FT Tech Tonic
204 episodes - English - Latest episode: 3 months ago - ★★★★ - 74 ratingsWe are in the midst of a digital revolution, where the line between our physical world and cyberspace is blurring. Tech Tonic is the show that investigates the promises and perils of this new technological age.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Introducing: Swamp Notes from The FT News Briefing
February 05, 2024 05:00 - 1 minute - 2.74 MBIf 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 happenings in US politics. We’ll go beyond the horse race for the White House and offer a global perspective on the election. You can subscribe to Swamp Notes here or wherever you get your podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Introducing Untold: The Retreat
January 12, 2024 05:00 - 1 minute - 2.71 MBIntroducing 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 intensive meditation known as Vipassana. Thousands of people go on Goenka retreats every year. People rave about them. But some people go to these meditation retreats, and they suffer. They might feel a deep sense of terror, or a break with reality. And on the other side, they’...
Superintelligent AI: Conscious Machines
December 12, 2023 05:00 - 26 minutes - 60.6 MBAs 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 systems? Or is consciousness incompatible with disembodied AI? As some human users become more attached to romantic chatbots, will the moral questions surrounding conscious AI become more pressing? In the final episode of our series on artificial general intelligence, the FT’s...
Superintelligent AI: Transhumanism etc.
December 05, 2023 05:00 - 25 minutes - 59.5 MBWhat 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 of the AI industry’s quest for superintelligence and hear about the Extropians, a surprisingly influential group of futurists from the early 1990s. Anders Sandberg, senior research fellow at Oxford university's Future of Humanity Institute, sets out some of the ideas developed...
Superintelligent AI: can chatbots think?
November 28, 2023 05:00 - 28 minutes - 65.5 MBAre 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 problems. Hosts John Thornhill and Madhumita Murgia speak to Emily Bender, professor of computational linguistics at the University of Washington, to find out what’s really happening under the hood, and also hear from Pablo Arredondo of CaseText, which develops AI tools for l...
Superintelligent AI: The Utopians
November 21, 2023 05:00 - 24 minutes - 56.8 MBIf 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 emergent sector to keep it under control. In the second episode of a new, five-part series of Tech Tonic, FT journalists Madhumita Murgia and John Thornhill hear from Anthropic’s co-founder, Jack Clark; Dan Hendrycks, founder of the Center for AI Safety; Yann LeCun, chief AI sc...
Superintelligent AI: The Doomers
November 14, 2023 05:00 - 28 minutes - 65.9 MBIn 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 poses an existential risk to humanity. John and Madhu speak to Yoshua Bengio, a pioneer of generative AI, who is concerned, and to his colleague Yann LeCun, now head of AI at Meta, who isn’t. Plus, they hear from Eliezer Yudkowsky, research lead at the Machine Intelligence Resea...
Coming soon: Superintelligent AI
October 31, 2023 04:12 - 4 minutes - 9.55 MBIn 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? Would it be ethical to build conscious AI? How intelligent are these machines anyway? The new season of Tech Tonic from the Financial Times, drops mid-November. Presented by Madhumita Murgia and John Thornhill. Senior producer is Edwin Lane and producer Josh Gabert-Doyon. Exe...
Can AI help us speak to animals? Part two
September 19, 2023 04:00 - 24 minutes - 56.9 MBA hardware revolution in recording devices and a software revolution in artificial intelligence has convinced some scientists that humans will eventually be able to ‘translate’ animal and even plant sounds into human language. But what would be the consequences of humans learning to ‘speak whale’, chat with bats or converse with elephants? The FT’s innovation editor John Thornhill and producer Persis Love explore the ethics of potential human-to-animal communication. Presented by John Thorn...
Can AI help us speak to animals? Part one
September 19, 2023 04:00 - 29 minutes - 66.9 MBA hardware revolution in recording devices and a software revolution in artificial intelligence is enabling researchers to listen in to all kinds of conversations outside the human hearing range, a field known as bioacoustics. Some scientists now believe these developments will also allow us to ‘translate’ animal sounds into human language. In a new season of Tech Tonic, FT innovation editor John Thornhill and series producer Persis Love ask whether we’re moving closer to being able to ‘spea...
