FT Tech Tonic

In 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?

Presented by James Kynge, this episode features interviews with Danilo Krivokapic (director, Share Foundation), Andrej Petrovski (director of tech, Share Foundation), Stefan Vladisavljev (programme co-ordinator, Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence), Wang Huiyao (director, Beijing Center for Globalisation) and Wawa Wang (director, Just Finance).

Read James Kynge, Valerie Hopkins, Helen Warrell and Kathrin Hille’s previous reporting on Chinese surveillance tech in the Balkans: https://www.ft.com/content/76fdac7c-7076-47a4-bcb0-7e75af0aadab

Presented by James Kynge. Edwin Lane is senior producer. Josh Gabert-Doyon is producer. Manuela Saragosa is executive producer. Special thanks to Marton Dunai and Bojan Radic. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.

News clips credits: PBS, CNBC, CGNT, DW, Moconomy, BBC

Check out stories and up-to-the-minute news from the FT’s technology team at ft.com/technology

For a special discounted FT subscription go to https://www.ft.com/techtonicsale

And check out FT Edit, the new iPhone app that shares the best of FT journalism, hand-picked by senior editors to inform, explain and surprise. It’s free for the first month and 99p a month for the next six months.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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

In 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 race?

Presented by James Kynge, the FT’s global China editor, this episode features interviews with US congressman Mike Gallagher; Todd Harrison, director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; and Robert Zubrin, president of the Mars Society.

Check out stories and up-to-the-minute news from the FT’s technology team at ft.com/technology

For a special discounted FT subscription go to https://www.ft.com/techtonicsale

And check out FT Edit, the new iPhone app that shares the best of FT journalism, hand-picked by senior editors to inform, explain and surprise. It’s free for the first month and 99p a month for the next six months.

Hosted by James Kynge. Interview with congressman Mike Gallagher conducted by Demetri Sevastopulo. Edwin Lane is senior producer. Josh Gabert-Doyon is producer. Manuela Saragosa is executive producer. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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

How 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 talks to Dan Wang, an analyst with the Shanghai-based Gavekal Dragonomics, about China’s chip strategy, and Stephen Orlins, a rare dissenting voice in Washington who questions the efficacy of a US blacklist of Chinese tech companies desperate for US-designed chips. Plus, Annie Ting-Fang and Lauly Li, who cover the semiconductor industry for Nikkei Asia, give us the inside track on how China has been scooping up Taiwanese semiconductor engineers.

Check out stories and up-to-the-minute news from the FT’s technology team at ft.com/technology

For a special discounted FT subscription go to https://www.ft.com/techtonicsale

And check out FT Edit, the new iPhone app that shares the best of FT journalism, hand-picked by senior editors to inform, explain and surprise. It’s free for the first month and 99p a month for the next six months.

Presented by James Kynge. Edwin Lane is senior producer. Josh Gabert-Doyon is producer. Manuela Saragosa is executive producer. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.

News clips credits: CNBC

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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

In 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 attempts to lure home professionals and plug China’s talent gap. Experts are warning the growing distrust between the US and China could put the future of scientific and technological exchange at risk.

Featuring interviews with Nick Shenkin, FBI special agent and director of the Strategic Technology Task Force for the FBI's San Francisco field office; an interview between the FT's Demetri Sevastopulo and Michael Orlando, acting director of the US National Counterintelligence and Security Center; Rui Ma, China tech analyst and creator of the Tech Buzz China podcast; Wang Huiyao, founder and president of Center for China and Globalization in Beijing; Winston Ma, author and adjunct professor at the NYU law school; and Gisela Kusakawa, assistant director at the Anti-Racial Profiling Project at Asian Americans Advancing Justice.

Check out stories and up-to-the-minute news from the FT’s technology team at ft.com/technology

For a special, discounted FT subscription, go to https://www.ft.com/techtonicsale

And check out FT Edit, the new iPhone app that shares the best of FT journalism, hand-picked by senior editors to inform, explain and surprise. It’s free for the first month and 99p a month for the next six months.

Presented by James Kynge. Interview with Michael Orlando conducted by Demetri Sevastopulo. Edwin Lane is senior producer. Josh Gabert-Doyon is producer. Manuela Saragosa is executive producer. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.

News clips credits: NBC, Global News, Micron, The Oregonian

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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

In the first episode of this season’s six-part series, the FT’s Global China Editor James Kynge tracks China’s dramatic transformation from the manufacturing workshop of the world to the next global superpower. The driver of that change is technology, sparking a battle between China and the US over who will dominate. Numerous ethnic Chinese scientists working in the US have found themselves ensnared in this bitter rivalry, including US-based physics professor Xiaoxing Xi, wrongly accused of industrial espionage, amid accusations that China’s tech prowess has been built on the theft of US innovation. How deep is the rift between the two countries over tech and what does that mean for the world?

