Why MI5 is so worried about AI and the next election
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 30 October 2023
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week world leaders and AI companies will gather for a summit at Bletchley Park, the Second World War code-breaking centre. It’s the most important attempt yet to formulate a shared view on what artificial intelligence might be capable of and how it should be regulated.
But with elections taking place in both the US and the UK in the next year or so, could the threat posed by AI deepfakes to democracy be much more immediate, as the head of MI5 has warned?
This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes.
Guest: Henry Ajder, Visiting Senior Research Associate, Jesus College, Cambridge.
Host: Manveen Rana.
Get in touch: storiesofourtimes@thetimes.co.uk
Clips: Zach Silberberg on Twitter, Telegram, CNN, ABC News, MSNBC, WUSA9, BBC Radio 4.
This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This episode contains some strong language from the beginning. |
| 0:12.0 | Mr. Speaker, the President of the United States. |
| 0:16.0 | Its February of this year, and Joe Biden, is delivering his big state of the Union address. |
| 0:25.0 | Only in this clip posted on Twitter a week later, you wouldn't have to be an expert in American politics to know that something isn't quite right. |
| 0:37.0 | Good evening, my fellow Americans. I've made a huge mistake. |
| 0:41.0 | Are you familiar with the 2011 film we bought a zoo? The Matt Damon picture. |
| 0:46.0 | Anyway, and so I was watching we bought a zoo a few days ago because it came up on my Disney Plus. |
| 0:51.0 | This is where the trouble started. Because if someone could really buy a zoo in real life, not just in a movie, then hell, why shouldn't I buy a zoo? |
| 1:00.0 | So I did. And my fellow Americans owning a zoo sucks. |
| 1:06.0 | That, unsurprisingly, is not the real Joe Biden. |
| 1:10.0 | The comedy writer Zack Silberberg made this fake Biden clip using tools that are freely available online. |
| 1:19.0 | And it's been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. |
| 1:24.0 | One of the panthers got loose and I haven't seen it in over eight hours. I'm scared. |
| 1:29.0 | One of the monkeys ate one of the other monkeys, and it was the most fucked up thing I've ever seen. |
| 1:34.0 | Oh, and I looked at the budget. And it turns out I bought the zoo with the money that was supposed to go to our teachers. |
| 1:41.0 | Fuck me, I guess. |
| 1:43.0 | That example is obviously a bit silly. Not many people would be taken in by it. |
| 1:49.0 | But the technology behind it is causing far greater problems. |
| 1:55.0 | The fucking tablet. Fuck's sake. |
| 2:00.0 | In this fake recording of Keir Starmer, which circulated on the first day of Labour Party Conference, |
| 2:07.0 | it sounds like he's throwing a tantrum at a member of staff. |
| 2:13.0 | I'm sick of it. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Times, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Times and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.