Can AI help us speak to animals? Karen Bakker interview
September 19, 2023 04:00 - 32 minutes - 74.9 MBThe Canadian scientist and author Karen Bakker, who died unexpectedly in August this year, was a leading voice in the bioacoustic research community. Her 2022 book, The Sounds of Life, explained how it might one day be possible to create a kind of Google Translate for animals and was the inspiration behind this Tech Tonic series. This episode contains the full interview that we recorded with her. We are posting it as a tribute to her remarkable work. Free links: Google Translate for the z...
Coming soon: Can AI help us speak to animals?
September 12, 2023 04:00 - 1 minute - 2.66 MBSome scientists believe that rapid advances in artificial intelligence may also hold the key to decoding animal sounds, allowing us to ‘translate’ them into human language. In a new season of Tech Tonic, FT innovation editor John Thornhill and series producer Persis Love explore how the same technology that powers ChatGPT is being applied to research in animal communication. Could we one day learn to ‘speak whale’ or even chat with bats? And if so, can we trust ourselves to do so responsibly...
The quantum revolution: Live at Founders Forum
August 22, 2023 04:00 - 29 minutes - 68.2 MBA bonus episode to go with our Quantum Revolution season. The FT’s John Thornhill and Madhumita Murgia host a panel of experts at the Founders Forum conference, discussing the promise of quantum computing and the state of the quantum industry today. Featuring Steve Brierley, founder and chief executive of Riverlane, a company building the algorithms and software for quantum computers; Ilana Wisby, CEO of Oxford Quantum Circuits, a company building commercially available quantum computers; an...
Introducing: The Russian Banker
August 18, 2023 04:00 - 1 minute - 2.4 MBWho is Sergei Leontiev? To the US asylum system, he’s an exiled Russian banker who was persecuted by the state and forced to flee. To Russia, he’s said to be responsible for massive fraud. On The Russian Banker, a new series from the Financial Times, reporters Courtney Weaver and Stefania Palma try to uncover the truth, and find a story that tells us about Russia today and how people in the west build stories about who’s good and who’s bad. The Russian Banker is a special series that will ru...
Peak social media: The future
August 01, 2023 04:00 - 21 minutes - 48.7 MBIn the final episode of this Tech Tonic season, FT correspondents weigh in on the trends that will determine the future of social media. From Meta’s Threads to artificial intelligence, we ask how platforms will look and feel in years to come. The FT’s deputy Lex editor, host Elaine Moore, speaks with social media reporter Cristina Criddle, global technology correspondent Tim Bradshaw and San Francisco-based tech reporter Hannah Murphy. Plus, we hear from Evan Henshaw-Plath, one of the creato...
Peak social media: Building better platforms
July 25, 2023 04:01 - 26 minutes - 59.5 MBCan we get rid of the bad bits of social media and keep the good? Is it possible to create a more positive social media experience than the one we get from the platforms that dominate the landscape today? In this episode, Elaine Moore asks what the social media platforms of the future should look like, and whether platforms designed for smaller groups of users with shared interests are the way forward. We hear from writer and tech historian Benj Edwards about the BBS era of the early 1990s;...
Peak social media: The power of influencers
July 18, 2023 04:00 - 26 minutes - 61.1 MBSocial media today is less about making friends and more about following popular content creators. While those creators are starting to hold some power over the platforms themselves, they’re also looking to become less reliant on the platforms that have enabled them to find fame and fortune online. What does it mean for the future of social media platforms? Our producer Josh Gabert-Doyon travels to the VidCon convention in Anaheim, California to speak to the people at the heart of the creato...
Peak social media: The debate over young users’ mental health
July 11, 2023 04:00 - 26 minutes - 36 MBThere’s a growing feeling that social media is bad for us: bad for society and bad for our wellbeing. That trend has culminated in a new wave of legislation in the United States aiming to address social media’s impact on young people’s mental health. But in this episode, Elaine Moore, deputy editor of the FT’s Lex column, looks at some of the unanswered questions over whether social media really causes us harm, and what legislation will mean for the future of the social media business model....
