All language subtitles for Global.Eye.S2026E02.1080p.IP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-7VFr33104D_track3_[eng]

Hello and welcome to Global Eye
from the BBC World Service.

In the next half hour, we'll bring
you the best journalism

from our teams across the world.

I'm Joe Tidy, the BBC's
cyber correspondent,

and this week we're in
Silicon Valley, California -

the beating heart
of the ongoing AI revolution.

This strip of land
has shaped modern life,

from personal computers
to social media,

and now it's at the forefront
of the next tech wave.

There's a handful of companies
here who are fighting

for supremacy in the race
to build super-intelligent AI.

And the stakes?

Power, money, and maybe
even the future of humanity.

Later in the programme, I'll be
exploring one development that was,

until recently, a sci-fi dream -
the birth of domestic helper robots.

And it's a few smaller
start-ups sprinkled around

San Francisco
that could soon be overtaking

the tech giants to make AI servants
in your home a reality.

And in the wake of America's capture
of the Venezuelan president,

why is Donald Trump so keen
to control Venezuela's oil,

when America produces such
huge quantities of oil itself?

We'll explore the global struggle

for the planet's precious
mineral resources.

Artificial intelligence has been

an invisible part of
all our lives for years -

everything from
our social-media feeds

to our sat navs
has used some form of AI

without us really knowing or caring.

But the rise of generative AI -

programmes that can create text or
pictures or videos in an instant -

has showed us just how powerful
and pervasive this technology is.

OpenAI caught the world -
and the rest of the tech industry -

off guard when ChatGPT
went viral in 2022.

The free website became the fastest
growing consumer application

in history after being used by one
million people in just five days.

Today, 800 million people use it
weekly, according to the company.

Tech giants like Google and
Microsoft are deep in the race, too.

And new entrants like Anthropic
and Elon Musk's xAI

are all fighting for a slice
of the trillion-dollar dream

as innovative tools
to improve productivity

and creativity are unveiled
almost weekly.

But this isn't just a US story.

It's a race, too,
with China's Silicon Valley

equivalent, Shenzhen.

That was evident last year,
when Chinese AI app DeepSeek

topped the Apple download chart
and rocked the markets,

as US firms realised they
no longer had a monopoly on AI.

But the AI revolution
is being viewed with alarm

by some environmentalists.

They fear it's driving up
water consumption

that could lead to shortages -

although the exact extent
of this is highly contested.

Critics also argue that
the energy-hungry data centres

needed to power this tech
revolution are setting back

the global drive to bring
down carbon emissions.

Google and others have
already admitted

that their own carbon-reduction
targets are under strain.

But President Trump has
shifted Washington's priorities

away from CO2 reduction,
as the US doubles down

on trying to win the AI race.

And, as ever, what happens here
has ripple effects around the world.

The darker side of AI has been
on display in recent weeks,

as users of Elon Musk's
AI assistant, Grok,

have repeatedly prompted
its image-generation tool

to digitally undress women
and even children

to make nearly nude images of them.

Elon Musk has warned
that anyone using Grok

to make illegal content will
suffer the same consequences

as if they uploaded it themselves.

Campaigners are urging governments
across the world

to tighten regulation
on deepfake images,

or at least enforce laws
already passed, but untested.

The techno-utopian view is
that it'll all be worth it.

Technologists promise us
that the downsides of AI

will soon be overcome,

and eventually there will
be an age of abundance.

Sam Altman of OpenAI and his
rival, Elon Musk at Tesla,

they talk about a time when
we won't even have to work,

and that inequality -
all too visible here

on the streets of San Francisco -
will be eradicated.

We think it can be
a printing-press moment.

We are working to build tools
that one day could help us

make new discoveries and address

some of humanity's
biggest challenges,

like climate change
and curing cancer.

There are other concerns, too.

Some of the brightest minds
in AI are warning

that the birth of an intelligence
greater than humanity's

might lead to
the downfall of humanity.

The shock of ChatGPT led to a global
drive around regulations

for AI safety.
"Slow down and make sure that

"these models have humanity's
best interests at heart" -

that was the cry. But no more.

Just as climate concerns have
fallen off the priority list,

so, too, have discussions
about AI safety,

as governments prioritise
growth over caution.

