Computer Says Maybe
Technology is changing fast, and it's changing our world even faster. Host Alix Dunn interviews visionaries, researchers, and technologists working in the public interest to help you keep up. Step outside the hype and explore the possibilities, problems, and politics of technology. The podcast publishes weekly episodes.
Episodes
The Climate Cost of AI Prophecies: How Data Centers Fuel Big Fossil w/ Ketan Joshi
Tech companies keep telling us that the answer to solving climate change lies in AI. Meanwhile, the data centers required to power AI are keeping coal plants open longer, bringing in gas turbines, and driving plans for power stations bigger than anything we’ve built before.More like this: The Colossus Crossroads: Fighting for the Future of Memphis w/ KeShaun PearsonIn this episode, Ketan
Beware the AI Prophets: Hype, Doom, and Prediction as Tools of Control w/ Carissa Véliz
When a tech executive says AI will be doing your job next year, it sounds like a forecast. Dr. Carissa Véliz argues it's something else: a command, delivered in advance, that works only if enough of us obey it. If you believe the prediction, you buy the product, reorganize your company, and bet the economy on it, and the prediction comes true because you made it so. So who gets to make pr
The Kids Are Online: Are Social Media Bans the Answer? w/ Cori Crider and Pamela Wisniewski
Almost everyone studying kids’ safety online agrees that a blanket social media ban won't work. And nearly every government moving on the issue is passing one anyway. This week, a researcher and a policy lawyer dig into why - and what could actually work instead.More like this: When Kids Can’t Consent: The Case Against Tech in the Classroom w/ Andrew LiddellThis is the final episode in ou
When Kids Can’t Consent: The Case Against Tech in the Classroom w/ Andrew Liddell
No tech that your kid uses in the classroom was designed for their benefit. Not the tablet, not the "learning app," not the AI chatbot helping with homework. It was designed to benefit the company that made it — and your kid's data, attention, privacy, and, most importantly, safety, are the price.More like this: Meet the Mom Winning Against AI in Schools w/ Ifeoma OzomaThis week, Andrew L
The Battle for Power Inside Big Tech: Against Tech Oligarchy w/ JS Tan & Clarissa Redwine
Over the last decade, tech workers have staged walkouts, signed open letters by the tens of thousands, and built more than a dozen new unions across the industry. And yet, over that same decade, tech companies have ramped up carbon emissions, raced to militarize AI, signed contracts with the Trump administration, rolled back protections for marginalized users, and, in some ways, engineere
Meet the Mom Winning Against AI in Schools w/ Ifeoma Ozoma
Imagine dropping your kid off at school, assuming they’ll spend the day being taught by… teachers, of course. But then you find out that part of their day is actually spent talking and reading out loud to a cute, cartoonish AI avatar named Amira. And while they’re reading, Amira is recording their voice, without ever receiving consent from the parent or child.In New Mexico, this very tech
The Digital Delusion: The False Promise of Ed Tech w/ Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath
A screen is built to do one thing well: split your attention across as many things as possible, as fast as possible. A developing brain needs the opposite— sustained, undivided focus— to learn anything at all. Cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath doesn't think ed-tech is failing kids by accident. He thinks it's failing them because the two things it's built to do are the same
Meet the Guy (Actually) Passing Tech Laws
You've likely heard of the National Sexual Assault Hotline. What you might not know is that it's operated by RAINN, an organization that has become one of the more unlikely players in tech policy. Since the pandemic, RAINN has seen a sharp rise in calls from young people. As more time is spent online, more opportunities for online sexual abuse follow.More like this: How Anduril Tried to K
How Anduril Tried to Kill Democracy in Ohio (& How Farmers Fought Back)
In Madison Township, Ohio, families have farmed the same land for generations. Then a commercial real estate company started buying up their neighbors' fields under the code name "Project Thor." They wouldn't find out until later that the buyer was Anduril, a venture-backed weapons company chasing a slice of the trillion-dollar Pentagon budget. Now, those farming families’ cattle and corn