Peak social media: The ads machine
July 04, 2023 04:00 - 27 minutes - 62 MBMark Zuckerberg used advertising to turn Facebook into the first global social media giant, boasting 3bn users around the world. But today there are questions about the business model that has powered it for the past 15 years, and what Zuckerberg’s new focus on building the Metaverse means for the platform that started it all. Elaine Moore speaks to veteran Silicon Valley investor Roger McNamee, one-time advisor to Zuckerberg; writer and researcher Tim Hwang, author of Subprime Attention Cri...
Peak social media: Trouble at Twitter
June 27, 2023 04:00 - 29 minutes - 67.5 MBElon Musk took over Twitter with the promise of promoting free speech and making the loss-making platform profitable again. But his critics say he’s destroying Twitter’s culture and driving it to bankruptcy. How much danger is the company really in? In the first episode in a new series of Tech Tonic, Elaine Moore, deputy editor of the FT’s Lex column, asks whether Musk will save Twitter or destroy it. In this episode we hear from Evan Henshaw-Plath, one of the original creators of Twitter; ...
Coming soon: Peak social media
June 23, 2023 15:09 - 57 seconds - 1.32 MBSocial media platforms have defined our experience of the internet for nearly two decades. But as host Elaine Moore, deputy editor of the FT’s Lex column, outlines in this new six-part season of Tech Tonic, there are signs of trouble. User growth at some of the biggest platforms is slowing down, privacy changes are making it harder to make money and data scandals and disinformation mean platforms have lost some of the trust of their users. Meanwhile, younger users call Instagram cringeworthy...
Introducing Behind the Money: Night School
April 21, 2023 04:00 - 1 minute - 3.17 MBThere’s been a lot of big finance and economics news in 2023. Whether it's stories about rising interest rates, tech industry layoffs or bank runs, it can almost feel like you need an MBA just to make sense of it all. That’s why the Financial Times is launching a bonus series called Behind the Money: Night School. Over the next five weeks, this show will help you understand the concepts behind the biggest economic stories of this year. U.S. managing editor Peter Spiegel chats with FT journ...
The quantum revolution: The way the world is
April 11, 2023 04:00 - 23 minutes - 54.2 MBIn the final episode of this series, we hear how radical quantum ideas are reshaping our fundamental understanding of the universe. Nobel Prize winner Anton Zeilinger tells the FT’s Madhumita Murgia about the future of teleportation and the quantum internet; quantum computing pioneer David Deutsch makes the case for the theory that we live in a multiverse; and FT innovation editor John Thornhill speaks to physicist Carlo Rovelli about relational quantum mechanics. Presented by Madhumita Mur...
The quantum revolution: Brain waves
April 04, 2023 04:00 - 22 minutes - 50.9 MBQuantum computers aren’t the only form of groundbreaking technology that use quantum physics. Madhumita Murgia hears from Dr. Margot Taylor, neuroscience researcher at The Hospital for Sick Children, who’s using quantum sensors to unpick the mystery of how autism first appears in the brain. And we speak to Matthew Brookes, physics professor at Nottingham university in the UK, who helped build the quantum brain scanner she’s using. Plus, John Thornhill speaks to Stuart Woods from Quantum Expo...
The quantum revolution: First port of call
March 28, 2023 04:00 - 25 minutes - 58 MBThe Port of Los Angeles is one of the world’s busiest — and most inefficient. It’s now using an early quantum computing application to help solve its logistical bottlenecks. Has it made a difference? The FT’s John Thornhill investigates. We hear from truck drivers at the Port of Los Angeles; Matt Schrap, CEO of the Harbor Trucking Association; SavantX co-founder Ed Heinbockel, who helped bring quantum computing to the port; and Alan Baratz, president of D-Wave Systems. Plus, John and FT ar...
The quantum revolution: ‘Spooky action’
March 21, 2023 05:00 - 25 minutes - 58.1 MBIn this episode, Tech Tonic dives into the science at the heart of quantum computing. How do technologists use unexplained subatomic phenomena to build powerful computers? FT artificial intelligence editor Madhumita Murgia tells the story of quantum physics with the help of Sean Carroll, a theoretical physicist at Johns Hopkins University and hears from University of New South Wales professor Michelle Simmons to understand how engineers exploit weird quantum physics. Presented by Madhumita...
