AI actors are here. Tilly Norwood is already appearing in the conversation around the future of acting, but the more interesting question is what happens when AI starts moving beyond helping with creativity and starts doing the creative work itself.

In Episode 21 of The Signal, Tom Trewinnard and Fergus Bell explore synthetic actors, virtual influencers and the explosion of AI-generated content, asking whether we are heading towards a world where creativity becomes easier to produce but much harder to care about.

Because the biggest problem with AI-generated content might not be that it is bad. It might be that it is perfectly fine, endlessly available and increasingly indistinguishable from everything else.

A race to blandness could be underway.

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After years of a relentless race towards bigger models, more capable agents and increasingly autonomous systems, some of the biggest players in the industry are now talking seriously about safety, guardrails and whether frontier AI development needs to slow down.

There are already some pretty compelling reasons for that conversation. High-profile incidents involving autonomous AI agents have shown how quickly systems can find their way around safeguards, while the extraordinary cost of training frontier models is raising increasingly practical questions about just how fast the industry can keep moving. And then there is the geopolitical problem: if the US slows down while China and other competitors continue developing and releasing increasingly capable models, can anyone really afford to hit the brakes?

But Episode 20 of The Signal is also about a much more immediate question: what happens when the thing we are trying to control starts controlling how we think?

Fergus Bell and Tom Trewinnard explore the risk of cognitive atrophy, the growing problem of AI-generated “slop grenades” at work, and why producing a 20-page document in five minutes is not necessarily productive.

Listen, subscribe and follow The Signal wherever you get your podcasts.

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Recorded live at the WAN-IFRA Paris AI Forum, Episode 19 of The Signal looks at how AI is being used across news organisations from journalists building their own tools and AI-powered archive discovery to audience-focused products designed to solve very specific local problems.

We explore why organisations including The Economist, Polaris and KQED are experimenting with new approaches to AI, coding and newsroom innovation, and why the next phase of AI in journalism may need to move beyond internal workflows.

Because making journalists more efficient is only part of the story. The bigger opportunity could be using AI to improve the audience experience, create genuine two-way conversations and rebuild trust between news organisations and the people they serve.

The conversation also looks at what newsrooms risk losing as more entry-level work becomes automated, and how AI can be introduced without stripping away the skills, judgement and culture that make journalism work.

We also hear about the Newsroom AI Catalyst Program for Ukrainian Publishers, a WAN-IFRA, ERPU and Fathm initiative supporting 10 independent Ukrainian publishers to develop practical AI projects around critical updates, investigations, data and cultural preservation.

This is a conversation about what AI is actually doing inside newsrooms and what it could do next.

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In this episode of The Signal, Tom Trewinnard speaks to Katya Gorchinskaya, creator of Jindex.ai, a database tracking publicly disclosed examples of AI adoption across the global media industry.

Katya reveals that media organisations are adapting to AI at a pace that could be up to 100 times faster than the original digital transformation. But while much of the focus is currently on newsroom workflows, content production and AI tools, the next phase could be much bigger.

We’re starting to see AI move into advertising, subscriptions, revenue models and the way audiences discover news.

Then there’s an even bigger question: what happens when the newsroom itself disappears?

Katya discusses the rapid emergence of AI-native media outlets, fully synthetic news organisations operating with little or no human involvement and why many are appearing in places where local journalism has already disappeared.

The conversation also explores AI adoption in China, where public procurement data reveals a highly centralised, top-down approach to AI implementation in media.

But perhaps the biggest question is one we still can’t answer: what will the media value chain actually look like when audiences increasingly discover and consume news through AI?

The Signal is a Fathm podcast about AI, journalism, media innovation and the forces changing how we create, distribute and consume information.

Subscribe for new episodes of The Signal.

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What happens when the relationship between PR and journalism starts to change?

In this episode of The Signal, Fergus Bell and Tom Trewinnard are joined by music publicist Andy Prevezer to explore the changing world of music PR, journalism, media relationships and the creator economy.

