Summary
What happens when a company we trust with our most personal data gets into financial trouble ? We hear from a woman who trusted a US company with her genetic information.
Also on Tech Life this week, will there be enough electricity for the demands of artificial intelligence ? The International Energy Agency tells us about the challenges of powering the AI boom. And we find out how to grow an island in The Maldives. The tech involved could protect low-lying territories from erosion and rising sea levels.
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Presenter: Chris Vallance Producer: Tom Quinn Editor: Monica Soriano
Image: A scientist holds a DNA sample with the results on a computer screen in a laboratory. Credit: Westend61/Getty Images
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Why does some big successful brands go bust? |
| 0:05.7 | Toast is back for a new series, taking a look at the decisions that often left investors burnt. |
| 0:11.6 | I'm Sean Farrington, a BBC business journalist. I'll be hearing about the hype. |
| 0:15.6 | They're going to do the deal that makes them the most money at that point of time. |
| 0:19.7 | And I'm picking what went wrong, talking to owners and employees to ask, what can we learn? |
| 0:25.4 | It was being undercut by similar rivals. It just couldn't survive. |
| 0:30.3 | Toast. Listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:34.0 | Welcome to TechLife on the BBC World Service, the programme about technology that's making an impact on all our lives. |
| 0:41.8 | I'm Chris Valence. This week, what happens when a firm we trust with our data gets into financial trouble. |
| 0:47.8 | We hear from a woman who trusted a US company with that most personal data, her genetic information. And AI is going to face a power crunch. |
| 0:57.7 | The International Energy Agency tells us about the challenges of powering the artificial intelligence boom. |
| 1:04.8 | All that, and we find out how you grow a tropical island. Researchers in the Maldives tell us their tech |
| 1:11.9 | could protect the low-lying nation from erosion and rising sea levels. |
| 1:45.5 | Music We start today with a question. What happens when you provide a company with data about yourself and that company gets into difficulties? |
| 1:49.7 | Is your data really safe? And can you ask for it to be deleted? |
| 1:56.7 | Customers of US-based 23 and me might have been asking those questions recently. At its height, |
| 2:01.4 | it was one of the most popular DNA, health and ancestry sites in the world. |
| 2:03.5 | But then it ran into trouble. |
| 2:10.2 | The BBC's North America technology correspondent, Lily Jamali, has been following this story for us. I spoke to Lily in San Francisco, and I asked her to tell me all about 23 and me. |
| 2:16.5 | Well, 23 and me is this DNA testing company, and the proposition was pretty simple. |
| 2:22.6 | It was that you'd spit into a tube, send it in, and for a fee, you would get back a trove of |
| 2:28.7 | information about your genetic makeup. So that could include information about health risks |
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