The quantum revolution: The race to build a quantum computer
March 14, 2023 05:00 - 20 minutes - 47.7 MBTech companies including Google, Microsoft and IBM are all working on plans for a commercially viable quantum computer. They say that these machines will be able to solve climate change, help develop new pharmaceutical drugs and transform our economy. But harnessing quantum physics requires overcoming massive challenges. As researchers tinker away on uber-sensitive, ultra-cold quantum computers and investors become increasingly interested in the potential commercial applications – some peo...
The quantum revolution: Q-Day
March 07, 2023 05:00 - 26 minutes - 59.7 MBIn the cybersecurity world they call it Q-Day, the day when a quantum computer will be built that can break the encryption of the internet. John Thornhill and Madhumita Murgia speak to cybersecurity expert and former professional hacker Mark Carney about password cracking, and why quantum computers would be so good at it. Renowned mathematician Peter Shor recounts how he became the first person to discover that quantum computers could upturn the encryption that underpins much of the inte...
Coming soon: The Quantum Revolution
February 28, 2023 11:53 - 1 minute - 1.37 MBTech companies and labs around the world are building a revolutionary new computer. Quantum computers harness the mysteries of quantum physics to perform calculations that seem impossible. The people building them say they’re going to change the world. In a new season of Tech Tonic, FT tech journalists Madhumita Murgia and John Thornhill investigate the race to build a quantum computer, the impact they could have on security, innovation and business, and the confounding physics of the quant...
Climate tech to save the planet: Techno-optimism or greenwashing?
November 22, 2022 05:00 - 24 minutes - 33.5 MBBillions of dollars are being spent by tech companies and investors on new technology to fight climate change. In the final episode of this series of Tech Tonic, Eric Toone, from Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund, tells FT columnist and host Pilita Clark why he believes technologies such as carbon capture and nuclear fusion can make a difference. But climate academic Mark Jacobson of Stanford University argues that renewables such as wind and solar mean we already have all the te...
Climate tech to save the planet: Star power
November 15, 2022 05:00 - 24 minutes - 33.2 MBNuclear fusion is the reaction that powers stars and scientists say replicating it on Earth could produce all the energy we’ll ever need without the CO2. But no one has yet made a fusion reactor that actually produces more energy than it uses. Fusion researchers say that’s all about to change, and private fusion start-ups say they’re getting close to building working nuclear fusion power stations. In the latest episode of Tech Tonic’s climate tech series, Pilita Clark visits the UK’s pioneer...
Climate tech to save the planet: Hype and hydrogen
November 08, 2022 05:00 - 24 minutes - 33.4 MBThe joke about hydrogen is that it’s the fuel of the future, and always will be. But green hydrogen is made from renewable energy and emits only water vapour, so amidst the fight to reduce carbon emissions, has green hydrogen’s moment now finally arrived? In the latest episode of Tech Tonic’s climate tech series, Australian billionaire mining mogul Andrew Forrest, the executive chair of Fortescue Metals Group, tells host Pilita Clark why he’s betting green hydrogen will play a key role in de...
Climate tech to save the planet: How to keep flying
November 01, 2022 05:00 - 24 minutes - 56.1 MBAs more people fly, aviation is on track to becoming a much bigger problem for climate change. Host Pilita Clark, FT columnist and climate journalist, looks at the potential for a more sustainable aviation industry, a sector that’s struggled to come up with new technology to cut its emissions. Could we end up being forced to cut back on flying altogether? Producer Josh Gabert-Doyon travels to Farnborough Airshow, and we hear from Zero Petroleum’s Paddy Lowe, Boom Supersonic’s Blake Scholl, a...
Climate tech to save the planet: Out of thin air
October 25, 2022 04:00 - 24 minutes - 55.7 MBDirect air carbon capture - taking carbon dioxide straight out of the air around us - sounds like science fiction. In this episode Pilita Clark visits Iceland to meet the engineers and scientists at the forefront of this new tech. Can carbon capture scale up quick enough to have an impact on climate change, or is it just an excuse to allow fossil fuel companies and emitters to keep polluting? Check out stories and up-to-the-minute news from the Technology team at ft.com/technology Presente...
