let's speak to dr eleanor drage.ambridge and co—host of the good robot podcast. thank you very much forjoining us here on bbc news. the government in the us argues that tiktok could be potentially used for spying and political manipulation. how credible are those claims? 50 credible are those claims? so there is credible are those claims? sr there is no evidence to suggest that there is anything different that is happening now than in 2020. the ai arms race narrative that the us had created to make china less competitive is a myth. there is no evidence to suggest that china is doing anything akin to the manhattan project and that it is as competitive as the us suggests. so the question is, why has trump changed his tune in the last couple of weeks and why is he not saying that tiktok is posing a threat to privacy as he did before? in fact, he said something to on true social in the end of 202a. in september, when he said the voters, go out the vote for me and i will protect tiktok, tiktok will be under threat by the

earlier i spoke to dr eleanor drage, who is a senior research fellow at the university of cambridge anduld be used as a means for spying and political manipulation. this narrative has been around for a very long time, and it's part of what we call the ai arms race, which is a fabricated narrative that the us has been pushing for many years to boost their sinophobic rhetoric. so, they're pretty anti—china, they always have been. there is no evidence to suggest that china is doing more damage now with cyber security issues than it has ever been in the past. but the reason why trump has had this u—turn is possibly we're also not quite as concerned about bytedance, which is tiktok�*s parent company, which was at one point thought to be a rival to 0penai, which is thejewel in silicon valley's ai crown. so today, instead, trump is saying, well, actually, i love tiktok and i'm a big tiktok star, so let's keep tiktok. and actually, perhaps what he's trying to do is create some political leverage and say, well, the supreme court may be against tiktok, but i will be the saviour. and when the ban

earlier i spoke to dr eleanor drage, who is a senior research fellow at the university of cambridge and podcast on whether the app could be used as a means for spying and political manipulation. this narrative has been around for a very long time, and it's part of what we call the ai arms race, which is a fabricated narrative that the us has been pushing for many years to boost their sinophobic rhetoric. so, they're pretty anti—china, they always have been. there is no evidence to suggest that china is doing more damage now with cyber security issues than it has ever been in the past. but the reason why trump has had this u—turn is possibly because now there is less concern about china among the public. we are not as afraid of covid and of china as we were before. the tiktok spy narrative has died down a little bit, and there's lots of other reasons to suggest that the public doesn't have china at the forefront of its minds. we're also not quite as concerned about bytedance, which is tiktok�*s parent company, which was at one point thought to be a rival to 0penai, which is thejewel in s

joining me now is dr eleanor drage.o what extent is al already in use in our public services?— services? this is a crucial time for _ services? this is a crucial time for the _ services? this is a crucial time for the government| services? this is a crucial- time for the government and keir starmer is time for the governm

dr eleanor drage, is a senior research fellow at the university of cambridge and co—host of the good accusations that tiktok could be used as a tool for spying and manipulation by the chinese government how realistic is that? , ., ., that? this narrative has been around a _ that? this narrative has been around a very _ that? this narrative has been around a very long _ that? this narrative has been around a very long time - that? this narrative has been around a very long time and l that? this narrative has been | around a very long time and is part of what we call the ai arms race which is a fabricated narrative the us has been pushing many years. to boost their assigned phobic rhetoric, they are pretty anti—china dolls have been. there is no to suggest china is doing more damage now with cybersecurity issues than it has ever been in the past. but the reason why trump has had this u—turn is possible because now there is less concern about china among the public. we are not as afraid of covid and china as we were before. the tiktok spying narrative has died down a little bit. there i