A man tells his wife about his AI lover. A teenager dies after messaging his AI girlfriend. A marriage collapses after advice from an AI therapist. In this six-part narrative series, FT tech reporter Cristina Criddle explores the increasingly prominent role AI chatbots are playing in our emotional lives - and how artificial intelligence is reshaping intimacy. Can we trust AI with our most vulnerable selves? And what happens when the same systems that draw us in also have the power to harm us?

Tech Tonic: Artificial Intimacy is presented by Cristina Criddle and produced by Persis Love and Edwin Lane. The executive producer is Flo Phillips. Sound design by Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.