The Week Unwrapped: AI scams, entry fees and wooden buildings

Olly Mann and The Week delve behind the headlines and debate what really matters from the past seven days. With Guy Anker, Holden Frith and Sorcha Bradley.

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In this week’s episode, we discuss:

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AI scams

This week the personal finance guru Martin Lewis drew attention to a new fraud threat – the use of fake AI-generated videos to draw people into financial scams. In this case, the clip featured Lewis himself, apparently urging people to put their money into a multi-million-pound investment opportunity – even though he had never said anything of the sort. Should we be preparing for a new and increasingly sophisticated breed of scammer?

Cultural entrance fees

The Pantheon in Rome has started charging tourists a €5 entry fee, leading to a backlash from the city’s tourist industry. In part that’s because the way it has been implemented led to widespread confusion, but it also provoked a debate about the broader principle of whether people should have to pay to see their cultural heritage.

Wooden buildings

In the Sickla district of Stockholm, Sweden, preparations are underway for an ambitious project that aims to erect the world's largest wooden “city”. Known as Wood City, this groundbreaking development will feature 7,000 office spaces and 2,000 homes over 250,000 square metres. But despite architects and developers championing the environmental benefits of using mass timber in construction, can they successfully convince the public of its safety?