Why it will talk to the Taliban despite their recent attacks the Afghan people to chant a. Kind to say that your country too willing to welcome you back the perils of artificial intelligence and what the best way way might be to design it we're dealing with something. Better persuasion powers and all humans. We better make sure that it's trying to sway those to be nice to each other and bring out the best in us and my 2 guests on the program this morning Linda you economist and broadcaster and Tom Rivers an American journalist here in London. On the weekend after the news. Hello this is the b.b.c. News if you own a MacDonald The former f.b.i. Deputy director Andrew McCabe who was sacked on Friday just before his planned determent has rounded on the trumpet ministration accusing him of acting with political Mullahs against him and the f.b.i. President trying to do that his dismissal was a great deal of the bureau and democracy more from our Washington Correspondent Chris Buckley in 2016 as Hillary Clinton was running for president she was being investigated because of questions about e-mails she received on a private server while she was the u.s. Secretary of state that Mr McCabe authorized information to be given to the media something Department of Justice said he was not entitle to do a and internal f.b.i. Investigation found he had not been completely honest when asked about it but under McCabe says he's been sacked for political reasons and he claims that President Trump brought much of the pressure in a lengthy statement he accused the White House of declaring war on both the f.b.i. And the special counsel's investigation into allegations of Russian interference in the election 2 years ago. China's parliament has voted to appoint a former anticorruption Chief Wang Chih Shan as vice president to Xi Jinping it's also unanimously confirmed fishies 2nd 5 year term in power do you misread reports the post of vice president has traditionally been largely ceremonial in China but that's likely to change with the appointment of Wang Chih Hsiang is a staunch ally of Xi Jinping known as the fire fighter because of his record in tackling difficult issues as anti corruption chief Mr Wang led a purge of the Communist party that brought down dozens of senior officials as a former trade negotiator he also has long experience of dealing with the United States all this makes him an ideal right hand man for Xi Jinping as the Chinese leader consolidate his power at home and abroad. British police are contacting a number of Russian exiles to discuss their safety the move comes after a criminal investigation was opened into the mysterious death of a Russian exile businessman cough who was found dead on Monday in south west London the support from John McManus Mr Close Gulf was a friend of the Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky who was found dead in 2013 Nicholai Kalisch golf believed he'd been murdered missed the glass coffin self was a political exile having being jailed in his home country after being found guilty of money laundering and fraud at the airline Aeroflot the home secretary Amber wrote has already ordered a reexamination of the deaths of $14.00 other Russians which may have been suspicious and police are now beginning to concert other Russian exiles living in the u.k. To discuss their safety the new investigation comes to weeks after a Russian double agent was attacked with a deadly nerve agent in Solsbury in England World News from the b.b.c. Many of the thousands of Syrian civilians who have managed to leave rebel held areas of eastern Ghouta have taken been taken to temporary shelters Unicef aid worker who visited one of the 4 reception areas to the b.b.c. More than 60 buses arrived there on Friday he said the dominant feeling was simple relief at having escaped bombardment. Afghan officials see a suicide attack in a vehicle loaded with explosives has killed at least 2 civilians in the capital Kabul several others were wounded some officials say the attack appeared to target a foreign contractor. A data analysis company which claims to have helped Donald Trump win the presidency has been suspended by Facebook pending further investigations Cambridge analytical is accused of using data collected via Facebook in a way that violates its policies t.v. Reports from San Francisco supposedly fun personality quizzes are all over Facebook but one allegedly made in 2015 by University of Cambridge Professor Alexander Kogan is said to have told users they were downloading a research app used by psychologists However Facebook said the data the app gathered was in fact being passed on to several firms including Cambridge analytic or a company that sold intelligence on voters to political campaigns Facebook had demanded the companies delete all the data but now says it believes the information has been kept a firm and in Malaysia has died 4 days after a fee to bite from an aggressive spitting cobra you've gone to catch 33 year old Hussein was well known in the eastern state of Kelantan for his ability to handle deadly snakes and was referred to as the sneak Whisperer he became an Internet sensation 2 years ago after a false report suggested he'd actually married a sneak believing it to be a reincarnation of a dead girlfriend. B.b.c. News. 7 o 6 g.m.t. Is the time Welcome back to Weekend from the b.b.c. World Service with me Paul Henley in this hour of the program we will discuss Britain's ties with Russia the perils of artificial intelligence as warned by the late Professor Stephen Hawking and why one of America's most prestigious magazines the National Geographic is opening up about bias in its previous coverage of cultures we went to South Africa and there were actually no voices of black people in that story and the only black people pictured were pictured sort of as exotic natives more than that soon my 2 guests today are Tom Rivers who's an American journalist based in London and works for a.b.c. Radio and Linda you who's an economist and broadcaster whose new book looks at the lives of influential economists of the past dead ones Linda right all except one and he's working in his ninety's so the the motive for this book was to try and see whether history can help us understand how to think about some of our current economic challenges I know we think we face an economic issue it always feels new but actually quite a lot of what we are facing are a deficit