Coming soon: Will climate tech save the planet?
October 24, 2022 13:32 - 1 minute - 1.38 MBThe climate crisis threatens the future of the planet. But don’t worry, technology will save us. At least that’s the message from startups, innovators and investors. Are they right? FT columnist and climate journalist Pilita Clark discovers the tech scene’s latest moonshot efforts to fight climate change, from sucking carbon straight out of the air to the apparent energy miracle of nuclear fusion. Will these technologies be ready in time, or are they a dangerous waste of money and resource a...
A sceptic’s guide to crypto: the crypto Wild West
September 13, 2022 04:00 - 27 minutes - 62.1 MBIn the fifth episode of the latest season of Tech Tonic, FT columnist and host Jemima Kelly looks at crypto regulation, and why there’s so little of it. It’s a story that takes her to the heart of US cowboy state Wyoming, where the crypto industry appears to be writing its own laws. And as the US midterm elections ramp up, we hear about how crypto lobbying has taken hold of Washington DC too. Jemima talks to Rob Jennings, co-founder of CattleProof and the Wyoming Blockchain Coalition; Caitli...
A sceptic’s guide to crypto: the church of bitcoin
September 06, 2022 04:00 - 30 minutes - 69.5 MBIn the fourth episode of the latest season of Tech Tonic, FT columnist and host Jemima Kelly looks at the enduring faith in cryptocurrency. What do bitcoin devotees really believe, and does hardcore adherence to the coin make it a cult? Jemima dives into the myth-making around the mysterious bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto and the belief systems underpinning cryptoland. We hear from the FT’s banking and fintech correspondent Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan, crypto investor Nic Carter, bitcoin...
A sceptic’s guide to crypto: NFT mania
August 30, 2022 04:00 - 32 minutes - 73.6 MBIn the third episode of the latest season of Tech Tonic, FT columnist and host Jemima Kelly unpacks the craze around non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Blockchain technology gave us NFTs, and NFTs have created a new way for artists to sell digital work. But NFTs have also become a breeding ground for rampant fraud and scams. And then there’s the most recent crypto crash: can NFTs survive it? Jemima hears from artist Kevin McCoy, who created an early version of the NFTs, as well as Spottie WiFi, the...
A sceptic’s guide to crypto: bonus interview with a16z’s Chris Dixon
August 23, 2022 04:00 - 33 minutes - 77.4 MBA bonus episode of Tech Tonic featuring a full, unedited interview between John Thornhill, FT innovation editor, and Chris Dixon, head of Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto fund. This bonus episode is part of the latest Tech Tonic series, which covers crypto and blockchain technology. You can listen to the second episode of the series, presented by Jemima Kelly and featuring Chris Dixon as well as Web3 critic Molly White, here. Check out stories and up-to-the-minute news from the FT’s technolo...
A sceptic’s guide to crypto: the ‘smart’ money
August 23, 2022 04:00 - 25 minutes - 58.5 MBIn the second episode of the latest season of Tech Tonic, FT columnist and host Jemima Kelly tries to understand why an influential Silicon Valley investment firm thinks that Web3 is a good bet. Will blockchain technology really be the foundation of a new internet era? Is Web3’s promise to decentralise the internet going to pose a challenge to companies such as Facebook and Twitter? The FT’s innovation editor John Thornhill interviews Chris Dixon, head of Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto fund, a...
A sceptic’s guide to crypto: boom and bust
August 16, 2022 04:00 - 27 minutes - 62.1 MBA new season of Tech Tonic asks whether crypto and its supporting technology - the blockchain - have a future following a market crash. In the first episode of this five-part series, FT columnist and host Jemima Kelly casts a sceptical eye on what led to the boom in digital assets and their subsequent collapse. She assesses the damage with the FT’s digital assets correspondent Scott Chipolina, and hears from big-time bitcoin investor Michael Saylor, Dogecoin co-creator Jackson Palmer, and cr...
