Government vs The Robots

Government vs The Robots

A fortnightly podcast from Little Atoms which looks at how technology will affect politics in the future. Like Tomorrow's World but for Westminster. Hosted by @tannerjc who is joined by a range of experts he's not fed up of yet. Music: https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episodes

The news on The News

October 14, 2020 • 32 mins
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism joins Jonathan this week to chat through some of the challenges facing media creators and consumers.

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Talking Telengana

September 30, 2020 • 33 mins
Tackling misinformation in India is the subject of enquiry this week as Jonathan is joined by Rema Rajeshwari, District Police Chief in Telengana State. Rema has used a series of innovative approaches to prevent crimes such as mob violence which had been driven by false Whats App rumours. The episode also covers the pace of digital transformation in India and the rise of cybercrime.

Host...

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Artificial Journalists

September 16, 2020 • 43 mins
This week we take a look at disinformation in the Middle East with Marc Owen Jones. Marc talks us through how he found fake journalists writing for US news sites, explains some of the disinformation he's seen put to use by countries like Saudi Arabia and gives the lowdown on which Twitterstorms it is really worth paying attention to.

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Haters gonna...coin it?

September 2, 2020 • 46 mins
Jonathan is joined this week by Imran Ahmed, Chief Executive of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate. Imran sets out the relationship between disinformation and hate speech, picks apart why the financial architecture of fake news could be its achilles heel and leaves major social media companies nowhere to hide when it comes to calling out bad behaviour.

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Polls apart

August 19, 2020 • 45 mins
How do we get better at agreeing to disagree? Jonathan talks to Alison Goldsworthy, Founder and CEO at The Depolarisation Project hosted at Stanford University to talk about what's driving polarisation in society and what we can do about. Taking a breather from in-depth analysis of disinformation they cover business case for polarisation, the role of fundraising and campaign professionals in contributing to the problem and Jonathan...

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True or False

August 5, 2020 • 47 mins
What can a former CIA analyst teach us about misinformation? Find out in this week's episode with Cindy Otis who spent ten years working for the US Government's Central Intelligence Agency. Jonathan and Cindy discuss her new book 'True or False' and explore the history of disinformation, asking why it's often been used to harden racist sentiment and drive marginalisation. As well as looking at the past they also discuss the present...

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Bot or Not?

July 22, 2020 • 42 mins
This week Jonathan talks to Professor Samuel Woolley, author of The Reality Game, about the use of bots to plant and spread disinformation on social media platforms. The conversation covers how many bots there are online, how to spot them, the use of geolocation data and the current strategies of modern political communicators.

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First Draft

July 8, 2020 • 36 mins
This week we talk to Dr Claire Wardle who is the co-founder of First Draft, an NGO committed to tackling misinformation. The conversation covers the difference between misinformation and disinformation, the weaponisation of context and why conspiracy theories are keeping Claire awake at night.

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This is not propaganda

June 24, 2020 • 46 mins
In the first episode of a new series exploring misinformation, disinformation and communication, Jonathan talks to Author Peter Pomerantsev. Having lived in Post-Soviet Russia where he made TV, Peter has a unique insight into how some of the 'nebulous nostalgia' of that period is on display today in the UK and the US. The conversation covers the great 'f**k off to facts', why we buy into conspiracy theories, the challenges facing c...

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Newsflash: Series 3

June 17, 2020 • 1 min
A quick update on what to expect from Series 3 of Government Vs The Robots in which Jonathan and guests explore at misinformation, disinformation and our online discourse.

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Making sense of it all

August 7, 2019 • 48 mins
It's a retrospective, forward-looking bonanza this week as Jonathan faces a guest interviewer and takes stock of the previous two series. As well as asking listeners to get in touch with ideas about where we go next, we cover lots of ground including smart communications strategy in a post-truth world, the impact of further fragmentation on our politics, the power of symbols to unite people and some hot tips for what to expect from...

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Talking in Code

July 17, 2019 • 41 mins
In this episode we're talking all things code with Clive Thompson, journalist for Wired and the New York Times Magazine, and now author of Coders: Who They Are, What They Think and How They Are Changing Our World. We discuss whether coders are the most powerful people on the planet, what their personalities can tell us about the culture in companies like Twitter, and whether we're headed for a battle between the ultimately rational...

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Lies travel fast

July 3, 2019 • 45 mins
This week we talk disinformation with Amil Khan, a former Reuters Middle East correspondent and documentary maker. He is now Associate Fellow at Chatham House and works with governments and NGOs on strategies to tackle disinformation. We get into the weeds of how states can plant disinformation in our mainstream media, how groups like IS spread disinformation, and whether Boris' latest bus shenanigans were a cock-up, or conspiracy....

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Trigger Warning

June 19, 2019 • 47 mins
In this episode we're taking a look at the psychology of politics and asking whether we've all been triggered, with Alex Evans. Alex is the founder of the Collective Psychology Project, a senior fellow at New York University working on political polarisation, and was previously Campaigns Director at Avaaz.

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Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics

June 5, 2019 • 43 mins

This week we're joined by writer, humanitarian advocate and political analyst Nanjala Nyabola. Her book, Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics explores how the internet era is transforming politics in Kenya. We talk about the country's evolving landscape online, what constitutes digital colonialism, and the impact social media is having on Kenya's feminist movement.


If you enjoy the part on digital identity, we think you'll love ...

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The Future & the Bamboo Curtain

May 22, 2019 • 34 mins
This week we're joined by Professor Amy Webb, quantitative futurist, founder of the Future Today Institute and author of Big Nine: How the Tech Titans and their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity. We talk about whether we've reached the beginning of the end of the smartphone era, why China is ahead of the US on AI and how we can try to predict the future of tech.

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SXSW Part 2: The Future of News

May 8, 2019 • 39 mins

This episode brings you more from SXSW, this time focusing on the future of news, from deepfakes to chatbots and VR. We hear from Hazel Baker, Global Head of User-Generated Content at Reuters; Emily Withrow, Director of the Quartz Bot Studio; and Paul Cheung, Director of Journalism and Technology Innovation at the Knight Foundation.


We've also been working on another podcast, exploring the future of digital identity with a range...

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SXSW Part 1: AI

April 24, 2019 • 31 mins

In the first of two episodes recorded at SXSW in Austin, Texas, Jonathan talks all things artificial intelligence with Azeem Azhar, editor of the Exponential View newsletter; Tiffany Li, Resident Fellow at Yale Law School at the Information Society Project; and Meredith Broussard, data journalism professor at NYU.


We've also been working on another podcast, exploring the future of digital identity with a range of global experts....

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Disinformation with Damian Collins MP

April 10, 2019 • 31 mins
For this episode we headed to the Houses of Parliament to catch up with Damian Collins, MP for Folkestone and Hythe, and Chair of the Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee. The Committee's inquiry into disinformation and 'fake news' investigated the Trump and Brexit campaigns, tech platforms, and who holds responsibility for what ends up online.

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Future Politics

March 27, 2019 • 44 mins
Jamie Susskind is a barrister and author of Future Politics: Living Together in a World Transformed by Tech. In this episode we're going back to the some of the big questions at the heart of Government vs the Robots and explore a framework for thinking about the ways technology is affecting fundamental political principles, we ask whether software engineering is now a political career choice and explore issues with algorithmic...

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