And many experts also caution
that a bubble could be building,

with investors down for big losses

if the economic promise of AI
doesn't live up to expectations.

Whether we like it or not,

the race is on, and we're
all along for the ride.

AI is changing how we live and work,

and the next frontier could be
in our homes,

courtesy of domestic helper robots.

Interestingly, it's not big tech
that's leading the charge here.

It's nimble start-ups
dotted around San Francisco.

And, according to some
of these companies,

it could be this year that we start
to see these robots in homes.

Domestic helper bots are coming.

Billions is being poured into
this new AI frontier.

A global gold rush under way.

Go make us a cup of coffee.

I'm on it.

But how close actually are we to
the sci-fi dream of a robot butler?

Oh, holy...

Never seen this in my whole life.

Good accuracy.

Oh! I spoke too soon!

It's not just investor
money at stake -

the tech will test safety
and privacy

in our most intimate
of settings - our homes.

And, as with so many tech races,

it seems like it's China
versus the US,

and Silicon Valley
is taking centre stage.

I've come to Palo Alto to meet
the CEO of AI start-up Sunday.

Yes. Hi, Tony. How's it going?
All right, thank you.

Tony Zhao began working on his
home robot while at uni,

but dropped out to
build Memo full-time.

While many domestic
robots in development

are controlled by
someone tele-operating them,

Sunday has trained its bot

to do many tasks completely
on its own.

So can it see me around it?
Does it...?

Yeah. Yeah? Can it...?
Right now it doesn't react to you,

but it can perceive the world with
all the cameras and other sensors.

Can you just go make us
a cup of coffee?

It's after 2pm.

Would you like me to go ahead and
make that cup of coffee for you?

JOE LAUGHS

Yes. Please go ahead. I'm on it.
Making your coffee now.

So, Tony, can I just check
with you - there's no-one

that we can't see doing
this for the robot.

This is all autonomous.

Yes. It's one single neural network

controlling the whole body
movements of the robot.

Wow.

It was all going smoothly,

then Tony paused the demo
as he saw something was off.

Maybe we need to restart this.
Restart this.

Um, can we stop?
I think there's a...

Can you stop it? Uh...

Might need to do it again.

I saw there's some
peeling off here.

Uh, sorry about that.
OK. let's just try again.

OK. Maybe I'm overly cautious.

Oh!

Oh, holy...

I've never seen this
in my whole life.

After a reset, Memo smoothly
cleared away the table.

There's obviously work to be done
to get it ready for homes,

but there's no doubt this is one of
the most capable bots in the world.

How have you got the robot
to be this advanced?

How have you done it?

So I think normally

the way we train AI
is to tele-operate the robot

in people's homes,
or in other places,

and gather the data
and train the AI.

And what we're doing is different.

As in, we don't need robot data
to train the robot,

and instead we build these gloves,
and people just wear the gloves

in their homes
and collect data for us.

And that gives us really
diverse data

because we now see, like,
more than 500 homes,

and also all the different ways
they go about doing the task.

Sunday's army of robot teachers
are all being paid to do repetitive,

everyday tasks -
a reminder of the human drudgery

underpinning how
these machines learn.

The staff allow cameras and sensors
to record their every move at home,

but Sunday plans to start
shipping Memos next year,

so if the bot needs to
be remotely controlled,

it will raise privacy
considerations for customers,

as well as questions about safety
in a domestic setting.

Like, there will
be kids running around,

kids will be climbing
on the robot, right?

So we really want to make sure
that we put safety

as the most
fundamental consideration

when we design these robots. Yeah.

Some robotics companies
are already out in the wild,

gathering training data in public.

Here it is.

Isaac's been trained by watching

hundreds of hours
of laundry folding.

For the last couple
of months, though,

it's been doing it
on its own for real -

here, and in six other sites
in San Francisco.

Deployment is the strategy.

Nothing counts if it's
sequestered away in a lab.

We'll do a live demonstration.
There we are. OK.

This is a lot slower than a human.

So some people might
be watching this saying,

"Oh, that's not very impressive,"

but can you tell us
why it is impressive?

This thing can run all day.

You often hear that robots
are best suited to tasks

that are dull, dirty or dangerous.

We want to make clothing-folding
optional for people.