Check out stories and up-to-the-minute news from the Technology team at ft.com/technology

Get a discounted FT subscription at ft.com/techtonicsale

Presented by James Kynge. Edwin Lane is senior producer. Josh Gabert-Doyon is producer. Manuela Saragosa is executive producer. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. 

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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

A new six-part series of Tech Tonic brings you stories from the frontlines of the battle between the US and China for global technological supremacy. At stake is the future of technologies that will shape all our lives, from the way the internet is used to the way we govern our societies. Join the FT’s Global China Editor James Kynge as he charts China’s dramatic transformation into a global tech superpower, sparking rivalry with the US over who controls our technological future.

Check out stories and up-to-the-minute news from the Technology team at  ft.com/technology

Get 50% off an FT subscription at ft.com/briefingsale

Presented by James Kynge. Edwin Lane is senior producer. Josh Gabert-Doyon is assistant producer. Manuela Saragosa is executive producer. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. 

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

Last year, the Pentagon watched closely as a human fighter pilot lost to an AI-powered adversary in a simulated dogfight. The US military is working to innovate faster as technology changes the nature of warfare. But many worry it has already fallen behind its main adversary, China. What does AI mean for military might, and how are debates over autonomous weapons unfolding in diplomatic backchannels? In the final episode of this season's Tech Tonic, FT innovation editor John Thornhill is joined by US-China correspondent Demetri Sevastopulo for a dive into military AI. We hear from Colonel Daniel “Animal” Javorsek, former deputy defence secretary Robert O Work, Elsa B Kania of the Center for a New American Security, and David Edelman, who works on AI and public policy at MIT.

Alice Fordham is senior producer. Josh Gabert Doyon is assistant producer. Oluwakemi Aladesuyi and Liam Nolan are the development producers. Sound design and mixing by Breen Turner. Cheryl Brumley is the executive producer for this series. You heard the song John Henry performed by Joe Brown and Lonnie Thomas and original scoring composed by Metaphor Music. 

Review clips DARPA, IISS, AP, ABC, Library of Congress

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

In this episode of Tech Tonic, we ask whether AI's potential in the fight against the climate crisis justifies the massive amounts of energy it takes to run these systems. The computing power required to train AI concerns some researchers, who have built a calculator to count the tech's carbon footprint. But AI advances have also opened new avenues to fight climate change, by helping Arctic scientists, weather modellers, and green energy gurus. This week the FT’s innovation editor John Thornhill and environment and clean energy correspondent Leslie Hook, debate AI’s climate effects. We also hear from Jennifer Jackson, a molecular biologist at the British Antarctic Survey, and Sasha Luccioni, an AI researcher at Mila research institute in Quebec. 

Alice Fordham is the senior producer. Josh Gabert Doyon is the assistant producer. Oluwakemi Aladesuyi and Liam Nolan are the development producers. Sound design and mixing by Breen Turner. Cheryl Brumley is the executive producer for this series. Hydrophonic recordings kindly supplied by Ellen White at the University of Southampton. 

Review clips: Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Sonos, Samsung, Google, Rogers, Universal Pictures, Three, NBC, Nintendo.

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

From picking the best stocks to listening in on earnings calls, AI-powered systems are changing finance. But how big are the rewards, really? And what are the risks? In this episode Robin Wigglesworth tells us how AI has been used in investing, what happens when programs must adapt to new risks and what the robots could learn from watching children play. Hosted by John Thornhill, innovation editor at the Financial Times, and featuring Luke Ellis (chief executive of Man Group), Ewan Kirk (founder of Cantab Capital Partners and chairman of Deeptech Labs), Andrew Ng (founder of DeepLearning.AI and co-founder of Google Brain), and Alison Gopnik (professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley).

Alice Fordham is senior producer. Josh Gabert Doyon is assistant producer. Oluwakemi Aladesuyi and Liam Nolan are the development producers. Sound design and mixing by Breen Turner. Cheryl Brumley is the executive producer for this series. Original scoring composed by Metaphor Music. 

Review clips: Alphabet, Netflix, Amazon, Man Group.

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

What does it mean for AI to augment human perception? In this episode the FT’s Madhumita Murgia takes us to a small village in rural India where AI is being used to help doctors better diagnose tuberculosis and looks at a healthcare system where it is helping patients who doctors may have overlooked. Hosted by John Thornhill, innovation editor at the Financial Times, and featuring Ziad Obermeyer (Associate Professor at University of California, Berkeley) and Dr. Ashita Singh (head of Medicine at Chinchpada Christian Hospital).

Alice Fordham is senior producer. Josh Gabert Doyon is assistant producer. Oluwakemi Aladesuyi and Liam Nolan are the development producers. Sound design and mixing by Sean McGarrity. Cheryl Brumley is the executive producer for this series. You heard the song Down in the Coalmine by The Ian Campbell Folk Group, as well as original scoring composed by Metaphor Music.

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