slow growth all of that was safe but other people back in history that the 1st depression the long depression was at the end of the 19th century so in this book I look at the great economists who have developed the big economic models of our time Adam spent at home ah yes that's right featured high at Milton Friedman and I look at their lives which is fine great fun to tell it's fun to read and write about people and then there are times and routine their ideas in what was happening and then saying Ok Help me Help us understand today why wages are so. No And each of the chapters poses a question and then gives you not a definitive answer this have ways of thinking about how to or I thought I'd be disturbed if he said he had that he had the definitive answer that he had all my problems never told me you said you've been on the road a lot recently and you've been reporting to Merican audience the rise of populism in Europe right exactly and you know watching it through various elections playing out in the the rise of populism in places like the Netherlands in France and Germany was this part and parcel part of the Trump effect was this its own momentum its own steam we certainly live in incredibly changing time is Linda points out and the wage gap that's been going wider and wider for decades and hearkening back maybe some solutions from f.d.r. Can come to the fore and save us in this perilous time but I don't know I have to read your book now Linda to find out do you think there's been an over concentration on populist politics in some countries in Europe because they fitted into a certain narrative particularly the us one 0 yeah you might have something there I think it is born out of frustration and anger that didn't develop last week or last year it's been there for quite some time manifesting itself in different ways sometimes on the far left sometimes on the far right but change change anything better than the status quo in many countries to the electorate is the way to go because following the same same policies does not produce what they want in the change they want in their lives Thank you Tom rivers and Linda you are our guests news of the attempted murder of a former Russian military agent on British soil has been dominating the headlines both in the u.k. And now in Russia segue a script is a retired Russian military intelligence colonel who was sentenced in 2006 to 13 years in prison accused of spying for Britain 7. Years ago he was pardoned and ended up in this country after Moscow swapped him for it spies held in the u.s. By Friday evening police in Britain were contacting Russian exiles living here to review their security as it was announced that the death of another Russian exile in London was being treated as murder Let's discuss now where the 2 countries stand on this story with our political correspondent Rob Watson and with Olga Robinson who's one of the B.B.C.'s Russia analysts in Moscow before we begin I just like to point out that even though Russia will hold a presidential election on Sunday tomorrow in our time zone then we're not going to mention any of the candidates all the campaigns because of strict broadcast restrictions that come with that particular election Rob let's start with you no one else has been quite as rude about Russia but you think the u.k. Has been bolstered by support from Western allies on this well I think 1st off good morning Paul hello to Linda and Tom in the studio and everyone listening I think so and I think after a few very very difficult weeks and months for tourism a dealing with bricks at work every hour every week seems and then bad news I think in terms of getting diplomatic backing at least for condemning what has happened in the u.k. What happened in Salzburg I think the u.k. Government was probably thinking yeah job done Ok Olga there is news just breaking actually that the Russian foreign ministry has called in the British ambassador for a meeting in Moscow not very surprising that's more or less standard procedure I suppose what do you think they might tell him or her. Well most likely this will be the decision to announce the expulsion of British diplomats from Russia because this is something that Moscow has been saying and warning about in the past few days and yesterday only yesterday Foreign Minister Lavrov said that Russia is going to certainly expel British diplomats from Moscow what are the Russian public saying another time hard question to answer but give us a take is indeed. The public opinion here seems to be divided because when you look at the opposition spectrum and their opinions it is becomes clear that the independent committee commentators believe that. Most likely Russia was guilty of the attempted poisoning but they at the same time consider to resume a response to the case 2 week or 2 vague and at the same time there is 2 very different define 2 week it's by far the strongest response she's given to any of these suspected killings of Russian and British nationals on British soil by Russian agents. Well Russian opposition activists and independent commentators have repeatedly sad that it is the Russian oligarchs who are linked to the Kremlin that should be targeted and not and not the World Cup or any other ordinary Russians living in the u.k. Ok Rob one of the highlights of the war of words was something of an open goal provided to the Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov by a British minister this week talking about the Russians having to shut up and go away or words to that effect yes I think you're referring to Gavin Williamson a rather young defense secretary perhaps I'm revealing my age by saying that he looks rather young but I mean Mr Lavrov called him a young man I hear he did that but actually his comments really stood out like a sore thumb in the sense that tourism as I keep saying after some tricky weeks on brackets that I think most people even have political opponents will say she just about got the right tone but without wanting to somehow escalate this into a new Cold War and even the rather colorful of Britain's rather colorful Foreign Secretary I suppose to be some people so that was rather kind about managed to sound fairly statesman like and Britain's other senior interior minister so Gavin Williams remarks stood out I'm and I do actually think it's a better of an outlier Paul in the sense that to reason I think sums up the view of the government