Show Notes
Karen Hao’s away this week — but it’s a special episode: Thomas and Nicky welcome their first ever guest, senior reporter at MS NOW, Brandy Zadrozny, to decode the tech stories rewiring your week and your world. First: are we heading for a world without screens? Bloomberg reports Apple is in late‑stage testing of AirPods with tiny cameras - not for selfies, but to give Siri “eyes” so it can understand what you’re looking at and respond in real time. We explore what that signals: less phone‑tapping, more ambient “AI companion” computing - and why earbuds (oddly) might be a more plausible bridge to screenless tech than headsets or smart glasses. If the interface moves from screens to always‑on assistants, what changes about attention, privacy - and who gets to shape the world you experience? Next: the hidden clipping industry flooding your feed - now in politics. Brandy takes us inside the booming “clipping economy”: armies of freelancers paid to slice long content into viral short‑form clips and push them across TikTok, Reels and Shorts until something hits. The twist is that the tactics that built internet stars are increasingly being borrowed to build candidates - blurring what’s organic and what’s engineered. We ask who’s hiring clippers, what kinds of accounts they use, how political disclosure rules get sidestepped, and what happens when elections are fought in the attention economy. Finally: if AI can simulate public opinion, what even counts as a poll? Pollsters and researchers are experimenting with “synthetic” respondents - AI‑generated “digital twin” voters trained on real datasets - to answer questions at speed and scale. But if headlines still say “the public thinks…”, when the truth is “the model predicts…”, are polls measuring opinion - or shaping it? In a polling era already bruised by credibility crises, we ask what trust looks like when the respondents might not be human. We reached out to Gallup for comment and they responded: Gallup does not currently publish approval or favorability ratings for individual political figures, and we have no plans to incorporate simulated responses on that subject now or in the future. We are in the beginning phases of some exploratory research on simulated responses. Through this work, we are hoping to learn whether AI systems and emerging methods can help deepen our understanding of how humans think and behave. You can read more about our approach in our methodology blog. We also contacted Apple for comment but did not hear from them before the release of this episode. The Interface is your weekly guide to the tech rewiring your week and your world. Hosted by journalists Thomas Germain and Nicky Woolf (and this week, with special guest Brandy Zadrozny), each episode unpacks, week by week, how technology is shaping all our futures. No jargon. Just sharp voices debating the tech stories that matter. New episodes drop every Thursday on BBC Sounds in the UK. Outside the UK, find us on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts — or watch the video version on YouTube (search “The Interface podcast”). To get in touch: [email protected] The Interface is a BBC Studios production. Producer: Natalia Rodriguez Ford Executive Editor: Philip Sellars
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What if you could delete your most embarrassing photos from the internet, even the ones other people posted? A new California law addendum lets the children of family vloggers demand that content of them be taken down when they turn 18, and parents and platforms have to comply. Could this be the future for everyone? Thomas Germain and Jessica Maddox ask what happens when childhood becomes content, why Europe have a "right to be forgotten" law but the US doesn't, and whether kidfluencers could be the tipping point for privacy rights for everyone. Jess explains why many think the laws are needed, who's fighting them, and where they fall short. Tom asks what smart glasses, always-on listening devices and AI chatbots mean for people who never agreed to be recorded or shared. Plus: after reports of Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian data centres, many social media users claimed the internet had suddenly gone quiet, with no more malicious bots. But was the internet really nicer? Tom and Jess unpack what Cloudflare's data showed about the Yandex issues, why BBC colleagues couldn't find evidence that the bots had gone, and what the story says about dead internet theory and why we're so ready to believe it. The Interface is your weekly guide to the tech rewiring your week and your world. Hosted by journalist Thomas Germain and “professor of the internet” Jessica Maddox, each episode unpacks, week by week, how technology is shaping all our futures. No jargon. Just two sharp voices debating the stories that matter - whether they shook a government, broke the internet, or quietly tipped the balance of power. New episodes drop every Wednesday on BBC Sounds in the UK. Outside the UK, find us on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the video version on YouTube (search “The Interface podcast”). To get in touch with the team: [email protected] The Interface is a BBC Studios production. Producer: Becca Bryers Executive Editor: Philip Sellars