When you first put this robot here,

how long did it take
to do one T-shirt?

I think that we were
looking at 2:00, 2:30.

So already - what,
in how many months?

That's in a month and a half.
In a month and a half? Yeah.

You've got down to 1:30.
Just over 1:30.

Weave plan to start
shipping this year.

They say it'll be able to
tidy up and fold laundry,

but it's not clear how much
of that will be autonomous.

Across town, at
Physical Intelligence,

they're not interested
in building robots themselves -

they're focused on creating
the AI software that can be used

to make any robot capable of
doing chores autonomously.

The rest of AI -
like in ChatGPT, for example -

we're used to training these
models on an internet of data.

But we don't have that
web of data for robotics,

so we want to be able
to actually kind of essentially

breathe intelligence into any
sort of physical embodiment -

whether that's kind of
a standard typical robot,

a humanoid robot, or even something

that looks closer to an appliance,
for example.

Like all these companies, Chelsea
and her team are developing

their AI software using reams
of videos of humans doing chores.

Their approach is
proving successful -

investors like AI giant
OpenAI are on board.

Another tech giant, Tesla,

is deep in development of
its own humanoid robot, Optimus -

but it's not yet clear
what it can do.

And it's not just in the US
where people are getting excited

about human-like robots.

Chinese company Unitree
is already dominating the market

with its G1 robot -
seen here in a demo

given to us by its UK seller, Scan.

This is happening right now -
people are buying them,

people are coding on them,
and people are learning.

It's entirely operated - it's not
autonomous at all as of yet.

It's hard to get into China to film,

but the humanoid robot industry
is so hot there

that the government recently warned

a bubble might be building,
set to burst.

What's really interesting driving
around and speaking to all these

robotics companies in Silicon Valley
is there's a lot of confidence -

they think they are
building the future,

and they're certain it's going to
be, you know, a huge money-maker.

But there's also some
nervousness, as well,

because there's lots of things
that we wanted to film

and we wanted to show, but we can't.

They are scared because,
of course, this is a race -

a race to bring to market
a domestic robot.

A company that hopes to be
the first is 1X.

The Norwegian-founded company
moved here last year,

and millions of dollars are riding
on its bot Neo becoming a hit.

Someone is operating Neo right now
and watering all the plants.

I've just been told this
is what they do all day.

So there are people
in the office operating Neo

with a VR headset, carrying out
tasks and testing all day long.

Good accuracy.

Oh! I spoke too soon!

JOE LAUGHS

So, interestingly, Neo is struggling
with this particular handle,

but the team here change
the handles all the time

because they're trying
to train the robot different ways

to open different handles.

They had it there.

Founder Bernt Bornich is pushing
hard to get Neo out to homes.

So what can Neo do right now
for me in my home?

Does a pretty good job
of, like, tidying.

So, like, resetting my living room
and my house in general.

Uh... Wiping surfaces,

like cleaning the counter,

like these kind of things.

And that's all someone
with a VR headset...

It's a mix. It's a mix. So in
my home we have a lot of data,

so a lot of the stuff

in my home can get automated
because we have data there.

Periodically, someone
kind of steps in and helps

if the robot does not know
exactly how to move on.

Early adopters will have
to be comfortable, then,

waiving their privacy.

And, as with all these bots,

battery life is going
to have to be improved,

as Neo can only work for
about four hours at a time.

But Bernt promises
that neo will be able

to carry out many tasks
and charge itself autonomously

by the time they start shipping it.

Your first set of customers, then,
they have to be quite wealthy,

and they have to be willing for Neo
to make mistakes, essentially.

Well, I don't think they
have to be quite wealthy.

I think... It's thousands
of pounds, though, isn't it?

I don't know how much it is.
Well, it depends on... £20,000?

Mm... Yeah. Like... Are most people
have a car quite wealthy?

So you liken it to a car?

Yeah. I mean, it is
a pretty affordable car.

It depends on your needs, right?
A lot of our early customers

are people that actually will
have a lot of value from this.

And for a very large subset of that,
it will be way higher value

than having a second car.

Getting the right customers is
more important in the beginning.

Distribution with
the right customers,

so we can really use these
amazing people

that are early adopters
to help us make this work.

