Artificially Ever After

In this episode, Kieren and Riku ask what happens when technology becomes very good at producing the signals humans use to recognise connection. They trace the story from ELIZA, a 200-line program from 1966 whose users asked to speak to it in private, to the 50 million people estimated to have spent Valentine's Day 2026 with an AI companion. They demystify what an AI companion app actually is, and list the four areas where AI is already reshaping romance: choosing who we meet, speaking for us, becoming the partner, and leveraging intimacy for fraud. Tune in for an honest look at the harms and even some possible benefits.Birds for Scale, Smarties is licensed under CC BY-SA.Local Forecast – Elevator by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under CC BY.

In this Short Stuff episode, Kieren and Riku unpack the week Anthropic quietly made its newest model, Claude Fable 5, worse at AI-development questions... without telling anyone, until a backlash forced an apology within 48 hours. They demystify recursive self-improvement (RSI), the safety worry behind the move, ask whether it was real caution or competitive advantage, and explain why a limit you can see is a safeguard while a hidden one edges towards manipulation. Tune in to learn how to spot when your AI is holding back!Birds for Scale, Smarties is licensed under CC BY-SA.

In this episode, Kieren and Riku tackle a pressing and surprisingly hopeful question of whether AI can actually help protect our natural world. Joined by Professor Tilo Burghardt, a pioneer in the emerging field of animal biometrics, they explore how specialised AI models are revolutionising wildlife conservation. From automatically detecting poachers in national parks to understanding great ape behaviour in the jungle, they discuss how real-time data and computer vision are helping us monitor and protect global biodiversity. Tune in to learn how bridging the disconnect between our modern "technosphere" and the natural "biosphere" might just be the key to saving the planet's most precious treasures.This is the fourth episode in our AIBIO-UK mini-series.Birds for Scale, Smarties is licensed under CC BY-SA.Local Forecast – Elevator by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under CC BY.

Kieren and Riku discuss the US military's high-stakes clash with Big Tech over AI. Discover why Anthropic was blacklisted over autonomous weapons, how OpenAI played ball, and the chilling reality of AI warfare rules being decided in private contracts rather than democratic lawsBirds for Scale, Smarties is licensed under CC BY-SA.

In this episode, Kieren and Riku explore whether AI can truly predict the future through time series forecasting. They trace the history of predictions from Haley's comet to Google's GraphCast for weather, and unpack real-world applications like national energy grids and wearable healthcare tech. Along the way, they discuss the risks of random correlations, feedback loops, and the philosophical impact of having a crystal ball on human free will.Birds for Scale, Smarties is licensed under CC BY-SA.Local Forecast – Elevator by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under CC BY.

In this Short Stuff episode, Kieren and Riku investigate Moltbook, a viral social media platform built exclusively for AI agents to converse without humans. They unpack the headlines claiming this marks the start of the singularity and explore the bizarre phenomena emerging on the site, from "non-human" languages to a lobster-worshipping religion called Crustafarianism. Beyond the sci-fi hype, they discuss the serious security risks of granting AI agents access to all your personal data, and debunk the fears of emergent consciousness. Tune in to find out if this is the dawn of a new world order or just a chaotic internet experiment!Birds for Scale, Smarties is licensed under CC BY-SA.