The Reith Lectures BBC Radio 4

Deepfakes, distrust and democracy: Billions of people will have the chance to vote this year in elections around the world. There will be campaigns in eight of the 10 most populous countries, including India and the Biden/Trump race for the White House in the US. Given the stakes, the chance for AI shenanigans is high. Sam Altman, founder of ChatGPT, has warned “of a new kind of interference that was just not possible before AI.”
It raises two basic questions: How that might work? And, what might it mean? For answers, Katya speaks with leading experts in AI and democracy, each of whom have delivered the prestigious BBC Reith Lectures:
- Stuart Russell, Professor of Computer Science and founder of the Centre for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence at the University of California, Berkeley
- Ben Ansell, Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at Nuffield College, Oxford University
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This episode was made by Neal Razzell, Tom Kavanaugh and Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty. The technical producer was Matt Hewitt. The assistant editor is Sergi Forcada Freixas and the senior news editor is Jonathan Aspinwall.

This year's BBC Reith Lecturer is Ben Ansell, Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at Nuffield College, Oxford University and author of “Why Politics Fails.”
In four lectures called “Our Democratic Future,” he asks how we can build a politics that works for all of us with political systems which are robust to the challenges of the twenty first century, from climate change to artificial intelligence.
In this fourth and final lecture, recorded in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States, he interrogates a crucial question: can we continue to grow our economies without despoiling the earth? Focusing on the existential threats created by our own innovation - from climate change to out-of-control artificial intelligence – Ansell asks whether our politics is up to the task of supporting sustainable growth.
The Reith Lectures are chaired by Anita Anand and produced by Jim Frank.
The Editors are China Collins and Clare Fordham, and the co-ordinator is Brenda Brown.
The series is mixed by Rod Farquhar and Neil Churchill.

This year's BBC Reith Lecturer is Ben Ansell, Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at Nuffield College, Oxford University and the author of "Why Politics Fails." He will deliver four lectures in a series called “Our Democratic Future.” The series asks how we can build a politics that works for all of us with systems which are robust to the challenges of the twenty first century, from climate change to artificial intelligence.

In this third lecture, recorded in Sunderland, Professor Ansell explores whether we can develop a shared sense of belonging in today's polarised societies. How can we ensure that we look after the less fortunate in an economy that seems only to reward the 'already haves'? Ansell addresses the challenges posed by technologies that enrich a small elite and privatise solidarity with bespoke healthcare and benefits that might undermine collective solidarity. And he assesses how policy reform - from universal basic income to civic nationalism - might help renew our communities.
The Reith Lectures are chaired by Anita Anand and produced by Jim Frank.
The Editor is China Collins, and the co-ordinator is Brenda Brown.
The series is mixed by Rod Farquhar and Neil Churchill.

This year's BBC Reith Lecturer is Ben Ansell, Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at Nuffield College, Oxford University. He will deliver four lectures called “Our Democratic Future.”
In his series Professor Ansell asks how we can build a politics that works for all of us with systems which are robust to the challenges of the twenty first century, from climate change to artificial intelligence. The lectures build on his recent book Why Politics Fails, which identifies a series of traps that prevent us from attaining our collective goals and presents solutions to help us overcome those traps.
In this second lecture called 'The Future of Security', recorded in Berlin in front of an audience, he asks whether citizens of wealthy countries have been lulled into a false sense of security about threats from abroad and at home. It examines how we can control the security technologies of tomorrow, from facial recognition to autonomous weapons. And Ansell suggests how we can develop technologies powerful enough to protect us without exploiting us.

The Reith Lectures are chaired by Anita Anand and produced by Jim Frank.
The Editor is China Collins, and the coordinator is Brenda Brown.
The series is mixed by Rod Farquhar and Neil Churchill.

This year's BBC Reith Lecturer is Ben Ansell, Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at Nuffield College, Oxford University. He will deliver four lectures called “Our Democratic Future,” asking how we can build a politics that works for all of us with systems which are robust to the challenges of the twenty first century, from climate change to artificial intelligence.
In this first lecture, recorded at New Broadcasting House in London in front of an audience, Professor Ansell asks whether we are in a 'democratic recession', where longstanding democracies are at risk of breakdown and authoritarianism is resurgent. And he examines how resilient democracies are to the challenges of artificial intelligence, social media and if they can effectively address core challenges from climate change to inequality.
The Reith Lectures are presented by Anita Anand and produced by Jim Frank.
The Editor is China Collins.
Reith Co-ordinator is Brenda Brown.
The series is mixed by Rod Farquhar and Neil Churchill.

In the last in a series of four lectures examining what freedom means, the foreign affairs and intelligence expert Dr Fiona Hill gives her BBC Reith Lecture on Freedom from Fear. Dr Hill is one of the world’s leading experts on Russia, and served as director for European and Russian affairs on President Trump’s National Security Council, and in senior intelligence roles for both Presidents Bush and Obama. She will talk about the fear she felt growing up as teenager in the Cold War and living with the threat of nuclear war. Then, she says, the culture of fear was about the Soviet Union, a largely unknown enemy. 40 years later, have we come full circle? She also analyses Russia's war in Ukraine, and what it means for the world.
The programme and question-and-answer session is recorded at Johns Hopkins University in Washington DC in front of an audience. The presenter is Anita Anand.
The year's series was inspired by President Franklin D Roosevelt's four freedoms speech of 1941 and asks what this terrain means now. It features four different lecturers:
Freedom of Speech by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Freedom to Worship by Rowan Williams
Freedom from Want by Darren McGarvey
Freedom from Fear by Fiona Hill
Producer: Jim Frank
Sound Engineers: Rod Farquhar and Neil Churchill
Production Coordinator: Brenda Brown
Editor: Hugh Levinson