Latest Interviews

AI has got better at hacking—how big a risk is it?

Tom Standage, Alex Hern

Anthropic withheld its latest model, Mythos, from public release after it demonstrated the ability to autonomously identify and exploit critical software vulnerabilities, such as a 27-year-old OpenBSD flaw, with minimal human intervention. This decision follows evidence that AI scaling laws now enable automated systems to accelerate the vulnerability exploitation cycle from years to mere hours, drastically outpacing current defensive capabilities. While Anthropic employed responsible disclosure by patching the specific bug before sharing details, the incident highlights a growing risk that open-source models will soon democratize high-level cyberattacks.

What's the future of crypto?

Eric Hughes, Mathieu Favaz

Despite a significant decline in global market capitalization from $3 trillion to $828 billion and intensified regulatory crackdowns in 25 nations, cryptocurrency adoption remains robust in developing economies facing hyperinflation or weak financial infrastructure. The industry is now pivoting toward Web3, a decentralized internet model that shifts data ownership to users while attempting to solve scalability issues through Layer 2 solutions. However, this post-money era faces persistent challenges regarding security, the lack of central authorities for dispute resolution, and the technical limitations of nascent blockchain networks.

Who Is Xi Jinping?

Xi Jinping

President Xi Jinping's rule is defined by an absolute prioritization of stability and national security, a stance rooted in the traumatic childhood experiences of the Cultural Revolution that instilled a lifelong aversion to chaos. Having consolidated power through a sweeping anti-corruption campaign, constitutional changes eliminating term limits, and an unprecedented surveillance apparatus, he has positioned the reunification of Taiwan as a historical imperative to surpass Mao Zedong's legacy. This ambition creates a critical strategic tension between completing the civil war and the potential for nuclear conflict, making Xi's decisions the central determinant of future global stability.

Black holes: why they matter

Alok Jha

Black holes, defined by their event horizons and singularities, span from stellar remnants weighing three to twenty solar masses to supermassive giants millions of times heavier that anchor galaxies. Detection milestones since 1971, culminating in the Event Horizon Telescope's images of Cygnus X-1 and Sagittarius A*, have confirmed their existence through gravitational lensing and X-ray emissions. These cosmic phenomena remain central to resolving the conflict between General Relativity and Quantum Theory, particularly regarding the black hole information paradox and the nature of singularities.

War in Ukraine: the emerging global food crisis

Arkady, Ed, Shashank, Sasha Nauta

The ongoing war in Ukraine is precipitating a global food crisis by blocking critical export routes through Odessa, destroying domestic harvests, and disrupting fertilizer supplies, which threatens hundreds of millions in nations like Egypt and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Simultaneously, the prospective NATO accession of Sweden and Finland is expected to significantly strengthen Baltic security through Finland's substantial artillery capabilities, despite President Vladimir Putin leveraging the expansion to fuel narratives of Russian encirclement. This geopolitical shift occurs against the backdrop of US legislative uncertainty regarding escalating aid packages and potential changes in Washington's strategic posture ahead of the 2024 presidential election, raising concerns among European allies about future burden-sharing.

Election polling: why is it so difficult?

The presentation traces the evolution of election polling from unrepresentative 19th-century straw polls to modern scientific standards established after the 1936 Literary Digest failure and the 2016 U.S. state-level errors. It details how contemporary forecasting models combine polling data with economic fundamentals and run millions of simulations to generate probabilistic outcomes, a methodology successfully tested during the 2022 French presidential election. Ultimately, the analysis emphasizes that while these models cannot achieve perfect accuracy due to inherent sampling limitations and unforeseen external events, they provide increasingly reliable predictions as historical data accumulates.

War in Ukraine: is a peace deal possible?

Ed, Sally, Zany, Arkady

Ongoing negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow remain stalled over the core triad of territorial status, sanctions sequencing, and Crimea's strategic corridor, as Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov lacks final authority to offer concessions without President Vladimir Putin's direct approval. While Ukraine has hardened its stance by rejecting pre-1991 borders and exploring security guarantees akin to Finnish neutrality, Putin's strategy is increasingly driven by domestic consolidation rather than genuine security needs, reflecting a calculated worldview that prioritizes legacy over realistic military outcomes. This strategic deadlock, compounded by Putin's internal miscalculation and the reluctance of his kleptocratic inner circle to risk nuclear escalation, leaves both sides facing a stalemate with no substantive progress toward a comprehensive peace deal.

America’s pandemic election: what could go wrong?

Jon Fassman

Amidst the global pandemic and systemic barriers to voting, the 2020 U.S. presidential election faces unprecedented risks of chaos due to a sitting president's refusal to guarantee a peaceful transfer of power and widespread concerns over mail-in ballot processing. With 228 pending legal challenges and a high probability of an information vacuum on election night, experts warn that a close result could trigger civil unrest if the loser, projected to be Donald Trump, rejects the outcome. While early voting strategies aim to mitigate logistical failures, the convergence of disinformation campaigns and external interference threatens to destabilize American democracy globally.

Mangroves: how they help the ocean

Lillian, Mark Huxham

Global mangrove ecosystems face imminent collapse due to industrial expansion, prompting the launch of Mikoko Pomoja in Kenya's Ghazi Bay as the world's first community-led project funded by carbon credits. This initiative has successfully generated over $60,000 for local communities while sequestering significant carbon in sediment, effectively incentivizing conservation over resource extraction. Although experts caution that such offsets cannot replace broader policy reforms, the model is gaining traction as a replicable strategy for marine protection and economic stability across the region.