on this one that look we got a brief but without that once and sort of kick off some new war yeah I think even a lot of people who would agree precisely with to resume a stance on this are wondering why didn't come 10 or 11 years ago when Alexander Litvinenko was murdered under similar circumstances well I guess you've got the comparison there in the number of diplomats expelled if I got this right I think it was fall back that and 23 now and I guess the differences passage of time and events and a sense amongst u.k. . Politicians and certainly u.k. Commentators that the Litvinenko case had been mishandled and that an inquiry and investigation should have got underway much quicker and that the response should have been more a bust and so this time to resume a in many ways had no choice did she personally block the inquiry into Alexander Litvinenko death when she was home secretary I would have to go back and slip through my files on that one Paul but I think that certainly I think it certainly the the suggestion is certainly that that she and others tracked effete the opposition leader in Parliament Jeremy called been the leader of the Labor Party got some harsh publicist from some sources for his stance I wonder if if if it's likely softer stance on Russia has been reported in Russia. It was indeed picked up and it notably he was the only British representative that received positive coverage from Russian state t.v. And he was in fact praised for challenging may in Parliament this week and he was described as an experienced and stop 1st you is ready to challenge the British prime minister not sure that he'll do his writings any good in this country Rob goodness gracious I mean that's exactly what has made some members of his own party absolutely perplexed to try and to try and get this in some kind of context of people listening thinking what on earth are they going on about with Jeremy Corbin . Let me say something about about sort of post post 2nd World War politics of the European left in a century and people going after forgive me for been a bit crude on this one Paul and everyone else for them did what you say that there were no other Western European left as essentially been divided there were those who were sort of basically you know they were sort of socialist but they were very pro western pro markets really pro-American pro NATO and another part of the European left was not only left in its economic outlook but was actually very anti western ante natal. Pro Soviet Union and Jeremy Corbyn is in that camp in the in the latter camp and essentially water some members of his opposition of his opposition Labor Party are saying is for goodness sake Chairman you're in the wrong camp mate russophobia it's something that Olga the British foreign secretary was saying there should be none of in this country is there any folk what's the word Anglo phobia going on in Russia just briefly. Well when it comes to the official remarks and what the Kremlin line has been picked out on state t.v. You can say that there is probably an angle phobia because just judging by the headlines about the British hysteria that you can see on state t.v. And the level of coverage and the words used to describe u.k. Officials like vulgar all happy as Williamson was called by one a very rational representatives from the Defense Ministry so it all really suggests that the level of maybe not for b.s. But criticism of the u.k. Has reached a different a different level a completely different level Thank you very much Olga Robinson in Moscow and Rob Watson in London Linda it's been a worrying time for those who were shy away from international conflict doesn't it Oh it is and I think this latest episode with Russia is particularly worth condemning and in fact NATO the u.k. The u.s. After. That of uncertainty with Trump has also come to back the stance taken by the European Union that the use of any type of nerve agent poisoning on another sovereign nation soil is completely outside of the bounds of behavior and the question is will the response so far do enough to deter Russia from taking further action an interesting question and Tommy It's also interesting that the u.s. Ambassador to the United Nations and President Trump were on board pretty quickly under percent with the u.k. Mickey Mickey Hailey was on board way before the president and we've seen that in the past her views are very very right wing are are do if you will choke off a point on Germany Corben there are more than 2 scenarios out there States. Mansard . Getting out of the lab in the early ninety's are others could have had access to this this can be produced in other labs etc etc The point is get the evidence out there and let the chips fall where they may we are not there yet you're listening to the b.b.c. World Service on Paul Henley with weekend. Now Afghan officials say that a suicide attacker in a vehicle loaded with explosives has killed at least 2 civilians in the capital Kabul several others were wounded and that news comes at a time when the Afghan government has embarked on the most ambitious attempt to engage the Taliban in peace talks for many years President Ashraf Ghani offered a full amnesty to leaders of the insurgent movement who engaged in negotiations the office of prize money because it came just weeks after a series of deadly Taliban attacks in Kabul similar indeed more severe than the one reported today this week our South Asia correspondent Justin Rowlatt met the president's national security advisor Hanif Atmar and 1st off he asked why he did vies the president to make this offer after such attacks the truce to spur ration on the part of the Taliban the norm long Think of the hearts and minds of the people because they're losing ground and they're losing their capabilities who really reduce so can order to give more out of their terrorist ranks and their supporters big threat crimes against humanity in the context of these reference at tax some people would say it's quite extraordinary the president has decided then to make a very generous offer to the Taliban to say listen not only would we don't want to participate in peace talks we'll let you open an office we will absolve leaders who big can get to become an. Negotiations of of legal responsibility for crimes they may have committed this is an extraordinarily generous act against an enemy that is committing these horrific crimes the Afghan people us