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Episode · The Interface

What Was Pokemon Go really up to?

19 Mar 2026 · 35 min

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Episode notes

When we play a game or fill in a form, are we training robots without knowing it - and would we consent if asked? Remember Pokémon Go? The company behind it is repurposing the 30 billion images players captured to help robots navigate the real world. It’s the tip of a bigger trend: turning play into data collection. From CAPTCHAs to viral stunts like the Mannequin Challenge, our seemingly harmless online challenges are being quietly funnelled into AI training sets. It’s clever, but it raises awkward questions about consent, transparency, and who profits when our leisure becomes free labour…

Podcast

The Interface

BBC · Tech & Science · English

What happens when technology collides with real life? Hosted by BBC technology journalist Thomas Germain and social media expert Professor Jessica Maddox, The Interface dives into the stories, trends, apps, gadgets, algorithms and internet obsessions shaping how we live, work, think and connect.…

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  1. 23 Apr 2026 · 39 min

    Is your iPhone about to change forever?

    Tim Cook resigns: what does a new Apple boss mean for your smartphone? Apple CEO Tim Cook is stepping down later this year, with John Ternus — a long‑time hardware leader — named as his successor. We look past the boardroom drama and asks what this means for the thing most of us hold all day: your phone. Apple’s design choices set the tone for the entire industry; when Apple shifts, everyone else tends to follow. And if the next era is led by a hardware engineer, does that point to a different kind of iPhone future — in how it looks, behaves, and what Apple chooses to prioritise (or drop)?…

  2. 16 Apr 2026 · 41 min

    Is the new AI model really too dangerous to release?

    Claude Mythos: is this a real risk or the AI industry’s latest fear campaign? Anthropic’s unreleased model, Claude Mythos, is being talked about in the headlines as the next genuinely dangerous leap in AI - powerful enough, the company says, that it can’t be safely released to the public. But we at The Interface think we should take this self created panic with big serving of caution. The AI industry has learned that “too dangerous” can be a safety claim but also a major a publicity strategy: warn loudly, drip‑feed details, then proceed anyway. Until we know more about what Mythos can…

  3. 9 Apr 2026 · 38 min

    Will algorithms increase your grocery bill?

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  4. 2 Apr 2026 · 38 min

    Why Can't People Stop Watching AI Fruit?

    Infidelity in the fruit bowl; why are so many people watching AI generated fruit fall in and out of love? In a week of contrasting fortunes — Fruit Love Island, the TikTok synthetic‑reality hit, goes viral while OpenAI’s text‑to‑video tool Sora shuts down - Tom and Nicky ask what our love/hate relationship with “AI slop” says about taste, humour and, yes, misogyny. And who actually earns money when the content pipeline is bots all the way? Also this week: After the Meta verdict: Is the Meta verdict Big Tech's Big Tobacco moment? In the first verdict of its kind, a US jury found Meta and…

  5. 26 Mar 2026 · 40 min

    Can we prove we’re real online?

    "Am I really real?" Tom runs a simple test, involving his dear Aunt Eleanor, with far‑reaching consequences: can a real human prove they’re not a machine? The experiment was sparked by two viral moments; Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu scrambling to show he was alive after a suspected fake image, and a too‑perfect “MAGA dream girl” who convinced millions she was real. We explore the “liar’s dividend”, where the flood of AI‑made images and videos lets anyone dismiss inconvenient truths as fakes. And if “seeing is believing” no longer holds, what should replace it? Also this week:…

  6. 12 Mar 2026 · 37 min

    Will a new law change the internet forever?

    What happens when the tools built to protect children risk exposing everyone else, and who should decide which parts of the internet are “safe” enough to access without showing ID? As lawmakers in the US push forward with the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a much bigger battle over the future shape of the internet is coming into view. At the heart of the debate is age verification, a measure designed to protect children from pornography and harmful content, but one that could force all of us to prove who we are every time we go online. Digital‑rights advocates warn that tying…

  7. 5 Mar 2026 · 37 min

    Is AI running modern warfare?

    As Washington moved toward a joint US and Israeli response to Iran, a parallel fight over military access to frontier AI broke into the open. Anthropic, maker of Claude, refused a Pentagon demand for “unrestricted” use of its models, citing red lines on domestic mass surveillance and fully autonomous weapons. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth then labelled the firm a “supply chain risk,” a designation intended to bar defence contractors from using Anthropic’s tools. Within hours, OpenAI announced a deployment deal with the Pentagon, then hurried to revise and clarify its safeguards after a…

  8. 26 Feb 2026 · 36 min

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  9. 19 Feb 2026 · 34 min

    Can you hack ChatGPT?

    Do you trust the answers that AI chat bots like Chat GPT, Claude and Grok tell you? This week, The Interface put entirely fictitious information on the internet, to see if the AI chat bots would show any kind of caution in reporting it as the truth. They did not. Our example was about a made-up hot dog eating championship, but what if other operators out there are steering the AI towards more sinister, but equally untrue, information about health, politics or unregulated products? We ask what checks are, and should be, in place. Also on The Interface this week: Are data centres eating your…

  10. 12 Feb 2026 · 34 min

    Is your doorbell using AI to spy on you?

    Ring’s new AI “lost dog” feature promises to reunite missing pets with their owners using doorbell camera footage. But could this same technology be used to build a far more sinister surveillance network? Our hosts take a closer look at Search Party, announced in an ad during this year’s Super Bowl, and explore why this seemingly feel-good function is sparking privacy concerns. Also on The Interface this week: Why does the TikTok takeover in the US affect you, even if you've never touched the app? And how did one ad campaign at the Super Bowl reveal the fierce rivalry between OpenAI and…

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