Andy shares his perspective on the long-standing relationship between publicists and mainstream media, why trusted national publications still matter when artists and public figures need to set the record straight, and how social media, podcasts and creators are changing the way people communicate directly with audiences.

The conversation also looks at the growing financial pressure facing independent musicians, from the decline of traditional music magazines and local venues to the realities of touring and streaming, and asks what the future of the music industry might look like.

And then there’s AI.

As the technology reshapes media and creative industries, is there still something uniquely valuable about live, human experiences that technology simply can’t replicate?

The Signal is a Fathm podcast about AI, journalism, media innovation and the forces changing how we create, distribute and consume information.

Subscribe to The Signal for new episodes every week.

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Welcome to The Signal, hosted by Fergus Bell and Tom Trewinnard. In this episode, Fergus and Tom speak with music PR guru Andy Prevezer. Andy has worked with Liam Gallagher, Simply Red, Sting, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soundgarden, Neil Young and many, many more. From writing press releases and securing column inches in daily newspapers to guiding artists towards an entire reimagining of their public perception, Andy has done it all. In this episode he explains what music PR was, what it became and what it is now.

Andy, Fergus and Tom discuss

• The importance of trust.
• The nurturing of the relationship between artists, PRs and journalists.
• Waking up and thinking, "What's Liam Gallagher said now?"
• The current state of major labels and how they view the work of public relations.

If you want to understand how the news is being created and distributed, how AI is - and can be - used in newsrooms, insights from media leaders, practical thinking on the future of journalism, and honest conversations about what's working and what isn't, subscribe and follow to stay close to The Signal.

Fergus and Tom will be here every week. Find The Signal on YouTube, Spotify, Apple and wherever you get your podcasts.

Produced by Rob Fitzpatrick

Edited by James Bullock

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're on a quick holiday. The internet can wait. Can't it?

While Fergus Bell and Tom Trewinnard take a few days away from The Signal, we’ve pulled together some of the best bits from the series so far.

From AI and the future of journalism to audience behaviour, the death of traditional virality, newsroom innovation, creators, business models and even the occasional detour into Love Island, like a holidaymaker finally reaching their hotel room, there’s a lot to unpack.

If you’re new to The Signal, this is a good place to start. If you’ve been with us from the beginning, consider it a summer recap.

And if you want the full conversations, you can catch up on all episodes of The Signal now on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

We’ll be back with a brand new episode on September 3. Until then, happy catching up.

Hosted by Fathm co-founders Fergus Bell and Tom Trewinnard

Produced by Rob Fitzpatrick

Edited by James Bullock

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to The Signal, hosted by Fergus Bell and Tom Trewinnard. In this episode we consider: is going viral dead? Is the only thing we have left to share the World Cup or the Traitors? How do you go viral in 2026? After a flood of AI generated Kurdish apple doctor videos, who does TikTok think Tom even is?

The internet used to be predictable, Google was for search, Twitter was great for breaking news and Facebook was good for discovery. Then normal people began to use “algorithm” in every day sentences. Social media managers curated content and data. Companies were born who helped you measure your spikes in engagement.

That’s the “old internet”, now the whole thing is fragmented. The walls are now down, you can access the same information, it’s just the big tech companies would rather you stayed on their platform. Does AI search work well? That depends if you’re a user or a brand. TikTok, YouTube and Reddit are all strong for search. They dig into the strange worlds of whale-washing videos and coffee-machine reviews content. Have we had the Death of Virality? Is the new viral measurable impact? Are we at the very beginning of personalisation? Where’s the concept of a shared experience gone? All these questions and more.

If you want to understand how the news is being created and distributed, how AI is — and can be — used in newsrooms, insights from media leaders and practical thinking on the future of journalism, as well as honest conversations about what's working and what isn't, then subscribe and follow to stay close to The Signal.

Fergus and Tom will be here every week. Find The Signal on YouTube, Spotify, Apple and wherever you get your podcasts.

Produced by Rob Fitzpatrick

Edited by James Bullock

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.