Coming soon: A Sceptic’s Guide to Crypto
August 15, 2022 14:39 - 1 minute - 1.37 MBEven after the crypto markets crashed this year, there are still a number of people who believe there’s a future for digital assets and blockchain technology. FT columnist and avowed crypto sceptic, Jemima Kelly, isn't so sure. On this season's Tech Tonic, she takes a trip deep into cryptoland to hear from critics, converts and hardcore believers to find out whether crypto technology has a future. Check out stories and up-to-the-minute news from the Technology team at ft.com/technology Pre...
Introducing: Hot Money
June 07, 2022 14:39 - 31 minutes - 73.2 MBWhen Financial Times reporter Patricia Nilsson started digging into the porn industry, she made a shocking discovery: nobody knew who controlled the biggest porn company in the world. Now, Nilsson and her editor, Alex Barker, reveal who is behind it and much more. This eight-part investigative podcast, published weekly, reveals the secret history of the adult business and the billionaires and financial institutions who shape it. Subscribe and listen on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts...
Behind the Money is back!
May 19, 2022 04:00 - 1 minute - 1.86 MBBehind the Money is back with all-new episodes! From hostile takeovers to C-suite intrigue, Behind the Money takes you inside the business and financial stories of the moment with reporting from Financial Times journalists around the world. The podcast returns May 25. You can follow the show now! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
US-China Tech Race: The great decoupling
May 02, 2022 04:00 - 26 minutes - 59.7 MBIn the final episode of this season of Tech Tonic, we ask if the growing tensions between the US and China could split the world into two competing technological spheres. It has been dubbed 'the great decoupling'. Some in the US want to see Chinese companies cut off from American investment, while hawkish factions in China have been fighting for a more self-sufficient and nationalistic tech sector. But what would decoupling really look like? And is it even possible? Presented by James Ky...
US-China Tech Race: brave new world
April 25, 2022 04:00 - 27 minutes - 63.9 MBIn this episode, how a mysterious death in Belgrade prompted Serbia to embrace Chinese surveillance technology, raising concerns among Serbian human rights and privacy activists. They’ve been fighting back against the Serbian government’s use of Huawei facial recognition tech in public spaces. But Serbia is just one of many countries around the world that’s adopted this cutting-edge Chinese mass monitoring equipment. What does it tell us about the spread of Chinese influence around the world...
US-China Tech Race: Brave new world
April 25, 2022 04:00 - 27 minutes - 63.9 MBIn this episode, how a mysterious death in Belgrade prompted Serbia to embrace Chinese surveillance technology, raising concerns among Serbian human rights and privacy activists. They’ve been fighting back against the Serbian government’s use of Huawei facial recognition tech in public spaces. But Serbia is just one of many countries around the world that’s adopted this cutting-edge Chinese mass monitoring equipment. What does it tell us about the spread of Chinese influence around the world...
US-China Tech Race: Shock and Awe
April 18, 2022 04:00 - 28 minutes - 65.6 MBIn the latest episode of this Tech Tonic season about US-China tech rivalry, the FT’s US-China correspondent Demetri Sevastopulo tells the inside story of his scoop on China’s secret hypersonic weapon test and how it changed geopolitics. We hear about the new space race between China and the US, including powerful satellite-destroying missiles and the pursuit of commercial space capabilities. Could China and the US ever co-operate on space exploration or are we seeing the dawn of a new space...
US-China Tech Race: Chips with everything
April 11, 2022 04:00 - 25 minutes - 59.5 MBHow China's growing appetite for computer chips has put Taiwan on the frontline of the US-China battle for global technological supremacy. In this latest episode of the new Tech Tonic season, James Kynge, the FT's global China editor, takes a deep dive into the semiconductor industry and Taiwan’s unique position as a bastion of computer-chip talent. We hear from Chad Duffy, a Taipei-based cybersecurity expert who helped uncover a major hack on Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturers. James t...
US-China Tech Race: Spies & Lies (Part Two)
April 04, 2022 04:00 - 30 minutes - 70.1 MBIn the second episode of this season of Tech Tonic, James Kynge, the FT’s Global China Editor, asks how significant Chinese intellectual property theft has been to the country’s rise as a global tech superpower. We hear from an FBI agent based in Silicon Valley whose job is to prevent the theft of trade secrets, and ask whether China’s ‘talent programmes’, under which Beijing funds scientists and engineers around the world, are actually spy recruitment networks or whether they are genuine a...