to the generous. Kind enough with the fairly high moral ground to say to the style of that your country still willing to welcome you back if number one about the pursuit of Pakistani policies to you cut ties with these foreign terrorists 3 you respect the Afghan constitution the Afghan mean way of life to destroy come and join us in this what is the role of Pakistan in Afghanistan what do you want to see from Pakistan in terms of a commitment to peace fair enough gammas don't it's simple we said to the Pakistanis the to live in peace you should not be providing safe haven to what is a mess and do you believe that they are still not only doing this but ruining the infrastructure of the terrorist infrastructure that the public and foreign fighters are drawing you are saying they are helping train the Taliban and the Hakani network took. Fight here in Afghanistan definitely I mean my friends look at all of the excuses where did the Americans killed Osama bin the lot them where was months who killed he was the leader of the Taliban leader of the. All on Pakistani territory where he got the 17th year of this complete you are optimistic that you can you there will be peace in a chemist's definitely optimistic I think I see it. He's a commitment of the Afghan people to see peace in their country and its support from our international op most who strongly believe that peace and stability in Afghanistan is indicating how long would it take. Well what I know for sure. That defending your way of flies defending the future of your children should not have to for short time it's just an Rowlett speaking to an if that's ma in Afghanistan and Tom Rivers I mean understandably he's talking up the chances of peace talks there are a few big hurdles not least the Taliban acknowledging and respecting the Afghan constitution we've knocked on this door before and I hope it would happen but it has been fruitless in the past and then loading to the fact that 17 years longer than World War one and 2 combined. Historically nobody has. If you will taken Afghanistan down the Soviet era the Brits you name it The question really is how if you can beat them do you embrace them around the table yes how you're going to do that that's the 64000 dollar question we don't know think back to Richard Holbrooke the late Richard Holbrooke who said years ago we got to get out of there well we're not out of there and we're still spending money and we're losing treasure and we're losing blood and somehow that's where has to be circled Linda you this you Chinese influence in Afghanistan how does the Taliban affect that a lot. And I think it as they clearly add to instability in that country and I think that's a massive issue for countries like China and other countries in that region I think if they could and what has been described as the never ending war then Afghanistan would benefit from being in a region where you do have tremendous economic growth and I'm sure they. You know in the interview just now I'm sure the government has that in mind as well because one of the ways I think to maintain peace is to bring about much greater economic development that helps with stability but as Tom says we've been here before but I see no option for them except to keep trying Linda Many thanks now one weekend it's time for the sports news and I'm joined by Colum Harrison again Colum let's start with Rugby Union the 6 Nations title might have been decided already but there's a lot to play for still lower down the ranks there is indeed for though down the ranks of Italy against Scotland got Wales against France but the big game is the talk about England playing Ireland the arch of course truck got the title last week did so with a game to spare the mag going for the Grand Slam on St Patrick's Day as well in and of course will be desperate to win c.v.s. Arlin deprive them of the Grand Slam last years they'd love to do their due to return to Ireland this afternoon in and of course have a lot of took him under the Jensens he's been in charge they haven't lost 3 in a row in the 6 Nations since 2006 and they face that prospect if they lose to Ireland's afternoon well I mean for any Their 3rd ever Grand Slam following their victories in 19482009 head coach Joe Schmidt says he wants his players to enjoy the occasion but also to stay focused on the task in hand yeah but I'm not sure what the balance is it's one of those things that. They didn't teach me that in the rugby courses or did he tell you you get to know a group mean who worked really hard. And want to achieve things and 1000 a drop of weeks like this it's not a bit what I try to see it up and you know I suppose the only thing that would be contagious for me is that pragmatic approach approach that they want to stay focused on what they each individually need to achieve to make sure that you know each called fit in the Wilton's Joe Schmidt's column in tennis I've been told have been a couple of shock results of the women's singles in Indian Wells in the 1st semifinal there Derek has a Kenyan number 20 seed beat Venus Williams I'm not sure that should have been not much of a shock because that Kean has beaten all 4 major winners in the past year and she beat 2 top 10 players to reach the semifinals she then Peter 3rd in Venus Williams in the semifinals coming from behind to enforce 66475 now if that was a shock there's an even bigger one in the 2nd semifinal naming a soccer world right number 44 from Japan beat the world number one Simona Halep In fact she thrashed a 636 love and the match took just 64 minutes Ok winter Paralympics finally and another gold medal for Brian McKeever Yeah the Canadian cross-country skier he won the men's 10 kilometer classic for the visually impaired it's his 3rd gold medal of these games on the 13th Paralympic title of his career a 3rd gold also says the 2nd anchor from Belarus in the Women's Classic for the visually impaired Oksana masters of the u.s. I want to 2nd gold medal she's a double a limpy a Paralympian she rode in the summer Paralympics and is a cross-country skier and by athlete in the Winter Paralympics and I mention too for the 1st gold medal for the host nation South Korea sin in the men's cross country sitting thank you very much that was column Harrison with the latest sports news here on the b.b.c. World Service this is Weekend Live from London. Distribution of the b.b.c. World Service in the u.s. Has made possible by