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Quantum Computing

   2016    Technology
These scientists are part of a global race. It's been running for over a decade... to build a mythical machine, the holy grail of calculations - a quantum computer. Remarkably, first-generation quantum computers have started to appear. Indeed, earlier this year, Google bought one. The D-Wave 2.
Series: Catalyst

Rise of the Machines

   2020    Technology
From the first transistor to deep learning networks, the rise of computing power over the last 50 years has been so phenomenal it's changed everything from the way we communicate to how our appliances interact. Fuelled by giant leaps forward in computer technology, the race is on. As the progress of machines continues to accelerate, so will the pace of change.
Series: The Great Acceleration

Role Players

   2020    Technology
Inspired by Dungeons and Dragons, adventure and role-playing computer games introduce unprecedented levels of choice and complexity to players.
Series: High Score

The A.I. Race

   2018    Technology
Explore how Artificial Intelligence will change your job as new research shows how much of what you do could be done by robots. From truckers to lawyers & doctors, we bring affected workers face to face with AI experts. How can we prepare for the coming changes to the world economy? We are on the precipice of another technological transformation. The last industrial revolution turned society upside down. It ultimately delivered greater prosperity and many more jobs, as well as the eight hour day and weekends. But the transition was at times shocking and violent.
The question is, can we do better this time? We don't realize that the future is not inevitable. The future is the result of the decisions we make today. These technologies are morally neutral, they can be used for good or for bad. There's immense good things they can do, they can eliminate many disease, they can help eliminate poverty, they can tackle climate change. Equally, the technology can be used for lots of bad. It can be used to increase inequality,it can be used to transform warfare. It can be used to make our lives much worse. We get to make those choices.

The Age of Big Data

   2013    Technology
In Los Angeles, a remarkable experiment is underway; the police are trying to predict crime, before it even happens. At the heart of the city of London, one trader believes that he has found the secret of making billions with math. In South Africa, astronomers are attempting to catalogue the entire cosmos. These very different worlds are united by one thing - an extraordinary explosion in data. Meet the people at the forefront of the data revolution, and reveals the possibilities and the promise of the age of big data.

The Cost of Free

   2010    Technology
In the third programme of the series, Aleks gives the lowdown on how, for better and for worse, commerce has colonized the web - and reveals how web users are paying for what appear to be 'free' sites and services in hidden ways. Joined by some of the most influential business leaders of today's web, including Eric Schmidt (CEO of Google), Chad Hurley (CEO of YouTube), Bill Gates, Martha Lane Fox and Reed Hastings (CEO of Netflix), Aleks traces how business, with varying degrees of success, has attempted to make money on the web. She tells the inside story of the gold rush years of the dotcom bubble and reveals how retailers such as Amazon learned the lessons. She also charts how, out of the ashes, Google forged the business model that has come to dominate today's web, offering a plethora of highly attractive, overtly free web services, including search, maps and video, that are in fact funded through a sophisticated and highly lucrative advertising system which trades on what we users look for. Aleks explores how web advertising is evolving further to become more targeted and relevant to individual consumers. Recommendation engines, pioneered by retailers such as Amazon, are also breaking down the barriers between commerce and consumer by marketing future purchases to us based on our previous choices. On the surface, the web appears to have brought about a revolution in convenience. But, as companies start to build up databases on our online habits and preferences, Aleks questions what this may mean for our notions of privacy and personal space in the 21st century
Series: The Virtual Revolution