Spark from CBC Radio

ChatGPT has been dominating headlines since it was released publicly late last year, but is it really the future of AI?

The data we generate, as individuals and as a society, offer powerful tools to better understand our own behaviour, but this may come at the cost of data privacy.

What happened to the promise of the early web and will we ever get it back? This week, a nostalgic, updated episode from October 2022.

The lasting influence of the compass and the evolution and future of navigation technology.

New developments promise sustainable networked homes and buildings that are easy and practical, but can we have them without sacrificing privacy?

A look at how the Iranian government is using high-tech surveillance tools against anti-government protesters, and the rise of "digital repression" by governments around the world.

Technology design and programming can often exclude communities of users — sometimes even those the technology is specifically designed to help. So how can technologists better meet the needs of all users?

How countercultures, subcultures and niche communities have shaped, and continue to shape, digital tech.

For the 5th instalment of our Butterfly Effect series, we look at how the 6,000-year-old invention and concept has come to shape how we keep our valuables safe — physically and digitally.

There's a powerful connection between our built environment and our mental health, and architects are approaching the design of buildings and cities to better serve people.

A lot of technological innovation is fueled by data. We look at how new approaches to data are fueling art, and fighting disinformation. From artist Giacomo Miceli's imaginary conversation created by AI, to Dries Depoorter's surveillance art, to Starling Labs' Benedict Lau and Adam Rose using blockchain technology to verify data.

Over 16 seasons of Spark, we've talked a lot about the evolution of tech and our changing relationship to it. We look back at some eerily accurate predictions of the future past, some out-there theories that turned into reality, and the hopes for technology that didn't quite pan out.

Much of our shopping has switched to online — which meant small business owners like CJ Tennant had to adapt their brick-and-mortar businesses for online shoppers. The increase in e-commerce also means a boom in customer data collection. So what kind of data is collected, and how is it used? We speak with Anteneh Ayanso and Arunesh Mathur about e-commerce data mining, and what to watch out for when legitimate data collection crosses the ethical line. (This is a repeat of an episode that first aired in Jan. 2021, and has been updated to reflect that.)

LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, were first conceived well over a century ago. But it took another half century before they were commercially available, and half a century again before they became ubiquitous. And now they're in everything from our phones to our holiday lights to special effects in film. On a special Butterfly Effect edition, we trace the development of the LED – and ask what might come next. With guests Carrie Meadows, Zheng-Hong Lu and Kevin McGeagh.

From paying for the privilege of "luxury surveillance" to workplace monitoring for long-haul truckers, this week, we're tracking the growth of surveillance solutionism – the idea that we can solve personal, social and economic problems with mass monitoring. With guests Karen Levy, Chris Gilliard and Albert Fox Cahn.

In this instalment of The Butterfly Effect, we hear the long tale of the mixtape: How the Sony Walkman paved the way for the iPod and streaming a million songs, TV shows and movies from our smartphones. Featuring Michael Bull, professor of sound studies at University of Sussex; Todd Green, associate professor of marketing at Brock University; and Josh Viner, founder of The Creative Lab, Toronto.

Big Tech aims to solve large social issues, from housing to urban transportation. We discuss tech solutionism with Paris Marx, host of Tech Won't Save Us podcast, author of Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong About the Future of Transportation. And, with massive layoffs happening all over Silicon Valley, and the sale of Twitter throwing social media into chaos, is it time to rekindle the cooperatives movement in tech? Nathan Schneider, professor of media studies at University of Colorado, Boulder and director of the Media Enterprise Design Lab, talks about tech co-ops. Then, Greg Lindsay, urban tech fellow at Cornell Tech University and a senior fellow at MIT’s Future Urban Collective, talks about peer-to-peer solutions focused on mutualism and solidarity in times of crisis.

A look at the evolutionary psychology of friendship with science journalist and author of Friendship: The Evolution, Biology, and Extraordinary Power of Life's Fundamental Bond Lydia Denworth. Then, Tiffany Petricini, assistant teaching professor at Penn State Shenango and author of Friendship and Technology: A Philosophical Approach to Computer Mediated Communication, talks about how digital tech has shaped our friendships and our fundamental sense of togetherness. (This is a repeat of an episode that first aired in Feb. 2022, and has been updated to reflect that.)

We've seen remarkable gains in artificial intelligence – but only in specific, narrow domains, like fraud prevention or navigation. One reason for that is the way AI innovations get adopted. Another is our poor ability to distinguish between real progress and so-called AI snake oil. This week, we demystify AI with guests Ajay Agrawal, professor in University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, founder of the Creative Destruction Lab, and co-author of a new book, Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence; and Arvind Narayanan, professor of computer science at Princeton University and co-author of the newsletter and forthcoming book called AI Snake Oil.

When it comes to adapting to climate change, we tend not to think about the energy demands of our digital technologies. But data centres – the physical structures that store and process our digital information – are very resource-intensive and vulnerable to extreme weather events. Host Nora Young discusses data centre design with Lauren Bridges, critical data studies researcher and Ph.D. candidate at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania; Chheng Lim, an associate at Chicago-based Sheehan Nagle Hartray Architects, who specializes in data-centre design; and Simon Harris, head of critical infrastructure at Business Critical Solutions, a data centre consultancy firm in the U.K.