American Public Media producer and distributor of award winning public radio content a.p.m. American Public Media with support from c 3 I ot addressing the world's most challenging problems at the convergence of artificial intelligence i.o.t. And the lastic cloud computing more at c 3 I o. T. Dot com. How many women have you heard calling games in pro baseball not many right Emma Tetum it is out to change all that she's the new play by play announcer for the minor league Lexington legends but she has her eye on the major leagues with opening day less than 2 weeks away Emma Tetum and talks about the future of baseball and her place in it that's this week on day 6. Today at noon. Easy this week from Kareen Paul what's the actual event wind resistance and from Fiddler Duncan Chisholm's sound would be takes you to some very special landscapes on the soul and Sharon. Did. This afternoon at 2. B.b.c. News with Jonathan Izod the sacked f.b.i. Official Andrew McAfee has accused the trumpet ministration of acting with political malice against him and the intelligence community President Trump tweeted that his dismissal was a great day for the bureau and democracy Mr Trump accused down from a cable of bias of his involvement in the f.b.i. Investigations into Hillary Clinton's use of e-mails and Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election. President Trump's lawyers are seeking $20000000.00 in damages from the porn actress Stormy Daniels accusing her of violating a nondisclosure agreement she signed before the presidential election was Daniels alleges that she had an affair with Donald Trump The began in 2006 and lasted several months parliamentarians in China have voted to appoint the former anti corruption Chief Wang Chih sham as vice president to Xi Jinping Wang Chih Shan is a longstanding ally of President Xi the president was unanimously confirmed for a 2nd 5 year term British police are contacting a number of Russian exiles to discuss their safety the move comes after a criminal investigation was opened into the mysterious death of a Russian exile the businessman cough who was found dead on Monday a data analysis company which claims to have helped Donald Trump win the presidency has been suspended by Facebook pending further investigations Cambridge analytical is accused of using data in a way that violates Facebook's policies. Afghan officials say a suicide attack in a vehicle loaded with explosives has killed at least 2 civilians in the capital Kabul several others were wounded the officials say the car bomb exploded near the base of a British security firm the Taliban says it carried out the attack targeting a NATO convoy a fire officer in Malaysia has died 4 days after a fatal bite from aggressive spitting cobra had gone to catch 33 year old Abu Zarin Hussein was well known in the eastern state of contact for his ability to handle that Li snakes he was referred to as the snake Whisperer a b.b.c. News. You're listening to Weekend with the b.b.c. World Service I'm Paul Henley and if you get sick of my voice during the course of the next 90 minutes you'll also hear those of Linda you economist and broadcaster and author of the great economist how their ideas can help us today and Tom Rivers a.b.c. Radio correspondent in London now with the death of Stephen Hawking who being announced this week the news was met with much sadness he was not only a preeminent cosmologist and theoretical physicist he was admired for charting a very successful career while suffering from degenerative motor neuron disease he was in a wheelchair for most of his adult life and used a voice synthesizer to talk a tool in a moment we will discuss one of the issues Professor Hawking had been campaigning on in his last years but before that let's hear from the man himself Here's a selection of some of his interviews with the b.b.c. To the accompaniment of one of his favorite pieces of music Brahms's Violin Concerto in d. Major Hello my name is Stephen. I don't you are disabled person just someone with certain functions of my older newer ones rather as if I were colorblind I suppose my life can hardly be described as usual but I feel that it's not. Renewal in spirit 2. I remember coming home late one night from London in those days they turned the street lights out at midnight to save money I saw the night sky ass I had never seen it before with some really good way going right across. Or I've gone to motor neuron disease I was bored with life but the prospect of an early death made me realise life was really we're living there is so much one can do so much that anyone can do. I have a real feeling of achievement that I have made a modest but significant contribution to human knowledge despite my condition. 2 2 could carry on with my life if I only had 56. Like everyone else I need warmth. And affection again I am very fortunate much more fortunate than many people with my disability and receiving a great deal of love and affection. To radical cystic system one of the few of us in which being disabled just kept It's all in the mind I hope my example will giving courage and hope to either send similar situations never give up. Any. Problems and Stephen Hawking speaking to the b.b.c. Through his voice generator can you imagine them turning the lights out in London at midnight now the big panic Thank goodness it explain it in its spied Stephen Hawking Well one of the issues that he often wrote about in his final years was the development of artificial intelligence and the way it could in his words pose a threat to mankind in the long run the primitive form some will intelligently already have proved very useful but I think the development of the intelligence could spell the end of the human race. You know I just develop the intelligence. On its own and you decide it's. Increasing. You know months or a little bit by Shlomo biological evolution complete and what the shop or she did let's hear now from a former colleague of Stephen Hawking Max Tegmark he's a swedish american cosmologist with mit in Cambridge Massachusetts and he was one of the co-authors of a paper with Stephen Hawking which outlined the perceived risks of artificial intelligence he spoke to me a bit earlier it's so easy to just. Look very near term and just get excited about that knowledge without thinking about what comes next and me this is really the hallmark of Steve and he always looked farther than those around us