About this episode
Feb 2023
Internet shutdowns around the world
35m 9s
Feb 2023
What’s the future of bots on Twitter?
44m 41s
Jan 2023
A smart glove to save babies
43m 36s
Mar 2023
Return of Cyclone Freddy
1h 1m
Dec 2023
Michael Wooldridge on AI and sentient robots
37m 55s
Oct 2022
The Killer Robot Future Is Already Here
42m 2s
Nov 2020
In Machines We Trust: When the Camera Turns on Police
17m 58s
Feb 2022
Playback: The Battle for the Soul of Artificial Intelligence
28m 11s
Nov 2021
Robot as Body
22m 43s
Feb 2020
David J. Gunkel, "Robot Rights" (MIT Press, 2018)
1h 28m
Apr 2024
Humanoid robots
26m 29s
Aug 2023
Fighting forest fires with technology
27m 18s
A number of Brazilian civil rights organisations have filed a civil lawsuit against a company operating the São Paulo metro and their use of facial recognition technology. They are calling for an immediate suspension of the technology as well as compensation for moral damages to the rights of passengers, however the company denies they are using the technology for facial recognition.
How to spot disinformation in wartime
Have you seen the video on TikTok of a Russian paratrooper recording himself while jumping out of a plane as part of the invasion of Ukraine? Well it is not that at all – it is actually from 2015. But how can you check images and videos that pop up in your social media feeds? Reverse image search it on Google to see where else it has been posted, says Dr Shelby Grossman from the Stanford Internet Institute. She tells Gareth a whole host of tips to help tell the difference between what is fake and what is real online about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Biodegradable soft robotics
Soft robots are seen by many scientists as the future of human-robot interaction, but one setback is that the more malleable material needs replacing as it wears out quicker than rigid material more often associated with robots. Now a team of scientists has developed a translucent soft and tactile robotic finger, and it’s biodegradable. Looking for inspiration in the kitchen the team developed this biogel from gelatine by modifying a 3D printer. The material is in fact edible – which will make future soft robotics safe for young children. One of the authors, Professor Martin Kaltenbrunner from the Institute of Experiment Physics at Linz University, tells Gareth why the team was keen to make machines out of biodegradable material.
Presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Angelica Mari.
Studio Manager: Giles Aspen
Producer: Ania Lichtarowicz
(Photo: People moving and traveling inside of the Metro subway system in Sao Paulo Brazil. Credit: Adam Hester/Getty Images)
Within hours of the magnitude 7.8 earthquake across Turkey and northern Syria, the internet in Turkey was partially shutdown. And it wasn’t just because of damage to network infrastructure from the quake itself, but Twitter was blocked, as the authorities raised concerns over mis ... Show More
What is happening with API’s, more commonly known as bots, on Twitter? The platform is set to eliminate free access to its APIs this Thursday, although there appears to have been some backtracking following announcements that bots providing “good content” will have access to the ... Show More
One of the main causes of maternal mortality during childbirth is that the baby cannot be delivered vaginally, most likely because it is not positioned correctly in the womb. Without a plethora of medical equipment and training to check the baby’s position, midwives and doctors i ... Show More
34 days after it first formed at the far end of the Indian Ocean, record-breaking Cyclone Freddy made a repeat landfall on Mozambique as well as passing over Malawi, causing extensive damage and loss of life. Climate scientists Liz Stephens and Izidine Pinto join Roland to give a ... Show More
Humans have a long-held fascination with the idea of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a dystopian threat: from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, through to the Terminator movies.But somehow, we still often think of this technology as 'futuristic': whereas in fact, it's already woven in ... Show More
The killer robots are here and they’re not going away.
We’ve all seen footage of the cute robot dogs stumbling around with weapons strapped to their back, and loitering munitions (or so-called “suicide drones”) have become a fixture on the battlefield in Ukraine.
There’s a gener ... Show More
Moves have been made to restrict the use of facial recognition across the globe. In part one of this series on face ID, Jennifer Strong and the team at MIT Technology Review explore the unexpected ways the technology is being used, including how the technology is being turned on ... Show More
With every breakthrough, computer scientists are pushing the boundaries of artificial intelligence (AI). We see it in everything from predictive text to facial recognition to mapping disease incidence. But increasingly machines show many of the same biases as humans, particularly ... Show More
For years, prosthetic technology focused on form over function, on masking lost limbs, rather than agency and usability. But things are changing. Innovations in robotics are giving more people more options, with lower thresholds of entry—and lower price tags, too.
Tilly Lockey t ... Show More
We are in the midst of a robot invasion, as devices of different configurations and capabilities slowly but surely come to take up increasingly important positions in everyday social reality―self-driving vehicles, recommendation algorithms, machine learning decision making system ... Show More
We're looking at humanoid robots - the ones that look like us. They have arms and legs. But are they really that practical and useful ? And how might they develop in the future ? Also in this edition of Tech Life, you've heard of charging points for electric cars and bikes ? Well ... Show More
Juan Lavista Ferres, chief data scientist at Microsoft's AI For Good Lab, tells Tech Life how artificial intelligence can help predict wildfires.Driverless cars are popping up on streets around the world. But not everyone welcomes them, and some protestors in San Francisco have t ... Show More