Should you be nice to your chatbot? Anthropic says its Claude models will be able to end conversations if users are needlessly cruel. Thomas Germain and Jessica Maddox ask why AI companies are increasingly talking about AI welfare, and what it could mean for the rest of us if the industry starts weighing a model's wellbeing against ours. Tom and Jess dig into the research behind the claims, the online backlash over an "AI torture chamber," and why consciousness is still an open question for scientists and philosophers. Plus, Jess reveals her college freshmen don't know who Jake Paul is. Is going viral a thing of the past, and what replaces it when the internet splinters into millions of niches? The Interface is your weekly guide to the tech rewiring your week and your world. Hosted by journalist Thomas Germain and “professor of the internet” Jessica Maddox, each episode unpacks, week by week, how technology is shaping all our futures. No jargon. Just two sharp voices debating the stories that matter - whether they shook a government, broke the internet, or quietly tipped the balance of power. New episodes drop every Wednesday on BBC Sounds in the UK. Outside the UK, find us on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the video version on YouTube (search “The Interface podcast”). To get in touch with the team: [email protected] The Interface is a BBC Studios production. Producer: Becca Bryers Executive Editor: Philip Sellars
Frances Haugen, the Facebook whistleblower, joins Jess Maddox and Thomas Germain on The Interface to talk about The Social Reckoning, the new film that follows her story and acts as a sequel to The Social Network. It stars Mikey Madison as Haugen, alongside Jeremy Strong and Jeremy Allen White. Haugen, who leaked internal documents known as the Facebook Files in 2021, explains why she believes Meta (formerly Facebook) needed outside scrutiny, and what she saw as a product manager that changed her mind about fixing it from the inside. She discusses what she says the documents and court filings reveal about teen safety on Instagram and Facebook, and the platform's impact on schools. She also looks at what has changed since 2021, from the wave of US lawsuits over social media design and harm to children, to the EU's Digital Services Act and Australia's under-16 social media ban. Haugen explains what she thinks "practical, moderate oversight" could look like. She also talks about the personal cost of blowing the whistle, and shares her advice for employees at AI labs who may face the same choice. Jess and Thomas discuss why so many films about tech leaders are landing at once, what the shift in public attitudes means for Big Tech, and whether AI companies can learn from the social media era. After our request for comment, Meta told us they had previously addressed the issues raised by Frances Haugen in this episode. They stated they have strict rules against content that encourages or glorifies self harm, that Teen Accounts have strict message settings and nudity protection by default, and they have evidence of decades-long work to develop and release teen safety protections. Meta have also previously acknowledged that they could have done more to prevent Facebook being used to incite offline violence in Myanmar, and they have since implemented corrective actions. The Interface is your weekly guide to the tech rewiring your week and your world. Hosted by journalist Thomas Germain and “professor of the internet” Jessica Maddox, each episode unpacks, week by week, how technology is shaping all our futures. No jargon. Just two sharp voices debating the stories that matter - whether they shook a government, broke the internet, or quietly tipped the balance of power. New episodes drop every Wednesday on BBC Sounds in the UK. Outside the UK, find us on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the video version on YouTube (search “The Interface podcast”). To get in touch with the team: [email protected] The Interface is a BBC Studios production. Producer: Becca Bryers Executive Editor: Philip Sellars