right and also believe very fearlessly let his thoughts take him even to places that other people dismissed this crazy when everybody else would be so cheerleading in saying more technology is always better. And then almost a religious way he would like wait a minute let's think this through carefully now you and Stephen Hawking were not warning about malign robots taking over the world it's much more subtle than that isn't it correct Hollywood movies like The Terminator make it worry about the wrong stuff the real threat is not malevolence but competence if you make a machine that's better than us humans all simplex all tasks that by definition means it's also going to get what it wants if it's want something different than us no we humans have more power on this planet than lions right not because we have bigger muscles or sharper teeth but because we're smart and right and what we're so what we're saying is we have to make sure that whoever controls these machines Humans are machines themselves have goals aligned with what's good for humanity Well it's online bots job to know where our press. Points lie specifically in terms of getting us to buy things and if if they can I think you one said push our emotional buttons better than our mother then we're in trouble right that's exactly right artificial intelligence researchers succeed in this holy grail of building what's called General artificial general intelligence that by definition means that they can do all intellectual tasks better than us most Ai researchers think this is going to happen within decades and one of those intellectual taxes persuasion for dealing with something has better persuasion powers and all humans then we better make sure that it's trying to persuade us to be nice to each other and bring out the best in us but can you have artificial intelligence that talks people into starting a war if it hasn't been programmed specifically to do so the important thing is does it come from a person or does it come from the machine itself we've already seen quite sophisticated Ai tools used to persuade people to vote for xcept and vote for Donald Trump and so on and those are just little indications of how powerful machine aided persuasion technology can be what we have today is still just machines that are better at us at a very narrow intellectual tasks like playing chess playing the board game of Go and driving cars but what ai researchers think is most of them was going to happen within decades we could we can get machines that can actually be better than us at everything and that's where we have to ask ourselves you know what sort of future do we really want you know I think. Just having this very laid back attitude all that just build machines that can do our job better you know what possibly go wrong I think that's very lame and on a basis so what should we be doing who should be policing this I think the 1st thing we should do it has nothing to really do with policing 1st we need a safety research we need nerdy technical research on how to transform today's buggy and hackable computers into reliable they are we can really trust and then we need to as ai gets more powerful figure out how to get machines to really understand our goals adopt our goals and retain their goals as they get smarter it's absolutely ridiculous today that some deranged person can take an airplane and fly it into a building or mount them even though that's not the goal of the people built the airplane but if you watching over your shoulder all the time and introducing safeguards How do you square the circle that your research is partly funded by Ilan Musk for instance and his company Tesla is making artificial intelligence intelligent cause there always contradictions aren't there in this industry Well my research isn't funded by I must get all we took money from you I must give it away to 37 different research teams a number of them in the u.k. Exactly to tackle these kind of research questions I think the reason that both you and must and Stephen Hawking have voiced concerns more than other people is precisely because they are really excited about the potential for humanity to flourish not just for the next election cycle but for billions of years not just on earth but also beyond that I don't and that's why I tell them it's the so absurdly reckless for us to be so sloppy with our technology almost have nuclear wars by mistake and consider building machines are much smarter than us without really thinking through the consequences obviously will miss Stephen Hawking's collaboration what will his absence mean to you. Certainly he's really been a huge inspiration to me and not merely as a scientist and as a social activist but above all as someone who's just shown that. Never say never you know that whenever I've Thiel I'm stuck in life and I catch myself whining about something and just think about Stephen for 10 seconds and realize how much he was able to accomplish. With so much greater challenges. Then I feel better Max Tegmark who is from the mit in Cambridge Massachusetts talking about his former colleague Stephen Hawking about the work you did with him on artificial intelligence what you think Linda I think is a very sensible thing to raise now before artificial intelligence becomes more intelligent so what they're proposing is and an independent panel to begin to regulate and think about the development of this technology so rather than at the moment where really you have these massive research teams and Microsoft just announced that they've created artificial intelligence that can translate new stories between English and Chinese as well as an actual bilingual person out translation is actually one the hardest things to do because you don't translate words you translate meaning yes those line tools just don't work react that way so the fact that the so we can do stories like this every week or so about a breakthrough in ai So it's happening in different parts of the world done by different research teams. But they're given the warnings that we've had from these from an eminent scientists like Stephen Hawking I think we should take a pause and think should we have a better set of institutions around who's doing this research and think about the kind of input that they're putting into developing this Ai because I think it will pose a challenge to us maybe you know not in our Haitian but certainly think about the world of