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The Interface

What happens when technology collides with real life? Hosted by BBC technology journalist Thomas Germain and social media expert Professor Jessica Maddox, The Interface dives into the stories, trends, apps, gadgets, algorithms and internet obsessions shaping how we live, work, think and connect. From AI and influencers to memes, data leaks, cybersecurity and the weirdest corners of the web, The Interface explores what happens when technology collides with real life. Cutting through the hype, the

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All Episodes

26:44

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen on the real...

The Interface ·

2026/10/07

Frances Haugen, the Facebook whistleblower, joins Jess Maddox and Thomas Germain on The Interface to talk about The Social Reckoning, the new film that follows her story and acts as a sequel to The Social Network. It stars Mikey Madison as Haugen, alongside Jeremy Strong and Jeremy Allen White.Haugen, who leaked internal documents known as the Facebook Files in 2021, explains why she believes Meta (formerly Facebook) needed outside scrutiny, and what she saw as a product manager that changed her

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32:44

Should we let AI read our break-up emails?

The Interface ·

2026/09/30

The Interface returns for season two with a new co-host. BBC technology columnist Thomas Germain is joined by Jessica Maddox, a University of Georgia professor who studies memes and internet culture, to break down the tech stories that actually matter in your day-to-day life.Is AI going to kill us all? After high-profile tech workers warned of an AI apocalypse, Tom and Jess look at where the industry's "P(doom)" numbers come from and why some experts say they're based on vibes rather than science

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37:54

Is tech ruining the World Cup?

The Interface ·

2026/06/25

This week on The Interface: is World Cup tech taking the human magic out of football?For our season finale before the summer break, Karen, Thomas and Nicky start with the World Cup - and ask what happens when football becomes a showcase for ever more technology. This year’s tournament has brought referee body cameras, faster semi-automated offside decisions, and more AI-powered match analysis for teams and broadcasters, all in the name of accuracy, transparency and engagement. But as the game gets

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36:47

Teens banned from social media - what next?

The Interface ·

2026/06/18

This week on The Interface: the UK’s under-16s social media ban - is America next?The UK is preparing to go further than almost any other country on children and social media: under-16s will be blocked from platforms including TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Facebook and X, while messaging apps like WhatsApp and Signal are expected to be excluded. Ministers are also considering overnight curfews and limits on infinite scroll for under-18s, with implementation targeted for spring 2027.Karen,

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37:56

Why is AI burying my CV?

The Interface ·

2026/06/11

This week on The Interface: is AI quietly sending your CV to the graveyard?Karen starts with the growing role of AI in hiring and why it may be far more powerful, and more worrying, than most jobseekers realise. Automated hiring systems are now used across large parts of the labour market, and Stanford researchers say a handful of dominant models are creating an “algorithmic monoculture”, where the same software can shape outcomes across multiple employers. Their recent study of more than 4 million

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42:13

What goes on in TikTok's Farlands?

The Interface ·

2026/06/04

This week on The Interface: the horrifying world of the TikTok Farlands.Tom and Nicky head deep into the TikTok Farlands - the semi‑mythical place you supposedly reach if you scroll too far, too late, until your feed stops looking normal and starts serving up surreal, eerie and deeply unhinged videos. The name comes from Minecraft’s Far Lands, the glitched edge of the map where the world used to break apart, and TikTok users have borrowed it to describe the “end of the algorithm”: a strange zone of

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46:46

Can Pope Leo save us from AI?

The Interface ·

2026/05/28

Google is changing up its search engine. At its recent developer conference, among a host of new AI tools, it announced the biggest changes to Google Search in its history. What will we see now? An intelligent search box. Longer text predictions. More answers to search queries instead of a list of websites. But if Google keeps us inside the answer box, with fewer clicks and fewer website visits, this could potentially break the economic model of the modern web. How will this change the Internet and

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42:56

Are we entering a world without screens?

The Interface ·

2026/05/21

Karen Hao’s away this week — but it’s a special episode: Thomas and Nicky welcome their first ever guest, senior reporter at MS NOW, Brandy Zadrozny, to decode the tech stories rewiring your week and your world.First: are we heading for a world without screens? Bloomberg reports Apple is in late‑stage testing of AirPods with tiny cameras - not for selfies, but to give Siri “eyes” so it can understand what you’re looking at and respond in real time. We explore what that signals: less phone‑tapping,

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42:32

Is AI harvesting your knowledge on the cheap?

The Interface ·

2026/05/14

AI is coming for your job — but not in the way you think.Karen says the real shock isn’t mass replacement (yet). It’s that AI is already reshaping work into something more precarious, more fragmented, and easier to squeeze. Data annotation and “AI training” are booming - but now the growth is in skilled labour. AI firms are hoovering up graduates and specialists to teach models the expertise they still can’t reliably produce. That’s the uncomfortable irony of “PhD‑capable” AI: to get there, it needs

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38:26

Who is really paying the influencers?