Outside of the tech bubble, some -

including the International
Federation of Robotics -

think it could take 20 years
before domestic bots

become truly useful and accepted.

But we have heard that before about
other futuristic AI technologies.

So keep your seat belt
fastened, please.

In some ways,
brand-new revolutionary technology

does just sort of creep up on you.

If you think about driverless cars,

I've been talking about
driverless cars in my reporting

for a decade at least.

But now they're here
and they're just sort of normal.

In many cities across
the US and in China,

driverless cars
are an everyday sight.

AI robotics companies are convinced
their tech will go the same way.

And not only will their
devices be truly useful,

we'll all eventually
want one in our homes.

Now to South America.

Donald Trump has said Venezuela
will be "turning over"

up to 50 million barrels of oil
to the US.

This comes after the military
operation to remove

President Nicolas Maduro from power.

But why does America want more oil

when it's already
the world's biggest producer?

Laura Garcia, from the BBC's global
journalism team explains why.

The United States
produces more oil

than any other country in the world,

and President Trump
talks about it a lot.

Take the oil.
Keep the oil.

Drill, baby, drill.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

But he doesn't just talk
about America's oil.

We're going to have presence in
Venezuela, as it pertains to oil.

So, why is he interested in more oil
when the US has so much of its own?

To understand this, we need
to take a deeper look at oil

and how it's shaped
the US and the world.

Oil fuels our transport
and powers our homes,

but it's also used to make plastic,
asphalt and even some lip balms.

And to make all those
different things

requires different types of oil.

Depending on its density,
sulphur content,

and ability to flow,

oil is classed from
light sweet crude on one end

to heavy sour on the other.

It's easier to refine light crude
than heavy, which is thicker,

and once that's done,
the light is mainly used

for products like gasoline
and jet fuel,

while heavy oil can be used
as fuel for ships,

material for roads and lip balm,
among many other things.

That's generally reflected
in the price.

Light sweet crude,
the blue line on the chart,

is worth more than heavy -
the red line -

and so it's more expensive to buy.

And this is key to understanding
American oil.

In 2025, the US sold
13.4 million barrels a day,

but at the same time, it bought
nearly two million barrels

each day from other countries.

So why not just keep those
extra barrels it produces?

It all comes down
to light versus heavy.

America's oil is 80% light,

but most US oil refineries,
like these along the Gulf Coast,

were built to deal with heavy.

That's because most oil available
to the US in the 20th century

was heavy sour crude oil imported
from Latin America and Canada.

But in the early 2000s,
there was a seismic shift

in US oil production.

Advances in technology meant
light crude oil

trapped in shale rocks
could now be extracted at scale.

This means there's a mismatch
between most of the oil

America has and
the type it can refine.

Once a refinery has been built,

it's very difficult to change it,
and it requires millions

and millions of dollars'
worth of investment.

It's not worth doing that because,
as we saw on this graph,

America can sell its light crude
for more and buy heavy for less.

It makes good economic sense.

So, let's look
at the top ten countries

with the biggest oil reserves.

Many are known to extract
heavy crude.

Three of them -
Venezuela, Iran and Russia -

are currently under sanctions
by the United States.

Despite this, small amounts
of oil from Venezuela

have trickled into the US.

That's because, after
Venezuela struck oil,

it was mostly American companies
that helped set up the industry.

And that relationship continued
for most of the 20th century,

extracting their heavy crude.

Unlike other
Latin American countries,

Venezuela maintained this positive
relationship with the United States,

even during the 1976
nationalisation of oil.

But the turning point was when
socialist leader Hugo Chavez

came to power in 1999.

..embargo.

He asserted state control over
the oil industry in particular.

He put tougher conditions
on foreign oil companies,

and that's what the US government

and US oil companies
didn't really like.

When Hugo Chavez died in 2013,

Nicolas Maduro became President
and continued these policies.

In 2019, a World Bank tribunal
ordered the Venezuelan government

to pay compensation
to US oil companies.

But it wasn't paid.

And that's part of what
US President Donald Trump

is referring to when he says
that Venezuela

has stolen American oil.

They took our oil rights.
We had a lot of oil there.

As you know, they threw our
companies out,

and we want it back.

Venezuela denies these claims.

