Episode notes
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FT Tech Tonic
Financial Times · Tech & Science · English
We are in the midst of a digital revolution, where the line between our physical world and cyberspace is blurring. Tech Tonic is the show that investigates the promises and perils of this new technological age. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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S19 · E3 · 22 Oct 2025 · 31 min
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US President Donald Trump wants to “plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars”. But more than 50 years on from the moon landings, America’s space agency, Nasa, is in disarray. Meanwhile, China is forging ahead with its own plans for manned missions to the Moon and perhaps to Mars. Who will win the race to the red planet? The FT’s space industry editor Peggy Hollinger speaks to former and current Nasa employees about the challenges facing the space agency, and to Jared Isaacman, Trump’s one-time nominee for Nasa administrator. This episode of Tech Tonic is hosted by Peggy Hollinger and…
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S19 · E1 · 8 Oct 2025 · 30 min
Mission to Mars: Elon Musk's 'Starship' enterprise
Elon Musk wants humans to settle on Mars, and his rocket company SpaceX is spending billions of dollars on developing the spacecraft to take us there. The ‘Starship’ is being designed to take astronauts back to the moon, and eventually, on to the red planet. But why is Musk so obsessed with building a colony on Mars, and is he really the man to take us there? The FT’s space industry editor Peggy Hollinger speaks to space experts and Mars enthusiasts about the pull of the red planet, both for scientists and explorers, and how realistic Musk’s vision for humanity as an interplanetary species…
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S19 · 1 Oct 2025 · 2 min
Coming soon: Mission to Mars
US President Donald Trump has pledged to “plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars”, China could send its first crewed mission to Mars within a decade, and Elon Musk wants people to actually settle on Mars, transforming the human race into an interplanetary species. In a new series of Tech Tonic, the FT’s Peggy Hollinger asks if we’re really about to land, and even live, on the red planet. Free to read: Musk’s mission to Mars Three days with America’s rocket chasers Tech Tonic is produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. The senior producer is Edwin Lane. Flo Phillips is the executive producer.…
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S18 · E2 · 10 Sep 2025 · 31 min
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AI models have learned to create their own music by harvesting millions of songs from the internet. But critics say they’re using musicians’ work without permission, and three major record labels are suing them for ‘copyright infringement on an almost unimaginable scale’. In the second episode of this two part series, the FT’s pop critic Ludovic Hunter-Tilney speaks to campaigners and lawyers about the legal battle over AI generators, and to artists about the growth of AI music on streaming platforms. How are AI generated songs racking up millions of listens? And should streaming platforms…
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S18 · E1 · 3 Sep 2025 · 28 min
AI Music: The Infinite Jukebox
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S18 · 27 Aug 2025 · 2 min
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AI music generators - platforms that use artificial intelligence to create new, original music from scratch - can make songs that are almost indistinguishable from human creations. For some musicians, they’re the next frontier in music-making technology. But for others, they represent a grave threat, flooding the world with low-grade AI music, stealing the jobs of working musicians, and even spelling the end of the creative process as we know it. Is this just technophobia, or is music facing AI annihilation? In a new two-part series, the FT’s pop critic Ludovic Hunter-Tilney explores the…
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