Humanity at Eight Billion

How dangerous is superintelligence? Connor Leahy, a former open-source LLM builder and current AI safety advocate, argues that the threat is existential.On The World Unpacked, Connor Leahy joins Jon Bateman to outline why he sees superintelligence as a national security emergency ... Show More

Ukraine destroyed Russian strategic bombers deep inside Russia with help from a former DJ, a tattoo artist, and cheap drones hidden in trucks. What does that say about who holds power when drones are everywhere? Has China already caught up with the U.S. in technology? And what ha ... Show More

Even as AI dominates the headlines, the gulf between what insiders know and outsiders believe has never been wider. Those closest to the technology have the grandest hopes and fears for rapid, large-scale automation of work and daily life. Garrison Lovely interviewed hundreds of ... Show More

The United Nations says humanity has reached 8 billion, but Western nations are worried about population decline. Africa isn’t, though. The continent is about to shape the rest of the century. This episode was produced by Haleema Shah, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by ... Show More

There are, its estimated, 8.2 billion people on the planet. The UN projects that the world's population will reach 9.7 billion by 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100. We won’t reach that, says Steve Keen. Even if we ignore climate change, we’ll exceed our capacity to support the p ... Show More

Even with the global population hitting 8 billion, could we be facing a reproductive crisis? Professor Luke O'Neill explains this more with Pat this morning on the show. 

As India is poised to overtake China as the world's most populous country, we put questions from World Service listeners to the author of 8 Billion and Counting. Dr Jennifer Sciubba explains how the number of humans is growing in some countries, declining in others, how people ar ... Show More

Our planet is getting rather cosy. In just over 200 years, the global population has grown from 1 billion to almost 7.5 billion – and the best estimates suggest it’s going to keep on increasing. But just how far can it go? When will we reach ‘peak human’? That’s what CrowdScience ... Show More

There are 8 billion people on Earth. Neil and Sian teach you the vocabulary you need. 

There are more than 8 billion humans on Earth, according to the United Nations. And for decades, China has had more people than any other country. But now, China’s population is declining. As soon as this year, it could lose its place as the most populous nation in the world. Nat ... Show More

<p>Right now, at this very moment, all across the planet, there are 7.6 billion human beings eating, breathing, sleeping, brushing their teeth, walking their dogs, drinking coffee, walking down the street or running onto the subway or hopping in their car, maybe reading a summary ... Show More