A Sneak Peek into The Maybe Collective
We’re taking a short summer break and will be back on your feed in a couple of weeks. But we've got news before we go.Catch up on our most recent series: Computer Says Kill & REAL ResistanceWe're cooking up something new: a pilot membership community, launching this fall. Alix shares a little sneak peek at what we're building, and why we think its time to create a place where people c
The Colossus Crossroads: Fighting for the Future of Memphis w/ KeShaun Pearson
In Memphis, companies don't come in to invest in the city. They come in to extract from its people and its land, no matter how high the human cost. That's exactly what xAI did when they decided to build one of the largest data centers in South Memphis, regardless of what it meant for the wellbeing of the people already living there.More like this: The Collective Fight for Our Humanity - R
The Gig is Up: How Uber Ruined Wage Labor with Veena Dubal
In 2013, taxi drivers were beginning to notice something unusual: unmarked, black cars were cutting them off in taxi lines and picking up their passengers. Little did these drivers know that those black cars were the start of Uber — and it wasn’t just going to destroy the taxi industry, but wage labor as we knew it.More like this: REAL Resistance — Against Automated GovernmentsIn this epi
The Collective Fight for Our Humanity - REAL Resistance
Anna Bacciarelli and Shazeda Ahmed know more than anyone that there are only a handful of tech companies asserting dominance around the world by talking in high-level abstractions about what the future looks like. At REAL ML, they want to change that.More like this: REAL Resistance: Who's Behind Big Brother?This is REAL Resistance, a collection of conversations produced in collaboration w
Who's Behind Big Brother? - REAL Resistance
Mariel Garcia-Montes and Crofton Black share their stories and investigations that uncover the backdoor deals that allow the surveillance industry to thrive under the guise of ‘security’. If you have nothing to hide, you won’t mind if we spy, right?More like this: REAL Resistance: The Global Fight Against TechnocolonialismThis is REAL Resistance, a collection of conversations produced in
The Global Fight Against Technocolonialism - REAL Resistance
Paola Ricaurte Quijano, Fernanda Rodrigues, Angela Chukunzira, and Kauna Love Malgwi make it clear that colonial powers have never gone away. The people and technology powering them have just changed, and one of them is AI…More Like This: REAL Resistance: Against Automated GovernmentsThis is REAL Resistance, a collection of conversations produced in collaboration with Real ML, featuring t
Against Automated Governments - REAL Resistance
Maria Pilar Llorens, Divij Joshi, Gabriel Geiger, and Purity Mukami reveal how digitised welfare is not welfare — it’s just efficiency theatre.More like this: REAL Resistance: The AI Information WarpThis is REAL Resistance, a collection of conversations produced in collaboration with Real ML, featuring the experts and advocates who make up Real ML’s global network.In this conversation, th
The AI Information Warp - REAL Resistance
Klaudia Jaźwińska, Aliya Bhatia, and Yanick Kemayou come together to answer: What happens when a small collection of AI companies start colonising the truth?More like this: The Toxic Relationship Between AI & Journalism w/ Nic DawesThis is REAL Resistance, a collection of conversations produced in collaboration with Real ML, featuring the experts and advocates who make up Real ML’s gl
Computer Says Kill: How To Say No w/ Matt Mahmoudi and Marwa Fatafta
How do we stand up against the human rights violations that exist in the gruesome relationship between the business of AI and war?More like this: Computer Says Kill: The AI Safety Circus w/ Heidy KhlaafIn our final installment of Computer Says Kill, Matt Mahmoudi returns, this time with Marwa Fatafta, to share the why and how of their recent joint statement on AI in warfare. The calls on
Computer Says Kill: The AI Safety Circus w/ Heidy Khlaaf
The AI industry loves to talk about safety, but their version of safety is putting us at risk.More like this: The Palestine Laboratory w/ Antony LoewensteinFor our second to last series episode of Computer Says Kill, we’re joined by Heidy Khlaaf, a global expert in designing safe critical systems for high-risk infrastructures such as energy grids, nuclear power plants, and weaponry. Heidy
