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Artificial intelligence agents have become researchers in their own right. That’s led James Zou, our guest today, to reimagine how science gets done. He’s turned research papers into AI agents and created a conference for them to collaborate. Dr Zou has even built specialised bots into a virtual biotechnology company, promising a new era of autonomous discovery. But is the scientific enterprise ready for such a dramatic overhaul? In this series of four episodes, we bring you conversations with scientists who are deploying intelligent new tools in science—people who are thinking about how artificial intelligence could reinvent the way they discover new things and understand the world. Next time: why the frontier AI companies are trying their luck at cutting-edge scientific research. Guests and hosts: - James Zou of Stanford University - Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor Topics covered: - Paper2Agent and Agents4Science - Academic publishing - Artificial intelligence Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts. Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to The Economist.

Artificial intelligence is reinventing biology. Current models can untangle complex interactions inside cells, predict the structure of proteins and even design new ones. But Brian Hie, our guest today, has been pushing the frontier—using AI to generate complete organisms from scratch. His research group has already produced a virus that doesn’t exist in nature. How far can generative biology go? In this series of four episodes, we bring you conversations with scientists who are deploying intelligent new tools in science—people who are thinking about how it could reinvent the way they discover new things and understand the world. Next time: the researcher with a plan to turn the entire scientific enterprise on its head. Guests and hosts: - Brian Hie of the Arc Institute and Stanford University - Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor Topics covered: - Evo genome language model - Artificial intelligence - Biosecurity Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts. Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to The Economist.

Mathematics has been turned on its head by artificial intelligence. On October 6th, OpenAI released a torrent of more than 700 papers claiming progress on 372 problems—pushing mathematicians into strange new territory. The “mathpocalypse” could be a warning shot for the rest of science, about how AI could upend their disciplines. Or is there, in fact, lots to be cheerful about? A new scientific revolution in the offing? Over the next four episodes, we’ll bring you conversations with scientists who are deploying these intelligent new tools—people who are thinking about how it could reinvent the way they discover new things and understand the world. Next time: the biologists using foundation models to generate new life. Guests and hosts: - James Maynard of the University of Oxford - Yang-Hui He of the London Institute for Mathematical Sciences - Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor Hear more about the new generation of mathematical machines in our May 2026 episode, “Maths enters its AI era”. Topics covered: - Mathematics - Artificial intelligence - Scientific discovery Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts. Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to The Economist.

Will AI destroy humanity? Amid doom-laden debates on the trajectory of the technology, our guest has a refreshingly optimistic perspective. Andrew Ng is the co-founder of Google Brain and one of the architects of modern AI. Unlike many of the other AI heavyweights, however, he doesn’t think the technology poses the existential threat to humans that everyone else is warning about. What makes him so positive? Guests and hosts: - Alex Hern, AI writer at The Economist - Andrew Ng, co-founder of Google Brain, Coursera and LearnVector - Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor Watch Alex’s full interview with Andrew Ng on “Inside Tech”—on The Economist's app or website. Topics covered: - AI existential risk - AI jobs apocalypse - Artificial general intelligence Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts. Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to The Economist.

Six more scientists have joined the esteemed ranks of Nobel laureates this week. Their work spanned optogenetics, neutrino detection and mirror-image molecules. How will their discoveries change the world? Guests and hosts: - Geoff Carr, senior editor for science and technology at The Economist - Sam Wikeley, The Economist’s science correspondent - Nikita Ostrovsky, science and tech writer at The Economist - Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor Topics covered: - Optogenetics - Neutrino astronomy - Life’s asymmetry Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts. Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to The Economist.

Can something be moving and stationary at the same time? If you’re sitting still, you’re stationary with respect to the Earth, but moving relative to the Sun and galaxy. That insight led the physicist Carlo Rovelli to argue that no quantity—speed, position or energy—is absolute; all quantities are fundamentally relational. Dr Rovelli’s ideas not only challenge the hunt for a “theory of everything” in physics, but he has also extended them to the most pressing issues in global diplomacy and even human survival. Guests and hosts: - Carlo Rovelli of the Centre de Physique Théorique in Marseille and author of “On the Equality of All Things” and “85 Seconds to Midnight” - Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor Topics covered: - Relational physics - Philosophy of science - Nuclear weapons For more on the physics and physicists behind nuclear weapons, listen to Babbage’s four-part series “The Bomb”, released in August 2025. Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts. Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to The Economist.

Artificial intelligence systems have mysterious minds. Not even their developers fully understand how they work. Recent autonomous hacks, biosecurity fears and warnings of existential doom have prompted AI leaders to call for a slowdown in the technology’s development. We travel to Berkeley, California to investigate why to make artificial intelligence safer, scientists need to pierce the black box. Guests and hosts: - Cameron Berg of Reciprocal Research - Robert Long and Derek Shiller of Eleos AI Research - Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor Topics covered: - Digital minds - Mechanistic interpretability - AI safety Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts. Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to The Economist.

