The Met Gala has been dubbed the “Tech Gala” after a heavy Silicon Valley presence and sponsorship from Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez. But as tech billionaires try to win over culture, Elon Musk’s court battle with OpenAI is exposing the messy origins of the AI boom.

Danny Fortson has been covering the California trial, now in its second week, where OpenAI president Greg Brockman has taken the stand. He and Katie Prescott discuss Big Tech’s cultural rebrand, the courtroom drama, and why companies from Coinbase to Meta are increasingly linking layoffs and restructuring to AI. Plus, Bebo co-founder Michael Birch on relaunching the social network and why he thinks AI could become an existential threat.

Get in touch: techpod@thetimes.co.uk

Producer: Marnie Duke

Executive Producer: Priyanka Deladia

Image: Getty

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Alphabet, Google's parent company, has reportedly signed a deal allowing the Pentagon use of its AI for classified purposes. It's just one of many recent deals between Silicon Valley tech companies and the US military. Meanwhile, tech company Palantir says future AI warfare is inevitable and is calling on big tech bosses to "participate in the defence of the nation". Danny Fortson and Katie Prescott discuss this cultural shift, and whether AI is actually making us safer or enabling the rise of the ‘Big Brother’ state. Plus, Julian Cracknell, CTO of defence company BAE Systems, talks about the future of defence and killer robots.

Get in touch: techpod@thetimes.co.uk

Producer: Marnie Duke

Executive Producer: Priyanka Deladia

Image: Getty

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

Meet Norman: the launch of the OpenClaw AI agent has "opened the next frontier of AI to everyone" says Jensen Huang, chief exec of the tech giant Nvidia. But as these agents start doing work that once got done by humans, this latest technological revolution has provoked questions about what the future of human work - and jobs - will look like. Katie Prescott has built her own agent, Norman, and in this episode she talks Danny Fortson through the pros and cons of having your very own digital butler.

Plus, Box CEO Aaron Levie says there will soon be more AI agents than humans, and that the internet will have to be redesigned for them, not people.

Do you have an AI agent? Get in touch: techpod@thetimes.co.uk

Read more: AI agents are everywhere, but paying for them is becoming a problem

Producer: Marnie Duke

Executive Producer: Priyanka Deladia

Image: Getty

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