How do you build an autonomous vehicle? Most self-driving car companies teach their models the rules of the road and pack cars with sophisticated sensors. But Wayve, a British startup, has a different approach. The company uses deep learning to train an “AI driver” for autonomous vehicles. In recent days, Wayve, in partnership with Uber, has been granted the first licences to operate robotaxis in London. Will their human-inspired cars finally transform city streets? We sit down with the company’s CEO, Alex Kendall, to find out.

Guests and hosts:

• Alex Hern, The Economist’s AI writer
• Alex Kendall, CEO of Wayve
• Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor

Watch the full interview with Alex Kendall on The Economist’s “Inside Tech”.

Topics covered:

• Robotaxis
• Wayve and Uber
• Autonomous vehicles

Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.

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Red-light therapy has become a booming wellness trend. The long wavelengths of red and infrared light allow it to penetrate tissue, where it may be beneficial to cells. Beyond anti-ageing masks and infrared saunas, could exposure to red light become a serious tool in medicine? We meet the researchers investigating the potential effects—from improving eyesight to reducing blood sugar spikes and even helping with hard-to-treat neurological conditions.

Guests and hosts:

• Sarah Lawrynuik, The Economist's audio correspondent
• Glen Jeffery of University College London
• David Davies and Mohammed Hadis of the University of Birmingham
• Alex Hern, The Economist’s AI writer

Topics covered:

• Red-light therapy
• Wellness trends
• Cell metabolism

Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.

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AI is becoming harder to contain. Recently, OpenAI admitted that its model broke out of a testing environment to carry out an assault on Hugging Face, another AI firm. It was the first ever fully autonomous AI hack. OpenAI has now revealed its models have targeted other companies, too. What makes these incidents so worrying—and what will they mean for regulating AI?

Guests and hosts:

• Nikita Ostrovsky of The Economist
• Andrea Miotti, CEO of ControlAI
• Alex Hern, The Economist’s AI writer

Read Alex’s exclusive conversation with Demis Hassabis about AI regulation on The Economist’s app. And, hear Elon Musk’s take on the topic on “The Intelligence” podcast.

Topics covered:

• OpenAI’s Hugging Face hack
• Superintelligent AI
• AI safety and regulation

Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.

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Global dimming is making Earth hotter. Over the past few decades, the planet has been reflecting less sunlight and absorbing more heat, in ways that are confounding existing climate models. The reasons behind this dimming are still unclear but a surprising culprit is emerging—the welcome reduction in global air pollution. As Earth’s temperatures continue to break records this year, what does global dimming mean for future warming?

Guests and hosts:

• Oliver Morton, planetary affairs editor at The Economist
• Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor

Topics covered:

• Global warming
• Albedo effect
• Earth’s energy imbalance

Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.

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Most of the world’s biggest AI firms are locked in a race to build “superintelligence”. But Mistral AI, a French frontier lab, is betting against this “winner-takes-all” competition. The firm thinks that smaller, more customisable, open-weight models will prove more valuable. Mistral’s boss outlines his plan—and why he thinks that, wherever you are, AI should be built and served closer to home. How does his vision stack up?

Guests and hosts:

• Arthur Mensch, CEO of Mistral AI
• Alex Hern, The Economist’s AI writer
• Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor

Watch Alex’s full interview with Arthur Mensch on The Economist’s “Inside Tech”.

Topics covered:

• Mistral AI
• Artificial intelligence
• Open-source large language models

Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.

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Edith Heard worked out how the X chromosome works in women. She has spent decades leading thousands of scientists in trying to understand how the molecules in cells make organisms tick. At the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, she also helped usher in biology’s AI era, by helping Google DeepMind share its Nobel-prize-winning AlphaFold algorithm. Now she’s at the head of Europe’s biggest biomedical research institute—and is ready to tackle biology’s most difficult problems.

Guests and hosts:

• Edith Heard, chief executive of the Francis Crick Institute
• Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor

Topics covered:

• Epigenetics
• X-chromosome inactivation
• The Francis Crick Institute

Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.

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Ainslie Johnstone, our science correspondent, is pregnant. When she was approached to have her newborn baby’s genome sequenced and screened for more than 200 rare conditions, she almost jumped at the opportunity. But she soon found herself with many unexpected questions.

Guests and hosts:

• Ainslie Johnstone, data and science correspondent at The Economist
• Amanda Pichini of Genomics England
• Ewan Birney of the European Bioinformatics Institute
• Anneke Lucassen of the University of Oxford
• Carissa Véliz of the University of Oxford’s Institute for Ethics in AI
• Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor

Topics covered:

• Genomic sequencing
• Data security
• The Generation Study by Genomics England

Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.

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Plague pandemics conjure images of dirty medieval cities. But new evidence has revealed the oldest known outbreak of the disease—more than 5,000 years ago—showing that dense settlements were not necessary for the bacteria to spread and become lethal. It is the latest example of how sequencing ancient genomes can open up a wealth of new data for archaeologists and historians. It is a technique that is rewriting the history of our species.

Guests and hosts:

• Sam Wikeley, The Economist’s science correspondent
• Eske Willerslev of the University of Cambridge and the University of Copenhagen
• Pontus Skoglund of the Francis Crick Institute
• Julietta Steinhauer of University College London
• Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor

The Francis Crick Institute’s exhibition, “We Go Way Back”, showcasing their ancient DNA research, opens on July 16th in London.

Topics covered:

• Ancient DNA
• Plague pandemics
• History

Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.

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