justifying these massive numbers?

Plus, SB Energy, a data centre company, is also preparing for an IPO and hoping for a valuation of more than $50 billion. The only problem: they don’t have any data centres.

Watch on YouTube

Get in touch: techpod@thetimes.co.uk
Presenters:
Katie Prescott, Technology Business Editor, The Times
Danny Fortson, US West Coast Correspondent, The Sunday Times
Producer: Marnie Duke
Executive Producer: Priyanka Deladia
Video Producer: Bronwen Latham
Image: Getty
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Sébastien Ourselin, Director of the London Institute for Healthcare Engineering at King’s College London, and Emile Stipp, CEO of Vitality AI, we ask whether technology can help us live healthier lives and what happens to our most personal data along the way.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 AI security company that works with some of Silicon Valley’s biggest tech companies to stress-test frontier models before they are released.

Dan explains why traditional cybersecurity may no longer be enough, how fast AI capabilities are improving and how worried we should be about models that can reason, co-ordinate and hack.

Presenter: Katie Prescott, Technology Business Editor, The Times
Producer: Marnie Duke
Executive Producer: Priyanka Deladia
Video Producer: Bronwen Latham
Image: Getty, Shira Cooperschmid
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 become a turning point for social media regulation?

Meanwhile in China, 2,000 robots have been competing in the World Humanoid Robot Games, with events ranging from tug-of-war to cheerleading. As the robots get faster, cheaper and more capable, we ask: is robotics having a “chatGPT moment”?

Plus, OpenAI has developed its own AI chip to rival Nvidia, even as it remains one of Nvidia’s major customers. Could this be a serious challenge to Jensen Huang's chip empire?

Watch on YouTube
Get in touch: techpod@thetimes.co.uk

Presenters:
Katie Prescott, Technology Business Editor, The Times
Danny Fortson, US West Coast Correspondent, The Sunday Times
Producer: Marnie Duke
Executive Producer: Priyanka Deladia
Video Producer: Bronwen Latham
Image: Getty
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.