Computer Says Kill: The Palestine Laboratory w/ Antony Loewenstein
Israel has a long history of making new technological weapons of war and exporting them to the world. They have used Palestine as a testing ground to show how new tools can enable mass killing. And they are banking that demand for their products might protect them on the world stage.More like this: Anthropic is NOT the Good Guy w/ Maddy BattIn part seven of Computer Says Kill, author of T
SPECIAL: Israel’s AI Kill List in Lebanon w/ Nabih Bulos
The Israeli military is using data, surveillance, and AI to kill noncombatants in Southern Lebanon. More like this: Computer Says Kill: Collapsing the Chain w/ with Matt MahmoudiThis week, we're kind of taking a break from our Computer Says Kill series to play a interview from our YouTube channel that is extremely relevant to the conversations we've been having about AI and militarization
Computer Says Kill: Anthropic is NOT the Good Guy w/ Madeline Batt
Anthropic’s AI systems have been used in illegal American invasions in Iran and Venezuela. They have partnered with Musk in the disastrous Memphis Colossus facility. And yet! News coverage, some civil society, and a lot of normies act like Anthropic is one of the good guys. They aren’t!More like this: The Toxic Love Triangle of Big Tech, Big War & Big Science w/ David Gray WidderFor p
Computer Says Kill: The Toxic Love Triangle of Big Tech, Big War & Big Science w/ David Gray Widder
Academia, Big Tech, and the military are caught in a sordid love triangle — and their love language is money.More like this: Computer Says Kill: The Blank Check to Beat China w/ Lis SiegelFor part five of Computer Says Kill, researcher David Widder describes the powerful trifecta that is academia, Big Tech, and the US military: all of them need each other to survive, but who is benefiting
Computer Says Kill: The Blank Check to Beat China w/ Lis Siegel
The US is in a race to ‘beat China’ at AI. Or is it? What if I told you that powerful actors in the US have built the story of an all-or-nothing race to get what they want?More like this: Computer Says Kill: A License for Unlimited War w/ Amos TohIn part four of Computer Says Kill we are joined by Lis Siegel who shares the history. We start with a document produced by China in 2017, and a
Short: RightsGone? Why Zambia May Have Pulled the Plug on RightsCon
RightsCon has just been cancelled by the Zambian government with no word to the organizers, five days before it was set to begin.RightsCon is the biggest annual global gathering of the digital rights community. Every year thousands of people come together to figure out how to make the internet safer and freer for everyone. When they can't connect, we all lose.Alix shares a few theories ab
Computer Says Kill: A License for Unlimited War w/ Amos Toh
Military spending on AI is a triple black box: How is AI being used in the military? Who is winning these contracts and what are they worth? And what is the military’s end-game here?More like this: How a Calculator Company Reshaped Modern Warfare w/ Jeff SternAmos Toh will help us answer these questions in part three of Computer Says Kill. We will cover how military spending has changed o
Computer Says Kill: How a Calculator Company Reshaped Modern Warfare w/ Jeff Stern
Precision weapons are meant to make warfare more exact. But what happens when the executive branch uses precision as an excuse to make more war and target with less and less accountability for accuracy?More like this: Computer Says Kill: Collapsing the Chain w/ with Matt MahmoudiIn part two of Computer Says Kill, Jeff Stern shares how a calculator company transformed modern warfare by mak
Computer Says Kill: Collapsing the Chain w/ with Matt Mahmoudi
How does a country wage war using LLMs? Oh and WHY?More like this: AI in Gaza: Live from Mexico CityIn Computer Says Kill Ep #1 we are joined by Matt Mahmoudi. The US Department of War is leaning heavily on AI technologies to attack Iran. Matt explains how the use of LLMs to identify ‘legitimate targets’ is collapsing the chain of decisions that lead to lethal force. We discuss what this
Computer Says Kill: New Series Trailer
This is Computer Says Kill, a new series on series focused on tracing the people, decisions, and systems that have recklessly ushered AI into the business of war.What we’re watching play out— from AI military chatbots to tech companies in bed with authoritarian governments— isn’t a new story. It's the latest chapter in a much older relationship between technology, military power, institut