work AI's already replaced a lot of people at the actually the middle part of the skill spectrum Yes I don't know where reporters stand on the skill spectrum or you weren't worried about robot ones Tom our target used to store yesterday the. Voice voice synthesizer j.f.k. Final speech you see a little it's fascinating you take a voice sample you take a script and you have something that sounds like the real deal that could happen to all of us producers reporters economists and you know they're going to they're going to crank out reports the 100 years from now Paul your voice is going to be out there and the computer is going to be saying There you go it's going to affect all sectors and you're absolutely right Alina where do we are the gatekeepers and what are the protocols on an gatekeeping and the think of the changes in our lives going from a pocket calculator 50 years ago which we thought was incredible to where we are today the kids today are on a rocket ship of Ai technology that you and I have difficulty getting our heads around it really is listening to Weekend from the b.b.c. World Service that's on 45 minutes past the hour ever since 1888 National Geographic magazine has been sending its journalists and photographers to report on the world's most remote places back issues a full of breathtaking landscapes extraordinary wildlife and tribes people with piercings and painted faces performing what they then called strange rituals it's April issue this year is all about race and its editor Susan Goldberg has said it's time for National Geographic to acknowledge that when it comes to race it's got it wrong in the past she's been telling me more I thought the only way to really credibly do an issue about race is if we look back also at our own history you know I hear from readers all the time that the pages of National Geographic were the 1st way that they ever saw world beyond their own community so how we present people and cultures and places it needs to be authentic and it needs to be just right and when we cover issues of race it's fraught issues like race it's even more important that we get it right so I thought if we were going to talk about race. And look everywhere else we should look at ourselves as well and what examples of racism that you find well what we did was we engaged with a historian from the University of Virginia who's an expert in the history of Africa and the history of photographs and we asked him to go look in our archives and you know he found things of course that we would never never write today you know coverage of Aboriginal people as being subhuman almost That was from 1914. Picturing African-Americans in the United States really only as domesticity helpers or as laborers so it it took a while really up until the civil rights movement in the United States for our coverage to change and then it has changed dramatically of course since then and how recently did you find examples of articles that some people would find offensive racist. Well I can't speak to every single story but John Mason the the historian talked about our coverage of South Africa and he noted a story that we did in 1962 where we went to South Africa and there were actually no voices of black people in that story and the only black people pictured were pictured sort of as exotic natives. And what's so sad about that coverage is in 1962 it was just about 2 years after the shootings in sharp Ville South Africa that claimed the lives of 69 people and our story didn't even mention that but then you fast forward to 1977 and we're back again in South Africa and it's not a perfect story as as Dr Mason noted but the story does acknowledge the oppression it does talk about apartheid it does have the voices of black leaders of opposition leaders we read a picture of Winnie Mandela among others with her fist raised. So there's you can see the real shift in coverage how do you know you get it right now well I don't know if you of any of us as a journalist ever know if it's 100 percent perfect right you can always do a better job with your story and if you think your stories perfect Clearly you haven't been ambitious enough or you don't have a high enough standard of excellence I think we can always make our stories better deeper richer smarter so you know do I do I think every single thing is exactly right no because you know journalism is a living breathing thing you are always learning new things that add layers of complexity and layers of the truth that said you know we. Set out on this story a wonderful diverse group of writers and photographers to talk about these issues can you really expect to get it right until the staff of your magazine accurately reflect the population at least of America have you got a proportion a number of Muslims on your staff reported a number of black people but number of women and so on while the way it works at National Geographic is most of our stories are written by contractors most of our feature length stories are written and photographed by contractors so in the case of the issue that we did about race about 50 percent of the stories were written and slightly more than 50 percent of the major stories were photographed by people of color so we do have but we do have a ways to go in our editing staff does need to be more diverse than it is and it's something we're working really hard on how diverse other day it's about 25 percent people of color so we are not where we need to be but we are working hard and we got 50 percent women. We have we have great diversity among women and we have incredible female leadership at nationalgeographic partners in general in fact a majority of the executives at our company are women which of course is unusual suit Susan Goldberg is the 1st woman editor of National Geographic which says something in itself which took about diversity a lot in the moment Tom what did you make of the influence of National Geographic and history I want to tell you look back before the internet it was as a as a teenager it was something that was very very well respected in hindsight looking back is they have done. In those times yes they had blinkers on and limited native savages uncovers that you know that's the way they were portrayed things maybe in the fifty's or sixty's. Changing with the times becoming more aware of where we are today and. The where the place where you should be where your mind should be and again I think