The Times Tech Podcast

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', intensifying calls for Europe to build sovereign AI systems of its own. If America can restrict access to critical AI technology at short notice, what does that mean for the rest of the world? Plus, Katie has been at Founders Forum, where she interviewed Katie King, the founder and CEO of BioOrbit, a company building a pharmaceutical lab in space to transform the way we treat cancer.

Do you agree with the social media ban? Get in touch: techpod@thetimes.co.uk

Producers: Marnie Duke & Ethan Sills
Executive Producer: Priyanka Deladia
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 from Prime Minister Keir Starmer to AMD’s Lisa Su is focused on tech sovereignty and the question of who owns, controls and shapes AI, not just how fast the technology is advancing.

Plus, Cisco’s Jeetu Patel joins Danny and Katie to discuss the potentially catastrophic consequences of the agentic era for cybersecurity, and share his insights on the trillion-dollar IPOs potentially coming from OpenAI, SpaceX and Anthropic.

Is Britain losing the AI race? Get in touch: techpod@thetimes.co.uk

Producer: Marnie Duke
Executive Producer: Priyanka Deladia
Image: Getty
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 real business value.

They discuss the gap between hype and implementation, why the most useful applications of AI are often the least glamorous, and what leaders need to do before AI can reshape work across an organisation.

Visit https://kpmg.com/uk/en/services/ai to find out more.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 podcast, Danny Fortson and Katie Prescott discuss the risks and hear from Gabe Peryera, the Co-Founder of Harvey, the legal AI company named after the character in the TV drama Suits, about whether AI agents can really replace the jobs of lawyers. Plus, Anthropic eyes a potential trillion-dollar IPO.

Could AI lawyers replace people? Get in touch: techpod@thetimes.co.uk

Producer: Marnie Duke
Executive Producer: Priyanka Deladia
Image: Getty
Read more: ‘Big Law’ is leaning in to AI
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 the reaction that powers the sun. Is nuclear fusion the future of clean energy?

Get in touch: techpod@thetimes.co.uk

Producer: Marnie Duke
Executive Producer: Priyanka Deladia
Image: Getty
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.