Fantasy Factory: Luddite Horror w/ Brian Merchant
What better way than movies to help us process the world. Brian Merchant shares how our collective anxieties turn into cultural products.More like this: One Filmmaker’s Fight Against AI w/ Valerie VeatchBrian Merchant, author of Blood in the Machine, joins us this week to discuss his favorite unsettling, horror and thriller picks that bring our fears about AI and tech to life on screen.Al
How to Scare a Fascist w/ Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein has spent her career studying political movements — and she thinks progressives are doing better than we think. Because the fascists are scared.More like this: To be Seen and not Watched w/ Tawana PettyIn her forthcoming book, End Times Fascism, Klein and co-author Astra Taylor take stock of the history of fascism and the collective power that has been brought to bear to fight
Fantasy Factory: One Filmmaker's Fight Against AI w/ Valerie Veatch
The way artists make art matters. And some artists, like filmmaker Valerie Veatch, are exploring what role AI has in the craft of filmmaking.More like this: Fantasy Factory: AI Supervillains w/ Anat Shenker-OsorioValerie Veatch is the director of Ghost in the Machine, a new film that explores the depths of the Silicon Valley fantasies around AI, and platforms all the people that challenge
Short: Grand Theft Grammarly w/ Julia Angwin & Peter Romer-Friedman
Grammarly launched a feature that no one wanted and now they’re getting sued. They used the names of writers, journalists, and editors to pretend that AI versions of those people were making writing suggestions via the application. None of these ‘expert reviewers’ had any idea. Grammarly pissed off the wrong journalist.And now Julia Angwin is suing them.More like this: The Toxic Relations
Fantasy Factory: AI Supervillains w/ Anat Shenker-Osorio
The left has a messaging problem. Silicon Valley elites are literally making up impossible fantasies and their narratives are winning out. Why?More like this: The Stories we Tell Ourselves About AIThis week in our second episode leading to the AI Doc, we are joined by Anat Shenker-Osorio, a progressive campaign strategist who hosts the Words To Win By podcast. Anat tries to focus on the p
Fantasy Factory: AGI is Scientifically Impossible w/ Adam Becker
Next time someone tells you that we can build data centres in space, show them this podcast episode — because it is literally impossible.More like this: AI Safety’s Spiral of Urgency w/ Shazeda AhmedOr better yet, recommend that they buy More Everything Forever, Adam Becker’s latest book exploring all the fantasies and promises of coming out of Silicon Valley. This episode is the first in
Livestream: The People’s Policy: Holding Big Tech Accountable
How does an oppressed workforce organise against Big Tech employers with even bigger lobbying muscle?More like this: Worker Power & Big Tech Boss Men w/ David SeligmanThis week’s episode is a recording of our livestream from Monday: a litigator, regulator, and activist share their work and perspectives on coordinating bottom-up fights against Big Tech power, worker suppression, and un
Lingo Bingo at the India AI Summit w/ Naomi Klein, Timnit Gebru, Nikhil Dey, and Chinasa Okolo
This is the last of our series AI Lingo Bingo Series! We dig into four more co-opted concepts with four more all stars.More like this: Last week’s episode with Meredith Whittaker, Audrey Tang, Abeba Birhane, and Usha RamanathanThis week we’ll hear from Naomi Klein, who will discuss how ‘AI for Climate’ is very much not a thing; Nikhil Dey who shares all the ways powerful actors cosplay at
Is Claude Out of the War Business? w/ Amos Toh
Anthropic’s Claude was used in the military operation to kidnap president Maduro earlier this year. Why? Unclear. Was this legal? Absolutely not.More like this: AI In Gaza: Live from Mexico CitySurprise, surprise: the DoD feels that they should able to use AI models however they want, as long as its lawful — but… was this lawful? They are now threatening to designate Anthropic as a supply
Lingo Bingo at the India AI Summit w/ Meredith Whittaker, Audrey Tang, Abeba Birhane, and Usha Ramanathan
It’s our second week of playing AI lingo bingo. The summit in India is underway and the air is thick with vague terms that fail to describe the big problems.More like this: Lingo Bingo at the India AI Summit w/ Karen Hao, Joan Kinyua, Chenai Chair, and Rafael GrohmannWith us this week to discuss co-opted terms is Meredith Whittaker on how ‘open source’ cannot meaninfully be applied to AI