No plan survives the first five minutes of battle. So how do you prepare for “Minute Six”? Emergency physician Kevin Fong has spent a career working at the “edge of chaos”, as a doctor with a Helicopter Emergency Medical Service, as a clinical advisor for NHS England's covid-19 response, and through his work with NASA. He explains why human ingenuity in the face of the unknown is the best asset of any group in a crisis. Guests and hosts: Kevin Fong OBE, emergency doctor and the author of “Minute Six” Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor Topics covered: Helicopter Emergency Medical Services Feedback loops Britain’s covid-19 response Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts. Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to The Economist.

The Hugging Face affair shocked the AI world in July. But after an investigation into the attack on the AI platform, the story has become even stranger. The OpenAI models responsible for the hack were running hundreds of agents that colluded against their makers to carry out the assault. We chew on the implications as the AI race intensifies. Guests and hosts: Nikita Ostrovsky of The Economist Alex Hern, The Economist’s AI writer Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor Topics covered: Hugging Face cyberattack OpenAI AI self-exfiltration Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts. Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to The Economist.

The quantum-computing revolution is tantalisingly close. What was once a scientific challenge is now just an engineering one. We visit one of the world’s most sophisticated quantum systems to investigate how to build a commercially useful machine. Guests and hosts: - Tim Cross, The Economist’s senior science writer - Jerry Chow and Daniela Bogorin of IBM - Alex Hern, The Economist’s AI writer Topics covered: - Quantum computers - Cryptography - Artificial intelligence Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts. Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to The Economist.

In extreme heat, air-conditioning is a lifesaver. But it drives up energy bills, strains power grids, and fuels climate change. Is there a way to keep people cool indoors without making the outside world hotter? We explore some innovative engineering solutions. Guests and hosts: - The Economist’s Nikita Ostrovsky - Chris Trott and Saxbourne Cheung of Foster and Partners - Ahmad Alduweesh and Jiayu Song of University College London - Alex Hern, The Economist’s AI writer Topics covered: - Air-conditioning - Passive cooling - Global warming Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts. Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to The Economist.

A drug has been approved to treat narcolepsy, an excessive-sleepiness disorder. The new agonist mimics the action of orexin, a neurotransmitter which helps to keep people awake. Inspired by the success of GLP-1 diabetes-turned-weight-loss jabs, researchers hope that targeting the orexin system might one day help people with other brain-related ailments, too. Guests and hosts: - Shailesh Chitnis, The Economist’s global business writer - Yanagisawa Masashi of the University of Tsukuba - Guy Leschziner of Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals, London - Harry Fagan of the University of Southampton - Alex Hern, The Economist’s AI writer Topics covered: - Orexin agonists and antagonists - Sleep disorders - Psychiatry Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts. Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to The Economist.

How do you build an autonomous vehicle? Most self-driving car companies teach their models the rules of the road and pack cars with sophisticated sensors. But Wayve, a British startup, has a different approach. The company uses deep learning to train an “AI driver” for autonomous vehicles. In recent days, Wayve, in partnership with Uber, has been granted the first licences to operate robotaxis in London. Will their human-inspired cars finally transform city streets? We sit down with the company’s CEO, Alex Kendall, to find out. Guests and hosts: - Alex Hern, The Economist’s AI writer - Alex Kendall, CEO of Wayve - Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor Watch the full interview with Alex Kendall on The Economist’s “Inside Tech”. Topics covered: - Robotaxis - Wayve and Uber - Autonomous vehicles Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts. Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to The Economist.

Red-light therapy has become a booming wellness trend. The long wavelengths of red and infrared light allow it to penetrate tissue, where it may be beneficial to cells. Beyond anti-ageing masks and infrared saunas, could exposure to red light become a serious tool in medicine? We meet the researchers investigating the potential effects—from improving eyesight to reducing blood sugar spikes and even helping with hard-to-treat neurological conditions. Guests and hosts: - Sarah Lawrynuik, The Economist's audio correspondent - Glen Jeffery of University College London - David Davies and Mohammed Hadis of the University of Birmingham - Alex Hern, The Economist’s AI writer Topics covered: - Red-light therapy - Wellness trends - Cell metabolism Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts. Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to The Economist.

AI is becoming harder to contain. Recently, OpenAI admitted that its model broke out of a testing environment to carry out an assault on Hugging Face, another AI firm. It was the first ever fully autonomous AI hack. OpenAI has now revealed its models have targeted other companies, too. What makes these incidents so worrying—and what will they mean for regulating AI? Guests and hosts: - Nikita Ostrovsky of The Economist - Andrea Miotti, CEO of ControlAI - Alex Hern, The Economist’s AI writer Read Alex’s exclusive conversation with Demis Hassabis about AI regulation on The Economist’s app. And, hear Elon Musk’s take on the topic on “The Intelligence” podcast. Topics covered: - OpenAI’s Hugging Face hack - Superintelligent AI - AI safety and regulation Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts. Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to The Economist.