Is 2026 the year of the AI backlash?
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 2 January 2026
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Millions of us now use AI daily, asking the likes of ChatGPT and Gemini to help with tasks like writing emails or designing logos. But as AI increasingly becomes part of our lives, our Silicon Valley expert predicts this year will see a significant push back against its influence.
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Guest: Danny Fortson, US West Coast correspondent, The Sunday Times.
Host: Luke Jones.
Producer: Edward Drummond.
Read more: Why Sam Altman declared ‘code red’ at OpenAI — and how to fix it
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From The Times and the Sunday Times, this is The Story. |
| 0:06.6 | I'm Luke Jones. |
| 0:12.3 | I recently spent time with a friend from a company called Friend.com, and they have created this little pendant. |
| 0:20.4 | It's about the size of a coin. You |
| 0:22.8 | wear it around your neck. It's an always on microphone. And it's powered by AI. It listens to |
| 0:28.1 | everything you say all day, every day, and what's said to you and then texts you and becomes a |
| 0:33.8 | companion. Danny Fawtson is US West Coast correspondent for the Sunday Times, based in the heart of Silicon Valley. |
| 0:42.3 | So he can't move for AI chat. |
| 0:45.7 | And I talked to the founder. He's 22 years old. |
| 0:48.9 | And he's like, yeah, we can be friends with algorithms now. |
| 0:51.9 | And we should be getting comfortable with this. |
| 0:54.8 | But as 2025, a year so giddy about AI comes to a close, Danny, surprisingly, thinks a change |
| 1:02.3 | of heart is underway. |
| 1:04.5 | And you kind of step back and you're like, is that what this is all about? |
| 1:09.0 | Is that what this revolution is really bringing us? |
| 1:19.5 | We're spending trillions of dollars. |
| 1:22.0 | We're being promised this future, where work will be optional, |
| 1:30.9 | where we'll be able to live forever, cure all disease, |
| 1:38.6 | all aided by these AI systems. But what we have now is what appears to be a micro-targeted jobs recession for young people. And a bunch of kind of ridiculous toys. |
| 1:48.9 | We're being promised this amazing future. |
| 1:52.1 | But I think more and more people are just like, |
| 1:55.1 | this sucks. |
... |
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