Lingo Bingo at the India AI Summit w/ Karen Hao, Joan Kinyua, Chenai Chair, and Rafael Grohmann
The AI Impact Summit in India is just a couple of days away and we are ready to drown in vague terms that kinda describe AI, and definitely obscure power. Let’s talk about how to reframe those terms…More like this: The Vaporstate: All Hail Scale at the AI India SummitWe’ve partnered with the AI Now Institute and Aapti Institute to conduct twelve interviews based around the biggest and bad
The Vaporstate: All Hail Scale at the India AI Summit
In The Vaporstate, we have traveled to Brazil, India, and the UK. But what does this look like as a global movement of nations and companies evangelising technology as the key to solving all problems, everywhere?More like this: Paris Post-Mortem (live)For our final instalment of The Vaporstate, Alix is joined by Astha Kapoor and Amba Kak to reflect on the series, and discuss the upcoming
The Vaporstate: Buy Blair, Sell AI
What does US tech billionaire Larry Ellison get when he gives the Tony Blair Institute hundreds of millions of dollars?More like this: The Vaporstate: ID in IndiaIn our third installment of The Vaporstate, we are joined by two journalists from Lighthouse Reports, who tell all about their investigation into the questionable relationship between Oracle founder Larry Ellison, the Tony Blair
The Vaporstate: Brazil is Banking on Apps
What happens when the very way you prove who you are is stolen by someone else? And what happens when a country stands up to Meta and builds their own.More like this: The Vaporstate: ID in IndiaFor episode two of The Vaporstate, Alix is joined by Rafael Zanatta and Luã Cruz. Rafa walks us through the incredible story of how his mom’s digital ID was stolen and a clever bank teller stopped
The Vaporstate: ID in India
Our first exploration of The Vaporstate takes us to India, home of Aadhaar: a mammoth digitisation project that charts a path from technical solution for public service delivery, through mission creep and popular opposition, to a knotty but inescapable part of Indian existence today.More like this: Is Digitisation Killing Democracy? w/ Marietje SchaakeJoining Alix for part one of The Vapo
The Vaporstate: A New Mini-Series
This is The Vaporstate, a new series on the worldwide government bonanza of enthusiastic digitisation: Digital IDs, digital payment systems, massive data exchange platforms. What are the every-day impacts of these digitisation projects, and why now?The Vaporstate is a deep exploration of digital public infrastructure: we will hear from the journalists, civil society groups, and lawyers fr
The Age of Noise w/ Eryk Salvaggio (replay)
Infinite AI slop means we are moving away from our the age of information into what Eryk Salvaggio calls ‘the age of noise’.More like this: Straight to Video: From Rodney King to Sora w/ Sam GregoryWe’re replaying five deep conversations over the Christmas period for you to listen to on your travels and downtime — please enjoy!What happens if you ask a generative AI image model to show yo
Gotcha! Enshittification w/ Cory Doctorow (replay)
Welcome to the final boss of scams in the age of technology: EnshittificationMore like this: Nodestar: The Eternal September w/ Mike MasnickWe’re replaying five deep conversations over the Christmas period for you to listen to on your travels and downtime — please enjoy!Is platformisation essentially just an industrial level scam? We will deep-dive the enshittification playbook to underst
Worker Power & Big Tech Bossmen w/ David Seligman (replay)
Litigator David Seligman describes how big tech companies act brazenly as legal bullies to extract wealth and power from the working class in the US.More like this: The Human in the Loop: The AI Supply ChainWe’re replaying five deep conversations over the Christmas period for you to listen to on your travels and downtime — please enjoy!Alix and David talk about legal devices such as force
Reporting on AI’s climate injustices w/ Karen Hao (replay)
Reporting on the tech industry proves a huge challenge due to how opaque it all is — Empire of AI author Karen Hao talks us through her investigative methods in a conversation from November 2024.More like this: Net 0++ AI Thirst in a Water-Scarce World w/ Julie McCarthyWe’re replaying five deep conversations over the Christmas period for you to listen to on your travels and downtime — ple
How to (Actually) Keep Kids Safe Online w/ Kate Sim (replay)
