QUESTION Time has been called out for a “dangerous” lack of balance on its panel – with Zack Polanski suggesting the BBC had allowed a billionaire to buy “an entire episode”.
Questions were raised after the BBC confirmed the five panellists for a special on artificial intelligence (AI), which will be broadcast from Dulwich on Thursday evening.
Alongside Labour minister Darren Jones – who is known for championing AI in government – and Tory shadow technology secretary Julia Lopez, the panel will feature former Google X executive Mo Gawdat, Tony Blair Institute AI director Laura Gilbert, and AI company executive Victor Riparbelli.
Journalist Carole Cadwalladr said the panel “is the equivalent of pitting Nigel Farage against Rupert Lowe with a bit of Tommy Robinson thrown in”.
Gawdat, was formerly the chief business officer for Google X – a semi-secret research and development facility founded by Google in 2010 with the mission of pursuing radical "moonshot" technologies.
While, as the BBC noted, Gawdat has warned that AI has its dangers, he has repeatedly called for it to be given control over human society in its entirety.
“Many people believe that if AI is ever in full control, it will become an existential risk to humanity. I would argue the opposite,” Gawdat wrote on LinkedIn last month . “I believe there is enough evidence to suggest that when we fully hand over to AI, it may actually become our salvation.”
Gilbert is the senior director of AI and head of the “AI for government” program at the Tony Blair Institute, which has accepted more than £250 million from Donald Trump ally, tech billionaire, and Oracle owner Larry Ellison since 2021.
In February, Gilbert co-wrote a report which called for AI to play a greater role in government, saying it “cannot sit at the edges” and AI impact “begins with the state itself”.
She also appears to know Gawdat. Two weeks ago, she chaired a panel on which he sat to discuss his new film, “Chasing Utopia”.
Riparbelli is the chief executive and co-founder of Synthesia, which calls itself “the world's #1 AI video creation platform”. The firm has deep ties to big business, with a profile on the World Economic Forum saying its AI is used by “more than 50,000 businesses, including 49% of the Fortune 100”.
Polanski, the Green leader in England and Wales, quipped in response to the Question Time panel: “Oracle’s £250m gift to the Tony Blair Institute appears to buy you an entire Question Time episode.”
Oracle’s £250m gift to the Tony Blair Institute appears to buy you an entire Question Time episode. https://t.co/f4vUdmRjCm
— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) May 28, 2026
Cadwalladr, known for her reporting on Nigel Farage’s allies and their push for Brexit, wrote:” So you know what @bbcquestiontime did with Farage? They’re now doing it with AI.
“This ‘expert’ panel on AI is a disgrace: not one critical voice.”
Calling the lack of balance “dangerous and damaging”, she went on: “I really hope people complain. Especially about the inclusion of Laura Gilbert, a paid corporate lobbyist bankrolled by Oracle’s Larry Ellison who funds Tony Blair’s institute.
“In a week in which the Pope delivered an astonishing document that counters the AI hype machine, the BBC is platforming the very worst of it.
“What Britain has to understand is the technology IS politics and this panel is the equivalent of pitting Nigel Farage against Rupert Lowe with a bit of Tommy Robinson thrown in.”
I think there is ~zero chance that anyone on this panel will bring up the monumental theft of creative work that underlies most generative AI models. This is a huge missed opportunity to educate the public on the actual harm done by AI. I hope I'm wrong. https://t.co/ctMfWbQ0BB
— Ed Newton-Rex (@ednewtonrex) May 28, 2026
Ed Newton-Rex, the founder of Fairly Trained – a non-profit that certifies AI companies for fairer training data sourcing, said he believes there is around “zero chance that anyone on this panel will bring up the monumental theft of creative work that underlies most generative AI models”.
“This is a huge missed opportunity to educate the public on the actual harm done by AI,” he added. “I hope I'm wrong.”
Dr David McMenemy, a reader in information studies at the University of Glasgow, said it was an "appalling panel, with zero balance".
"AI, for all its fab uses, needs proper governance, and for institutions to be looking out for citizens," he added. "This is a dereliction of duty on behalf of the producers."
The BBC has been approached for a response.
