The Interview

“It's a cultural thing. There's an aspect of this that's a Silicon Valley belief that what's invented in California has a special status. I implored colleagues to bring people in from other industries. And people said to me ‘well they can't imagine how powerful AI is, and they can picture what we're doing’ and there's really a sense that the people in the Bay Area are a special group with some special franchise to understand and deal with this technology.”

Rick Edwards speaks to David Robinson, who until recently led safety and transparency at OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.

Robinson resigned because he no longer believed that the industry was doing enough to protect us from the risks posed by increasingly powerful artificial intelligence systems.

He warns that Silicon Valley’s culture of overconfidence is leaving us exposed to systems that are becoming harder to control.

He explains what AI companies could learn from industries with decades of experience managing serious risks, and what needs to change to keep the technology safe.

The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Veolia CEO Estelle Brachlianoff, billionaire Mohammed Dewji, and TaskRabbit founder Leah Solivan.

You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presenter: Rick Edwards
Producer: Osman Iqbal
Editor: Farhana Haider
Get in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: OpenAI logo. Credit: EPA/Shutterstock)

“Dysfunction is a challenge but a strength as well, because it's made us have to find unique ways to utilise our instruments and work together. So it's sort of been a guiding light in some ways, the limitations of the band, but we are in this place where musically where we don't know what is about to happen. It can fall apart or it could become something extraordinary. And that's the beauty of U2 - the lack of orthodoxy and formality and predictability.”
Mark Savage meets legendary Irish rock band U2.
The group was formed at Mount Temple Comprehensive in Dublin back in 1976, with the current line-up of vocalist Bono, guitarist The Edge, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr., coming together just two years later.
Within a decade, they had gone from local post-punk band to one of the world’s biggest rock acts. They enjoyed a string of global hits such as "Pride (In the Name of Love)", "With or Without You", and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", and lined up alongside the likes of Elton John, Queen and David Bowie to perform at Live Aid in 1985.
Now, as they mark their 50th anniversary with the release of their 16th studio album, Carnaval de Luz, U2 are recognised as one of the biggest-selling musical acts of all time, with estimated record sales north of 170 million.
But despite enjoying global success across five decades, getting it right doesn’t always come easy.

The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with other music icons such as Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder and Chaka Khan. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Mark Savage
Producers: Ben Cooper, Anisa Sudebar and Jonathan Sumberg
Editors: Farhana Haider and Damon Rose
Get in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: U2. Credit: Getty)

“The environmental impacts of food waste are absolutely devastating. If it were a country, food waste would be the third-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions after the USA and China - and that's because a landmass larger than China is used every year to grow food that's never eaten.”
Leanna Byrne speaks to Olio co-founder and CEO Tessa Clarke.
Olio helps millions of people around the world give away unwanted food and household items instead of throwing them away. It’s a simple process, where users list unwanted food, clothes, furniture, books, and toiletries on the app for people nearby to then get in touch and arrange collection.
Having started life barely a decade ago in the form of a WhatsApp group set up to reduce waste in a small corner of suburban London, Olio has since grown into an app used daily in around 50 countries all over the world.
With over 150 million meals and 17 million household items already shared, hundreds of thousands of tonnes of CO₂ emissions and billions of litres of water in the process saved, the movement has even been recognised by the United Nations as a scalable solution for combating climate change.
In this interview, Clarke talks about how it grew into a global movement, and why changing human behaviour may be key to tackling climate change.
Thank you to the Founders team for their help in making this programme.

The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Veolia CEO Estelle Brachlianoff, billionaire Mohammed Dewji, and TaskRabbit founder Leah Solivan. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Leanna Byrne
Producers: Ben Cooper and Barbara George
Editor: Farhana Haider
Get in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Tessa Clarke. Credit: Getty)

“I can't pronounce the local language, but if it's kind of translated into English, it becomes ‘the eternal glaciers’. And to have something on a mountain that has that cultural history, and has been so important for local belief, and local culture, to disappear. It's a culture heritage disappearing.”

Abraham Utama speaks to explorer and climate scientist Klaus Thymann, founder of Project Pressure, a charity combining science and art to communicate the realities of climate change.

Klaus travelled to Puncak Jaya, a remote mountain in Indonesia, to document its rapidly disappearing tropical glaciers. Using drone photographs and precise measurements, his team created a detailed digital model of the mountain and its remaining ice.

He explains what they found, why the glaciers’ disappearance also represents a loss of cultural heritage, and how their work aims to preserve a record for future generations.

The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Sundar Pichai and Julia Gillard.

You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presenter: Abraham Utama
Producer: Osman Iqbal
Editor: Damon Rose
Get in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Klaus Thymann, Credit: BBC)

Right now, your washing machine is subject to more safety rules than AI. Every carton of milk that you see in the grocery store is subject to safety rules and inspection. Or think about the aeroplanes we get on - you can get on a plane in London, you can fly to Athens or New York. Either way, that plane has been certified so that it’s considered safe by the aircraft regulators in both countries. We know how to do this for other products. We should build on that knowledge and start to think about how to apply it to AI.”
Will Bain speaks to Brad Smith, Microsoft President and Vice-Chairman, about adapting to AI.
The 59-year-old American joined the global technology giant in 1993 as part of its legal team. Over the next two decades, he worked his way to the top of the corporation and became President in 2015 before taking on the additional role of Vice-Chairman six years later.
As one of the most influential figures in the global technology industry, Smith has spent decades working alongside world leaders, governments and regulators, helping to navigate some of the most complex challenges facing the digital age, from cyber security and data privacy to market competition and the growing power of big tech.
Smith observes AI’s rapid development closely, and although he understands the many opportunities it will create, he also supports regulation.
Thank you to the Big Boss Interview team for their help in making this programme.

The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Arm CEO Rene Haas, AI expert Parmy Olson, and astronaut Victor Glover. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Will Bain
Producers: Olie D'Albertanson and Ben Cooper
Editor: Damon Rose
Get in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Brad Smith Credit: Zed Jameson/Bloomberg via Getty Images)