OpenAI has revealed that one of their AI agents went rogue during a test and hacked a startup. Hugging Face reportedly had to use an open-source Chinese model to contain the cyber attack. 

It comes as Kimi K3, a powerful new Chinese AI model, is challenging OpenAI and Anthropic’s most capable systems on some benchmarks – calling America’s tech dominance into question. Danny Fortson and Katie Prescott discuss what this means for the global AI race and how it casts doubt over OpenAI and Anthropic’s mega IPOs.

But while the rest of the world is racing ahead to build the best AI, Britain’s new Prime Minister Andy Burnham has caused a stir by scrapping the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Katie explains why the tech community is concerned. 

Plus, they hear from James Morgenstern, the founder of MeatLayer, a marketplace where AI bots can hire humans to do small tasks. They talk about whether agents make better bosses than humans, and what the future of work looks like. 

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Read more: China’s cheap AI is a real threat to US tech giants 

Get in touch: [email protected] 

Producer: Marnie Duke 

Executive Producer: Priyanka Deladia

Video Producer: Max Holden

Image: Getty

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In this bonus episode of The Times Tech podcast, Katie Prescott shares her conversation with will.i.am about what comes after the AI boom. The musician and tech investor says the next big battle will be over personal data, privacy and power. Who owns your data? Where should it live? And can AI agents be built around people’s values and goals, rather than the business models of big platforms?

He's been sharing his views at the recent UN AI for Good Summit in Geneva and told Katie why he believes AI could still be a force for good if it does not repeat the mistakes made by social media.

Contains strong language.

Listen to Part 1 of the interview

Watch on YouTube 

Producers: Shabnam Grewal & Marnie Duke

Executive Producer: Priyanka Deladia

Image: Getty

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Will.i.am is not as worried about AI and artists. He tells Katie Prescott that the "creatives will be alright," but it's "the assistants, the sales clerks, the lawyers, the accountants" that we should be concerned about. 

As musicians, publishers and Silicon Valley debate over whether AI should be allowed to train on creative work, the Black Eyed Peas musician and tech investor offers a different take. He says music has always borrowed from what came before – from samplers to bass lines and rhymes. So what changes when machines start borrowing too?

Plus, Danny Fortson and Katie discuss Anthropic’s stark new AI advert, Demis Hassabis’s call for an AI watchdog, and whether governments can keep up with the pace of artificial intelligence.

Watch on YouTube 

Producers: Marnie Duke & Shabnam Grewal

Executive Producer: Priyanka Deladia

Image: Getty

Clip: Claude

Music Credit: Contains a sample of the recording "Billie Jean." 

Performed: Michael Jackson, 

Written: Michael Jackson. 

Published: Sony/ATV Songs LLC o/b/o Mijac Music

Courtesy: Epic Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment.

Music Credit: Contains a sample of the recording "Caribbean Queen - No More Love on the Run”

Performed: Billy Ocean

Written: Billy Ocean, Keith Diamond

Published: Jive Records/ Sony Music Entertainment

Courtesy: Sony Music Entertainment

Music Credit: Contains a sample of the recording "Boom Boom Pow.”

Performed: Black Eyed Peas William Adams (will.i.am), Stacy Ferguson (Fergie), and Jaime Gomez (Taboo)

Writen: William Adams (will.i.am), Stacy Ferguson (Fergie), Allan Pineda (apl.de.ap), and Jaime Gomez (Taboo).

Published: Will.i.am Music Publishing, Jeepney Music, Headphone Junkie Publishing, Tab Magnetic Publishing, and EMI Music Publishing

Courtesy: Interscope Records.

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AI needs vast data centres to power it but communities around the world are increasingly pushing back against the large, ugly “sheds” appearing on their doorsteps.

In the US, one proposed Utah data centre is set to be larger than Manhattan. Meanwhile, architects in the UK are looking at ways to make data centres more attractive, functional and useful to local communities. So Danny Fortson and Katie Prescott ask whether better design, waste-heat reuse and local benefits could make AI infrastructure more acceptable.

Plus, Danny speaks to Jason Kelly, co-founder and CEO of Ginkgo Bioworks, who explains how AI and biology are coming together through autonomous “cloud labs” that could transform scientific discovery.

Would you hate data centres less if they were more beautiful? Get in touch: [email protected]

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Read more: Save our countryside from ugly AI data sheds: make them beautiful

Producer: Ethan Sills, Shabnam Grewal & Marnie Duke.

Executive Producer: Priyanka Deladia

Video Producer: Bronwen Latham

Image: Getty

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This episode of The Times Tech Podcast is in paid partnership with IBM.

Wimbledon may be one of the most familiar events in British sport, but behind the tennis is a vast technology operation – from live match data and digital storytelling to AI tools designed to help fans follow the Championships in real time.

Katie Prescott is joined by Kameryn Stanhouse, Vice President of Sports and Entertainment Partnerships at IBM, and Chris Clements, Senior Manager of Digital Strategy and Products at the All England Club, to discuss how technology is changing the Wimbledon experience, both on the grounds and for fans around the world.

