FT Tech Tonic

How will Silicon Valley’s most powerful figures shape technology — and politics — in 2026? Last year, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg aligned themselves with Donald Trump. Where have these relationships left the industry today? The push to break up Big Tech appears to be fading, but the race for AI dominance has sparked new risks and rivalries, as well as regulatory flashpoints.

In this episode of Tech Tonic, Murad Ahmed is joined by FT tech comment editor Elaine Moore, San Francisco correspondent Hannah Murphy and bureau chief Stephen Morris to discuss Musk’s latest Grok chatbot, Zuckerberg’s evolving strategy at Meta, the rise of the online right and what it all reveals about the shifting balance of power in Silicon Valley.

Free to read:
Elon Musk hit by exodus of senior staff over burnout and politics
How Mark Zuckerberg unleashed his inner brawler
Dina Powell McCormick appointed president and vice-chair at Meta
Big Tech tests investors’ patience with $80bn AI investment spree
Here come the glassholes, part II
AI poses a new antitrust problem
China’s open-source AI is a national advantage

This series of Tech Tonic is hosted by Murad Ahmed and produced by Josh Gabert-Doyon. The senior producer for Tech Tonic is Edwin Lane. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Sound design by Breen Turner and Samantha Giovinco. Original music by Metaphor Music. Cheryl Brumley is the FT’s global head of audio.

The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is 2026 the year that AI hype meets reality? In a new mini-series from Tech Tonic, the FT’s tech editor Murad Ahmed speaks with the paper’s reporters about what they'll be watching.

Do tech industry insiders think the huge amounts of capital that have driven the AI boom will continue? How will challenges to large-language model AI systems play out this year? And are chief executives expecting AI technologies to force job cuts?

In this episode, we hear from the FT’s venture capital correspondent George Hammond, AI correspondent Melissa Heikkilä and writer of the AI Shift newsletter Sarah O’Connor for their views on AI’s financial faultlines, how the technology will evolve and what kind of disruptions to expect in the world of work.

Free to read:

SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic prepare to launch landmark IPOs

Computer scientist Yann LeCun: ‘Intelligence really is about learning’

The AI Shift: Agentic AI is coming for quantitative research

Subscribe to The AI Shift newsletter, an essential deep-dive into how artificial intelligence is reshaping the world of work

This series of Tech Tonic is hosted by Murad Ahmed and produced by Josh Gabert-Doyon. The senior producer for Tech Tonic is Edwin Lane. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Sound design by Breen Turner and Samantha Giovinco. Original music by Metaphor Music. Cheryl Brumley is the FT’s global head of audio.

The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts.

A previous version of this podcast made a statement about Klarna's use of AI that the company has disputed. The reference has since been removed.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is 2026 the year that AI hype meets reality? In a new mini-series from Tech Tonic, the FT’s tech editor Murad Ahmed speaks with the paper’s reporters about what they'll be watching.

Do tech industry insiders think the huge amounts of capital that have driven the AI boom will continue? How will challenges to large-language model AI systems play out this year? And are chief executives expecting AI technologies to force job cuts?

In this episode, we hear from the FT’s venture capital correspondent George Hammond, AI correspondent Melissa Heikkilä and writer of the AI Shift newsletter Sarah O’Connor for their views on AI’s financial faultlines, how the technology will evolve and what kind of disruptions to expect in the world of work.

Free to read:

SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic prepare to launch landmark IPOs

Computer scientist Yann LeCun: ‘Intelligence really is about learning’

The AI Shift: Agentic AI is coming for quantitative research

Subscribe to The AI Shift newsletter, an essential deep-dive into how artificial intelligence is reshaping the world of work

This series of Tech Tonic is hosted by Murad Ahmed and produced by Josh Gabert-Doyon. The senior producer for Tech Tonic is Edwin Lane. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Sound design by Breen Turner and Samantha Giovinco. Original music by Metaphor Music. Cheryl Brumley is the FT’s global head of audio.

The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Laura Hughes receives a tip that horses are dropping dead in Wales. As she investigates, she finds decades of academic studies researching the problem. She learns these aren’t isolated incidents. Something is spreading across the countryside. It’s undetectable to humans, nobody knows it’s there — until they fall ill. For more information on how to live safely with lead, please visit the LEAPP Alliance website.

To listen to the rest of the series, find Untold on your favourite podcast platform by clicking here!

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gene and stem cell therapies have been touted as the next phase in the longevity movement, with promises to rejuvenate the body at the cellular level and reverse the effects of ageing. But, as the prospect of life extension moves into the mainstream, it presents big questions for society as a whole. Are we ready for a world where people live much longer lives?

In this final episode, the FT’s Michael Peel and Hannah Kuchler dive into the tough moral questions at the heart of the longevity movement. Hannah speaks to the team at Fountain Life, a longevity clinic trying to bring stem cell therapy to the middle classes. We meet Daniel Ives, founder of gene therapy company Shift Bioscience, and Liz Parrish, who has self-experimented with gene therapies through her company, Biovia. Finally, Michael speaks to Arthur Caplan, the head of the ethics board of longevity fund, Hevolution.

Free to read:
From immortal jellyfish to elephants: scientists probe secrets of long-lived animals
Inside the billion-dollar quest to live beyond 100
Gene editing breakthrough promises to boost fight against disease

This series of Tech Tonic is hosted by Michael Peel and Hannah Kuchler. It is produced by Josh Gabert-Doyon. The senior producer is Edwin Lane. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Sound design by Breen Turner and Samantha Giovinco. Fact checking by Simon Greaves, Lucy Baldwin and Tara Cromie. Original music by Metaphor Music. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio. Special thanks to Michela Tindera.

Clips: Al Jazeera Balkans, TV France Japon, ABP News, Rome Reports, @Sciencerely

The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.