The Interface returns for season two with a new co-host. BBC technology columnist Thomas Germain is joined by Jessica Maddox, a University of Georgia professor who studies memes and internet culture, to break down the tech stories that actually matter in your day-to-day life. Is AI going to kill us all? After high-profile tech workers warned of an AI apocalypse, Tom and Jess look at where the industry's "P(doom)" numbers come from and why some experts say they're based on vibes rather than science. They weigh warnings from Anthropic safety advisor Evan Hubiger, against computer scientist Yann LeCun's view that the risk is close to zero, and ask why AI companies are calling for regulation just before the US midterms. Meta's Muse AI agent: what happens when you give an AI agent access to your inbox? Tom sets up Muse, Meta's new personal AI agent, and hands over 20 years of emails and his calendar. It can negotiate bills and buy things on your behalf, but what does it mean for privacy and the very future of the internet? Tom and Jess discuss the flaws found in the days after launch, and looks at what Meta says it is doing to protect users' data. In response to this discussion, a Meta spokesperson told us that Muse is “designed to be safe, secure and private – with built-in protections and user controls that put people in charge of how they use it." They added that safety and security was a "huge priority" and that Muse had been tested extensively and any identified vulnerabilities had been fixed. Meta says Muse is designed to respect the interests of websites it uses. The company also says users have complete control over what information and services Muse has access to, and the AI cannot access your messages without explicit permission. According to Meta, it delayed the release of Muse for months for additional privacy and security checks. Microdramas: the 90-second shows taking over TikTok. Jess explains why vertical video series like Office Girl and Bound to My Hot Rival, with their mafia heirs, billionaire bosses and cliffhangers, are reshaping Hollywood. Jess and Tom disucuss how the pay-per-episode model works, and what the boom in AI-generated "slop" means for actors. Drawing on media theorist Marshall McLuhan and psychologist Gloria Mark's research, they ask what our shrinking attention spans say about how we watch. The Interface is your weekly guide to the tech rewiring your week and your world. Hosted by journalist Thomas Germain and “professor of the internet” Jessica Maddox, each episode unpacks, week by week, how technology is shaping all our futures. No jargon. Just two sharp voices debating the stories that matter - whether they shook a government, broke the internet, or quietly tipped the balance of power. New episodes drop every Wednesday on BBC Sounds in the UK. Outside the UK, find us on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the video version on YouTube (search “The Interface podcast”). To get in touch with the team: [email protected] The Interface is a BBC Studios production. Producer: Becca Bryers Executive Editor: Philip Sellars
This week on The Interface: is World Cup tech taking the human magic out of football? For our season finale before the summer break, Karen, Thomas and Nicky start with the World Cup - and ask what happens when football becomes a showcase for ever more technology. This year’s tournament has brought referee body cameras, faster semi-automated offside decisions, and more AI-powered match analysis for teams and broadcasters, all in the name of accuracy, transparency and engagement. But as the game gets ever more engineered, there’s a bigger question underneath it: do these tools improve the sport, or do they slowly sand away some of the human error, chaos and competitive tension that made it thrilling in the first place? Also this week: the infinite workweek. AI was supposed to take tasks off our plates — but in practice, it may be doing the opposite. Microsoft’s research on the“infinite workday” warned that work is already bleeding into mornings, nights and weekends, and that AI could make that worse if companies simply speed up broken workflows instead of redesigning them. And as more people work alongside AI agents, some describe a strange new role: not freed by automation, but stuck supervising it — an always-on form of “AI babysitting” in which the machine keeps working, and you’re never fully off duty. And because this is the last episode of season one, Thomas, Karen and Nicky also look back on their favourite moments from season one, dip into the listener mailbag, and revisit some of the stories we’ve followed over the past 20 weeks - before The Interface heads off for a summer (screen) break. The Interface is your weekly guide to the tech rewiring your week and your world. Hosted by journalists Karen Hao, Thomas Germain and Nicky Woolf, each episode unpacks, week by week, how technology is shaping all our futures. No guests. No jargon. Just three sharp voices debating the stories that matter — whether they shook a government, broke the internet, or quietly tipped the balance of power. New episodes drop every Thursday on BBC Sounds in the UK. Outside the UK, find us on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the video version on YouTube (search“The Interface podcast”). To get in touch with the team: [email protected] The Interface is a BBC Studios production. Producer: Natalia Rodriguez Ford Executive Editor: Philip Sellars