We join the search for tomorrow's innovators at a global competition in Portugal. Who will win ? Listen and find out. Also, why do some AI chatbots perform better using the English language ? And new signings are heading to one of the world's most popular football video games. Photo: Competition finalists, Lisbon, November 2023.

Searching for the Tech Factor

Tech Life discovers and explains the ways technology is changing our lives, wherever we are in the world. We meet the people with bright ideas for rethinking the way we work, learn and play, and get hands-on with the products they dream up. We hold tech giants to account for their huge power to affect our lives, and ask who wins, and who loses, in the technology transformation. Tech Life is your guide to a future being made, and remade, at lightning speed in front of our eyes.

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This week we're taking a global look at TikTok, and some of the problems the video sharing platform has been facing. Also on Tech Life, you want to keep in touch with your child, but is there an alternative to giving them a smartphone ? We hear from video gamers in South Africa. And a female tech boss from Brazil shares advice on how others can follow her success. Presenter: Shiona McCallum
Producer: Tom Quinn (Photo: The TikTok logo on a mobile phone screen. Credit: Chesnot/Getty Images)

TikTok world

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, next it's plug-in points for cruise ships ! We learn about Bitcoin halving. And tech is helping farmers in Ghana to grow more crops. Presenter: Zoe Kleinman
Producer: Tom Quinn (Photo: An image of Atlas, the Boston Dynamics robot. Credit: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg via Getty Images, and Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)

Humanoid robots

We dive the ocean depths to find out how you fix undersea cables that keep us online. Also this week, the documentary that's programmed to have fifty two quintillion different versions. If you're planning to watch all of them you'll possibly need a coffee, so we look at the tech behind coffee bean roasters. And how do you enrich the tech lives of lemurs and parrots ? We speak to an expert. Presenter: Chris Vallance
Producer: Tom Quinn (Photo: Illustration of a submarine communications cable. Credit: Christoph Burgstedt/Getty)

Fixing undersea cables

This week on Tech Life we are looking at the problem of space junk, the man-made debris hurtling around our planet. Could it threaten some of the everyday tech we all rely on? Also this week, don't you just hate it when stuff doesn't work? Are internet and social media outages becoming more frequent ? 
A doctor in Argentina has created a video game to help calm the nerves of children facing a hospital operation.
And what weighs three tonnes and is the size of a mini-van ? It's the world's largest digital camera. Presenter: Chris Vallance
Producer: Tom Quinn (Photo: A NASA illustration of space debris around Earth. Credit: Nasa/Getty)

Space junk

The internet plays an important role in most of our lives today. What will it, and other tech, look like in the future ? We take a long view with a veteran of the tech industry. Also on Tech Life this week, some of the biggest social media platforms have been accused of obstructing information on abortion and reproductive healthcare in developing countries. And health tech helps to combat child malnutrition in Africa. Presenter: Shiona McCallum
Producer: Tom Quinn (Photo: A photo of a computer taken in 1982. Credit: BBC)

Searching for the Tech Factor

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