The Interface ·

2026/05/07

Who is paying for the influencer campaign making you fear Chinese AI? A new report alleges a coordinated influencer marketing campaign urging audiences to back “American AI” while quietly stoking fear about Chinese AI. Marketing agencies are reportedly offering creators thousands of dollars per post to weave in “Team USA” talking points as lifestyle content - with limited transparency about who is funding the message, and why. We dig into what this means for AI policy, public trust, and the

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36:19

Why is everything a conspiracy?

The Interface ·

2026/04/30

What's the playbook that gets real‑world breaking news moments to become instant conspiracy theories? After an attempted attack at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, clips and early reports were quickly represented as “staged” narratives online. We dig into why big, chaotic events are now prime fuel for conspiracy thinking, how the state does little to suppress it and what this does to trust when the public feels exhausted by the constant churn of misinformation.Next, Meta’s next

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38:46

Is your iPhone about to change forever?

The Interface ·

2026/04/23

Tim Cook resigns: what does a new Apple boss mean for your smartphone?Apple CEO Tim Cook is stepping down later this year, with John Ternus — a long‑time hardware leader — named as his successor. We look past the boardroom drama and asks what this means for the thing most of us hold all day: your phone. Apple’s design choices set the tone for the entire industry; when Apple shifts, everyone else tends to follow. And if the next era is led by a hardware engineer, does that point to a different kind

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41:11

Is the new AI model really too dangerous to release?

The Interface ·

2026/04/16

Claude Mythos: is this a real risk or the AI industry’s latest fear campaign?Anthropic’s unreleased model, Claude Mythos, is being talked about in the headlines as the next genuinely dangerous leap in AI - powerful enough, the company says, that it can’t be safely released to the public. But we at The Interface think we should take this self created panic with big serving of caution. The AI industry has learned that “too dangerous” can be a safety claim but also a major a publicity strategy: warn

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37:42

Will algorithms increase your grocery bill?

The Interface ·

2026/04/09

Walmart’s digital price tags. The retail giant is rolling out shelf labels that allow prices to be updated instantly across stores. This isn’t a new trend. Airlines and hotels constantly adjust pricing based on demand. But if grocery prices can change in real time, what will this mean for your bill? And will pricing ever be adjusted using customer data or behavioural signals to maximise profit? Nicky launches the Great Interface Banana Pricing Study to monitor digital price tags in your local

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38:28

Why Can't People Stop Watching AI Fruit?

The Interface ·

2026/04/02

Infidelity in the fruit bowl; why are so many people watching AI generated fruit fall in and out of love? In a week of contrasting fortunes — Fruit Love Island, the TikTok synthetic‑reality hit, goes viral while OpenAI’s text‑to‑video tool Sora shuts down - Tom and Nicky ask what our love/hate relationship with “AI slop” says about taste, humour and, yes, misogyny. And who actually earns money when the content pipeline is bots all the way?Also this week:After the Meta verdict: Is the Meta verdict

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39:53

Can we prove we’re real online?

The Interface ·

2026/03/26

"Am I really real?"Tom runs a simple test, involving his dear Aunt Eleanor, with far‑reaching consequences: can a real human prove they’re not a machine? The experiment was sparked by two viral moments; Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu scrambling to show he was alive after a suspected fake image, and a too‑perfect “MAGA dream girl” who convinced millions she was real. We explore the “liar’s dividend”, where the flood of AI‑made images and videos lets anyone dismiss inconvenient truths as

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35:41

What Was Pokemon Go really up to?

The Interface ·

2026/03/19

When we play a game or fill in a form, are we training robots without knowing it - and would we consent if asked?Remember Pokémon Go? The company behind it is repurposing the 30 billion images players captured to help robots navigate the real world. It’s the tip of a bigger trend: turning play into data collection. From CAPTCHAs to viral stunts like the Mannequin Challenge, our seemingly harmless online challenges are being quietly funnelled into AI training sets. It’s clever, but it raises awkward

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36:48

Will a new law change the internet forever?

The Interface ·

2026/03/12

What happens when the tools built to protect children risk exposing everyone else, and who should decide which parts of the internet are “safe” enough to access without showing ID?As lawmakers in the US push forward with the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a much bigger battle over the future shape of the internet is coming into view. At the heart of the debate is age verification, a measure designed to protect children from pornography and harmful content, but one that could force all of us to prove

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36:32

Is AI running modern warfare?

The Interface ·

2026/03/05

As Washington moved toward a joint US and Israeli response to Iran, a parallel fight over military access to frontier AI broke into the open. Anthropic, maker of Claude, refused a Pentagon demand for “unrestricted” use of its models, citing red lines on domestic mass surveillance and fully autonomous weapons. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth then labelled the firm a “supply chain risk,” a designation intended to bar defence contractors from using Anthropic’s tools. Within hours, OpenAI announced a

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35:42

Is Havana Syndrome really real?

The Interface ·

2026/02/26

After four years following the story, our host Nicky Woolf brings us a new twist to "Havana Syndrome". In 2016, diplomats reported a strange burst of sound — followed by months of debilitating symptoms. “Havana Syndrome” sparked questions and conspiracy theories across the web about a possible unseen weapon. Now, new reports from Norway describe a scientist experiencing similar effects after testing a microwave device. Nicky asks: if such technology exists, who owns it and what are they doing with

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