a lot of publications lot of institutions are going through this including National Geographic and changing the way in their outlook and in being more inclusive and embracing diversity across not all the editorial page but inside the shop who is working there did National Geographic tops your life Linda and I remember like Tom reading it and getting a sense of the the the breath of the world. And I think it's a very positive thing they are engaging with their past organizations in order to shape their future need to uncover what they've done because that is part of what the institution. Has gone through so if you want the easiest part as well isn't it you can make an apology quite easily into. One off that's right especially if you can say things like I was not in charge or is a different term but I think the importance of engaging with it is that it's very difficult today to measure unconscious bias and those kinds of cultural norms that might get unconsciously ingrained in an organization structure in order to uncover those you need to identify some of the origins in this is very hard so diversity isn't necessarily about a set of standards it's about the norms and the behavior that permeate any workplace should broadcasting organizations only use local people to report local stories wherever they are in the world is it patronize ing to fly someone out from London and lecture people on Chinese politics I think to the I don't think there's an absolute answer to that I think that. To the extent that you know like the Russian discussion we had earlier you had on an analyst who works for the b.b.c. As well as a b.b.c. Correspondent who's a specialist and has spent time on this priest so I think there's scope for both what we had in the past I think was too little use of local reporting you're listening to the b.b.c. World Service I'm Paul Henley with weekend now following the attempted murder on British soil of a former Russian spy assegais script all there been calls for the British government to kick out the Russian broadcaster Russia Today the Kremlin in turn World warns that it could retaliate by banning all British media outlets from operating in Russia the threats are all too redolent of the Cold War era a lot of people have said that in which the struggle to control information was fierce from the 1950 s. The u.s.s.r. Operated a network of secret radio stations to Jamrock broadcast by Western radio stations and stop what was considered anti Soviet propaganda re hand Dimitri went to meet some of the 4. Workers of a secret radio station in the Republic of Georgia. I'd like to get that pushing stray dogs out of her way in miniature Grove who's in her eighty's is slowly walking up to her house Nina lives in an aging 1952 storey housing block. Literally. Inside her house Nina switches the radio on and brings out a bundle of old papers wrapped in plastic. And most you know what I did after I knew. That my over this story and this is my history she says before coming across an award from 1974 that makes her laugh. Is the reason this is a special award for fulfilling social duties back then when you receive this on a reward with a leonine face on top of it what was your job Nina yes we sell this but yet in January. I was a technician and radio technician looking after they quit man transmitters we used to get a frequency number and our transmitters to that frequency the rest was none of our business. The business Nina is reluctant to talk about was the jamming of foreign radio signals but her former colleague 84 year old Ashley who lives next door explains what they did big question. Mark. The mission of this radio station was to suppress signals the b.b.c. Both of America we didn't know much about the frequencies were suppressing when we failed to activate transmitters and time that was when we could listen to some of the programming but then our. Interference would follow it was like the noise of a raging river. But stronger I'll go. After the for Georges radio station number 5 spot of a network of secret stations operated by the Soviet government from 1948 to the late 1980 s. Its purpose was to suppress foreign radio broadcasts deemed Antti Soviet was was different techniques were used to distort broadcasts including the playing of music on the same frequency. This is how Russian language program from the 1960 s. Sounded to. Professor of Media Studies at the India State University in Tbilisi bonspiel of explains how the jamming worked at the when the bell story was. Born. This was a rather simple device several 100 bars with strange why are were installed in a field they were fined transformers that were great and disturbances this was an attempt to suppress Western propaganda there are several 1000 sites where they broadcast those disturbances 3 of you need to watch. Today there are no antennas or equipment left at radio station number 5 that all Town Hall which also used to house a shop and a cinema lies in ruins many former workers continue to live on the complex but they feel abandoned us. Back with Nina in her old apartment block. It's her radio that keeps her connected to the outside world. The world doesn't know it sounds yes their dad could argue this is a new station aids on the Internet it's all on f.m. And 99.3 people calling from mainland Spain and Italy they get phone calls from all over the world for the because you would know. Right Hand Dimitri that in the Republic of Georgia this is the b.b.c. World Service and we can't. New book by dangle Mallory puts a feminist twist on old fairy tales the author results were recently transition it was not sure that I was going to come out in time for the book tour and one of the things that I was really anxious about was the thought of people saying hey a lot of shifting gender roles in your book what's going on there and having to say something like I have no reason that the news in a busy week Saturday had Weekend Edition from n.p.r. News. That's this morning at 6. This is k l w transmitting 1.7 f.m. In the Bay Area and streaming world watch at k l w dot all over. B.b.c. World Service it's 8 hours g.m.t. This is Weekends with poll handling. This hour a senior u.n. Official tells us that North Korea is still finding ways of violating international sanctions there are sanctions evasion techniques are becoming increasingly sophisticated and now the North Koreans of behaving a bit like pirates British police warn.