Things escalated between the two
countries at the end of 2025,

when the US military
seized oil tankers

and blockaded Venezuelan ports.

President Trump said this was
to tackle narco terrorism.

EXPLOSION, SCREAMS

On January 3rd, American troops
seized the leader of Venezuela,

Nicolas Maduro, and his wife.

They took them to the United States
to face drug-related charges.

Here's some of what President Trump
said following that intervention.

We'll have the greatest oil
companies in the world going in,

invest billions and billions
of dollars and take out money,

use that money in Venezuela.

And the biggest beneficiaries are
going to be the people of Venezuela.

US and Western sanctions
in Venezuela over the last decade

have made space
for competitors to come in,

like Russia, Iran
and particularly China.

China has been buying around
90% of Venezuela's oil

and is a key trading partner.

And it's this sort of influence
that the Trump administration

wants to stop.

Well, we want safety there.

We want to be surrounded
by countries

that aren't housing all of
our enemies all over the world.

When it comes to Venezuela's oil,

things aren't going
to change quickly.

Despite Venezuela having
the biggest known reserves -

around 303 billion barrels -

it exports fewer than
a million barrels a day.

That's because of sanctions
and decades of underfunding

and mismanagement.

The infrastructure has to be,
in some cases,

believe it or not,
rebuilt from scratch.

Looking at a three
to four year window

before any Venezuelan crude
in meaningful volumes happens.

And while there's a push
to use more renewable energy

in the face of growing
climate change concerns,

oil still plays a crucial role
in the global order.

Also this week on the World Service,

as protests have rapidly spread
across Iran in recent days,

initially driven by public anger
over the country's economy,

BBC Persian,
in collaboration with BBC Verify,

have been monitoring videos
posted online

to produce a dynamic map indicating
where the protests have broken out.

The map clearly shows
just how widespread

the challenge to the Iranian
government has become.

You can read the full story
on the BBC news website.

Now we're going to take you
to Central America.

Since Donald Trump's return to
the White House in January 2025,

the United States has taken a much
stricter view on immigration,

with sweeping efforts to remove
undocumented migrants

from the country. Yet despite
the threat of deportation,

thousands from
Central and Southern America

continue to head north
in search of opportunity.

Among them are Guatemalans.

Nearly 10%
of the country's population

has relocated to the US
in recent decades,

and the remittances
they send back home

have become a cornerstone
of Guatemala's economy.

Atahualpa Amerise reports
on how remittance homes

have become an economic lifeline
and a cultural symbol.

Guatemala, a country made up
of around 18 million,

is one of the poorest countries
in Central America.

Inequality is extreme,

especially in rural
and indigenous areas,

where poverty and unemployment
and limited access

to public services
remain widespread.

For decades, migration has been
one of the main ways

Guatemalans have tried
to escape that reality.

The main destination -
the United States.

For families who stay behind,

migration has one
central economic consequence -

remittances.

MUSIC PLAYS ON RADIO

Antonio is a master builder

and has just completed this mansion
for his 22-year-old son,

who migrated to the US
three years ago.

Globally, remittances are often
discussed as financial flows.

In Guatemala, they are visible
in everyday life

and in the built environment.

Money sent from migrants
in the United States

has become a pillar
of Guatemala's economy.

In many rural municipalities,

remittances exceed all other
sources of income combined,

including state investment.

Jordi is a local architect

who specialises
in American-style homes.

From his studio in the centre
of San Martin Sacatepequez,

he designs houses commissioned
by migrants

who want to help their families,

or dream of one day returning
to live in Guatemala.

Maria's mother works
in the United States

and moved there
more than 12 years ago.

The money she sends
to Guatemala every month

allowed her daughter to move
from a small house

made of metal sheets
to this three-storey mansion.

In recent years, remittances
have also become

a form of insurance
against deportation.

Since President Donald Trump
returned to the White House,

US immigration policy
has again tightened.

The administration has
intensified enforcement

against undocumented migrants,

increasing workplace raids
and deportations.

Most Guatemalans now living
in the US

are believed to be undocumented.

Guatemala's remittance architecture
is ultimately

a physical record of global
inequality, migration and power,

built one house at a time.

Thanks for joining us
here in California.

Next week, Global Eye will be
reporting from Israel.

Goodbye.