The Gareth and Billcast

To celebrate/commemorate a year since the last World Service broadcast of Digital Planet Gareth, Bill, Ghislaine, Angelica (online) and Ania are meeting up in a wine bar in central London on the evening of March 28 and we'd love to see old listeners and new friends there. Sign up on Eventbrite (search Digital Planet).  And Gareth wants to tell you all about it.. 

In this final episode of the series (we'll be back in the new year) Gareth and Bill muse on the ways generative AI can be used to fake experimental data, the uses of synthetic data, and we pick up the online conversation about 'computational imaging'.

In this episode we reflect on SpaceX's latest mission and OpenAI's apparent implosion, muse on the nature of photography in an age of computational imaging, and discuss how the Super Pressure Balloon Imaging Telescope managed to get its data safely back to earth using Raspberry Pi computers.

In this episode Gareth eulogises the radio-based LORAN navigation system, and Bill wonders if GPT-4 is pulling a fast one. Or not. With an accelerated sketch and quite a lot of self-referential wittering. 

In this episode Gareth picks up on a survey showing british people worry about wifi security in pubs - but is it just lazy marketing of VPNs? And our take on the UK AI Safety Summit. Plus more input from our esteemed listeners!

In this episode we discuss cars,tractors, smartphone and laptops, and why the right to repair the stuff you own matters, practically and philosophically. We find time to read out some comments from listeners, while the Gazmotron continues to wreak havoc.

This week, once you're through the 'sketch', Gareth discusses a novel approach to countering light pollution by making LEDs flicker 150 times per second, and Bill looks forward to this year's Lumiere festival in Durham, England which will feature Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's Pulse Topology and brings back memories of the Venice Biennale in 2007 (the photo is Gareth and Colin interviewing Rafael)

This week Bill reflects on the progress made using transformer networks to integrate language and visual processing with robotic control, particularly in Google DeepMinds RT-2, and whether we're heading for embodied awareness, while Gareth speaks out for the special place well-crafted audio has in the cultural landscape - who needs pictures? And we go purple about the Vesuvius Challenge. (Image of cocktail making robots taken at the Barbican 'AI: More than Human' exhibition in 2019. The Negroni was acceptable.)

In this first episide of our second series, Gareth and Bill look at the progress being made in quantum computing, developing systems that use the properties of entangled 'qbits' instead of binary bits to carry out calculations.  How can we be quantum-ready?

Gareth found a fascinating site on his recent holiday in Lefkada, and you get to hear about it because he couldn't resist recording his impressions.

As we move into summer, Gareth has been thinking about the how we experirence art and nature of our auditory experience, following a conference he attended in Krakow.

This week Bill is thinking out loud about libraries, having just spoken at a conference of librarians. It's all about liminal spaces, apparently.

Just to keep the interwebs alert to our presence, here's a few minutes of Bill talking about Apple's Vision Pro, Metaphysics in the Metaverse, and AI Regulation.

In this final episode of our first series, Gareth and Bill look at interesting research using satellite signals to geolocate, as an alternative to GPS. And Bill muses on his current thinking on the state of AI, and in particular why LLMs don't play language games and can't be part of the community of language users, since they don't have an inner life. (References the book Metaphysical Animals)
The Gareth and BillCast will return in a few weeks.

Gareth and Bill are back, talking about the legal case against Twitter/XCorp from former employees, and the wider issue of how we create good online spaces. And we consider the dangers created when law enforcement agencies auction of seized phones without wiping them. Plus a short meditation on an alternative history and some comments from listeners. 

In this week's episode Gareth and Bill speculuate about what makes someone crash a plane for YouTube likes and discuss passkeys, a way to replace passwords that should be simpler and more secure - eventually. Plus a pointless sketch and some delighful comments from listeners. (And Gowri - you can find Dan Goodin's articles on Passkeys in Ars Technica)

Bill and Gareth talk about new research using thermal cameras to crack passwords, and the old tired tropes about superintelligent AI taking over the world, and why Bill's had enough of it all. Plus comments from listeners and the inevitable opening sketch.

In this episode Gareth and Bill look at the way the JUICE mission to Jupiter will look for signs of life using a magnetometer, Bill reflects on the early days of the Web and draws parallels to the growth of generative AI - and we reflect on the environmental damage caused by SpaceX's recent launch. And there are listener comments and a (briefer) sketch.

In this episode, Bill looks at Apple's plans to use only recycled cobalt in iPhone batteries, and the wider context of recovering and recycling metals for use in consumer electronics and batteries. Gareth has found another use for graphene, but this one seems like it might actually make it into widespread use. And we discuss rapid unscheduled disassemblies.

In this episode Gareth and Bill discuss how modern cars are being stolen using electronic devices that 'spoof' the internal control networks, and bemoan the passing of many small bots because Twitter has started charging for API access. Plus some feedback from listeners, for which we are always grateful.