Image: Getty

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Affirm CEO, PayPal co-founder, original member of the 'PayPal Mafia' Max Levchin joins Danny Fortson and Katie Prescott to talk about moral moneylending, Elon Musk, mega-IPOs and why there are so many tech bosses in Washington. As he puts it – “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”

Meanwhile, Anthropic has announced that Claude Fable 5 will be released again globally after the Trump administration's ban. Plus, Danny and Katie discuss the latest trend in Silicon Valley - the rise of voice AI and the death of the keyboard. Is it hot air or if we are really in a new era of "yapping, rather than tapping"? On that note, Norman, Katie's AI agent, finally (and terrifyingly), has a voice.

Would you swap your keyboard for voice-to-text software? Get in touch: [email protected]

Watch on YouTube

Read more: Is it time to say goodbye to the keyboard?

Producer: Marnie Duke

Executive Producer: Priyanka Deladia

Video Producer: Bronwen Latham

Image: Getty

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Who really controls the future of AI? A rare warning from the Five Eyes intelligence alliance says powerful AI models capable of devastating cyberattacks on governments and businesses could be just months away. At the same time, the Trump administration’s decision to block foreign access to Anthropic’s most advanced AI models has intensified fears that Europe and the UK are dangerously dependent on Silicon Valley.

Danny Fortson and Katie Prescott ask what an AI “kill switch” could mean for Europe – and whether the race for AI sovereignty is now impossible to ignore.

And as the race towards Artificial General Intelligence intensifies, so too has the talent war between AI labs, after two leading Google DeepMind researchers – Noam Shazeer and John Jumper – left for OpenAI and Anthropic.

Plus, Judith Dada, AI adviser to the German government and Senior Partner at Visionaries, joins them to discuss Europe’s AI future, tech sovereignty, and what losing the AI race could mean.

Producer: Marnie Duke

Executive Producer: Priyanka Deladia

Image: Getty

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Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced a ban on social media for under-16s, due to come into effect next year. But questions remain over how it will be enforced, and whether it will actually work. Mark Sellman joins Katie Prescott to answer the key questions.

In the US, the Trump administration has banned two of Anthropic’s most powerful AI models which include the controversial 'Mythos', intensifying calls for Europe to build sovereign AI systems of its own. If America can restrict access to critical AI technology at short notice, what does that mean for the rest of the world? Plus, Katie has been at Founders Forum, where she interviewed Katie King, the founder and CEO of BioOrbit, a company building a pharmaceutical lab in space to transform the way we treat cancer.

Do you agree with the social media ban? Get in touch: [email protected]

Producers: Marnie Duke & Ethan Sills

Executive Producer: Priyanka Deladia

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Anthropic has warned about the next phase of 'recursive AI', where agents could become capable enough to build and train models themselves without human intervention. The idea is that “self-improving” armies of agents could create purely AI-run, zero-person companies that optimise while you’re sleeping. If that’s the story in Silicon Valley, in the UK Katie is at London Tech Week, where everyone from Prime Minister Keir Starmer to AMD’s Lisa Su is focused on tech sovereignty and the question of who owns, controls and shapes AI, not just how fast the technology is advancing.

Plus, Cisco’s Jeetu Patel joins Danny and Katie to discuss the potentially catastrophic consequences of the agentic era for cybersecurity, and share his insights on the trillion-dollar IPOs potentially coming from OpenAI, SpaceX and Anthropic.

Is Britain losing the AI race? Get in touch: [email protected]

Producer: Marnie Duke

Executive Producer: Priyanka Deladia

Image: Getty

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This episode of The Times Tech Podcast is sponsored by KPMG.

Businesses are spending heavily on AI, but is it actually changing how they work? Katie Prescott is joined by Paul Henninger, UK Head of Technology and Data and Global AI Leader at KPMG, and Professor Alan Brown from the University of Exeter Business School, author of Making AI Work for Britain, to ask why so many AI pilots fail to become real business value.

They discuss the gap between hype and implementation, why the most useful applications of AI are often the least glamorous, and what leaders need to do before AI can reshape work across an organisation.

Visit https://kpmg.com/uk/en/services/ai to find out more.

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A strange new experiment where AI agents run their own societies free from humans has raised questions about whether we can really trust these bots to act on our behalf. In the study by Emergence AI, agents attempted thefts, physical assaults, and even arsons – all inside a simulated world.

So what happens when AI agents move from experiments into real workplaces? This week on The Times Tech podcast, Danny Fortson and Katie Prescott discuss the risks and hear from Gabe Peryera, the Co-Founder of Harvey, the legal AI company named after the character in the TV drama Suits, about whether AI agents can really replace the jobs of lawyers. Plus, Anthropic eyes a potential trillion-dollar IPO.

Could AI lawyers replace people? Get in touch: [email protected]

Producer: Marnie Duke

Executive Producer: Priyanka Deladia

Image: Getty

Read more: ‘Big Law’ is leaning in to AI

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