Babbage from The Economist (subscriber edition)

A year ago, the public launch of ChatGPT took the world by storm and it was followed by many more generative artificial intelligence tools, all with remarkable, human-like abilities. Fears over the existential risks posed by AI have dominated the global conversation around the technology ever since. Fei-Fei Li, a pioneer that helped lay the groundwork that underpins modern generative AI models, takes a more nuanced approach. She’s pushing for a human-centred way of dealing with AI—treating it as a tool to help enhance—and not replace—humanity, while focussing on the pressing challenges of disinformation, bias and job disruption.Fei-Fei Li is the founding co-director of Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centred Artificial Intelligence. Fei-Fei and her research group created ImageNet, a huge database of images that enabled computers scientists to build algorithms that were able to see and recognise objects in the real world. That endeavour also introduced the world to deep learning, a type of machine learning that is fundamental part of how large-language and image-creation models work.Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor. Sign up for a free trial of Economist Podcasts+. If you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you’ll have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

An article from The Economist read aloud. Scientific innovation has been waning in recent years. To combat this, we argue that it’s time to experiment with how science is funded.

This week, Israeli soldiers entered the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, claiming that Hamas runs a command centre in tunnels underneath the building. Hamas has denied this claim. Under the ground in Gaza, though, Hamas does run a sophisticated network of secret tunnels. Israel has vowed to destroy them and their forces will call on every technological trick they can have in their arsenal. But finding and eliminating tunnels is no easy task, and will no doubt make the war more deadly to civilians. How does war work, when it moves underground?Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor, with Shashank Joshi, The Economist’s defence editor. Contributors: Daphné Richemond-Barak, author of “Underground Warfare” and a researcher at Reichman University, Israel; Eyal Weizman, an architect at Goldsmiths, University of London and boss of Forensic Architecture, which investigates violence committed by states, police forces, militaries, and corporations.Sign up for a free trial of Economist Podcasts+. If you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you’ll have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

At a summit in Spain this week, officials from the European Space Agency (ESA) laid out bold ambitions: to become a more autonomous player in a burgeoning new space race, and to develop an American-style private space industry. But could the next SpaceX really be a European firm? It is clear that much work lies ahead. Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor, travels to ESA’s Paris headquarters to meet its director general, Josef Aschbacher.Essential listening, from our archive:“The race to the Moon's South Pole”, August 16th 2023“Hunting for life elsewhere—part two, JUICE”, April 12th 2023“The private Moon race”, January 25th 2023“NASA's newish rocket”, August 23rd 2022“A Starship is born”, February 15th 2022This is a subscriber-only episode. To listen sign up for a free trial of Economist Podcasts+If you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

An article from The Economist read aloud. The Beatles’ new AI-assisted single, “Now and Then”, will satisfy old fans and introduce the band to new ones, too.

Exactly how humans grow from a single cell in the womb is shrouded in mystery. To uncover the secrets, scientists need to watch human embryos as they develop, but these are hard to come by for research purposes and strict regulation restricts their use. So scientists have come up with an alternative tool: model embryos grown in the lab from stem cells. These “embryoids” have proven invaluable to medical researchers in recent years, but rapid advances in their technology mean that embryoids are becoming increasingly similar to real human embryos. Very soon, some embryoids could become indistinguishable from real embryos. How can scientists navigate this ethical grey area and work out—with public input—how these models should be used?Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor. Contributors: The Economist’s Emilie Steinmark; Berna Sozen, a reproductive scientist at Yale School of Medicine; Kirstin Matthews, a biologist and science policy researcher at Rice University.This is a subscriber-only episode. To listen sign up for a free trial of Economist Podcasts+If you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

In the coming decades, electric vehicles will dominate the roads and renewables will provide energy to homes. But for the green transition to be successful, unprecedented amounts of energy storage is needed. Batteries will be used everywhere—from powering electric vehicles, to providing electricity when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow. The current generation of batteries are lacking in capacity and are too reliant on rare metals, though. Many analysts worry about material shortages. How can technology help? Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor. Contributors: Paul Markillie, our innovation editor; Matthieu Favas, our finance correspondent; Anjani Trivedi, our global business correspondent. Sign up for Economist Podcasts+ now and get 50% off your subscription with our limited time offer. If you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you’ll have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

A special mini episode to welcome you to our subscription service. Sign up for Economist Podcasts+ before October 31st for 50% off. If you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

Chronic pain is thought to affect around a third of people. For one in ten of these, the pain is severe enough to be disabling—making it the leading cause of disability worldwide. Some forms of chronic pain are particularly mysterious—with clinicians unable to treat the pain, nor understand its causal mechanisms—presenting a huge challenge for societies. How can this burden be eased, for both healthcare systems and the individuals living with pain? Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor, with Gilead Amit, our science correspondent. Contributors: Catherine Charlwood, who lives with chronic pain; Francis Keefe, director of the Pain Prevention and Treatment Research Program at Duke University; Matt Evans, a clinical lecturer at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and Imperial College London; Jan Vollert, a pain researcher at the University of Exeter.Sign up for Economist Podcasts+ now and get 50% off your subscription with our limited time offer. You will not be charged until Economist Podcasts+ launches.If you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you’ll have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription. For more information about Economist Podcasts+, including how to get access, please visit our FAQs page.

From roads to telecommunications, networks of infrastructure define people’s lives, but are often hidden from view. Our guest wants people to step back, look at and appreciate the infrastructure around them. As the climate changes and landscapes shift, societies need to prepare for an increasingly unpredictable world by building better infrastructure for a more effective, efficient and equitable future.Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor, interviews Deb Chachra, a materials science professor at Olin College of Engineering and the author of “How Infrastructure Works”, a new book about the intersection of technology and society. Sign up for Economist Podcasts+ now and get 50% off your subscription with our limited time offer. You will not be charged until Economist Podcasts+ launches.If you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you’ll have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription.For more information about Economist Podcasts+, including how to get access, please visit our FAQs page.