A replay of our conversation with Kate Sim, on the state of child safety online.More like this: Dogwhistles: Networked Transphobia OnlineWe’re replaying five deep conversations over the Christmas period for you to listen to on your travels and downtime — please enjoy!Child safety is a fuzzy catch-all concept for our broader social anxieties that seems to be everywhere in our conversations
Digitisation, Privatisation, and Human Centipedes: Our Learnings from 2025
Before we break for the year we wanted to reflect on what the podcast brought us in 2025, and what we want to see for 2026This week Alix is joined by two members of The Maybe team: Prathm Juneja and Georgia Iacovou. We discuss our favourite episodes from the year while making it clear we love all episodes equally. And also this is not your standard clip show. We ask ourselves what we lear
Ben Collins: Computer Says MozFest
The Onion CEO Ben Collins has successfully turned political satire into a sustainable business. He explains why humorous messaging is important to understand times like these — and why he’s dead serious about buying Infowars.Head to our feed for more conversations from MozFest with Abeba Birhane, Audrey Tang, and Luisa Franco Machado.Further reading & resources:Read The Onion, America
Audrey Tang: Computer Says MozFest
Audrey Tang has some big ideas on how we can use collective needs to shape AI systems — and avoid a future where human life is seen as an obstacle to paper clip production. She also shares what might be the first actual good use-case for AI agents…Further reading & resources:6-Pack of Care — a research project by Audrey Tang and Caroline Green as part of the Institute for Ethics in AI
Luisa Franco Machado: Computer Says MozFest
You can’t build a digital rights movement if you don’t know what you’re fighting for. Luisa says that we’re in a crisis of imagination, and that participation — the non-performative kind — is one big way out of this.Further reading & resources:Learn more about EquilabsFollow Luisa on Instagram — sorry, email is too ‘analog’Check out her Linktree**Subscribe to our newsletter to get mor
Abeba Birhane: Computer Says MozFest
Earlier this year Abeba Birhane was asked to give a keynote at the AI for Good Summit for the UN — and at the eleventh hour they attempted to censor any mention of genocide in Palestine, and their Big Tech sponsors. She was invited to give her full uncensored talk at Mozfest.Further reading & resources:Abeba’s blog post on the UN censoring her talk on AIMore about AbebaMore about The
Computer Says MozFest 2025
Mozilla Festival 2025. Barcelona. Three days in a bonanza of interesting people, ideas, and technology politics. These were our highlights!More like this: FAccT 2025 episodes one and twoThis is an extra special episode packed full of conversations and on-site impressions of the biggest Mozfest we’ve had in years. This year Alix moderated three panels, ran an AMA, and even hosted a game sh
Who Knows? Fact-Finding in a Failing State w/ HRDAG and Data & Society
Everything is happening so fast. And a lot of it’s bad. What can research and science organizations do when issues are complex, fast-moving, and super important?More like this: Independent Researchers in a Platform Era w/ Brandi GuerkinkBuilding knowledge is more important than ever in times like these. This week, we have three guests. Megan Price from the Human Rights Data Analysis Group
Who Knows? Independent Researchers in a Platform Era w/ Brandi Geurkink
Imagine doing tech research… but from outside the tech industry? What an idea…More like this: Nodestar: Turning Networks into Knowledge w/ Andrew TraskSo much of tech research happens within the tech industry itself, because it requires data access, funding, and compute. But what the tech industry has in resources, it lacks in independence, scruples, and a public interest imperative. Alix
Tres Publique: Algorithms in the French Welfare State w/ Soizic Pénicaud
Governments around the world are using predictive systems to manage engagement with even the most vulnerable. Results are mixed.More like this: Algorithmically Cutting Benefits w/ Kevin De LibanLuckily people like Soizic Pénicaud are working to prevent the modern welfare state from becoming a web of punishment of the most marginalised. Soizic has worked on algorithmic transparency both in
Straight to Video: From Rodney King to Sora w/ Sam Gregory
Seeing is believing. Right? But what happens when we lose trust in the reproductive media put in front of us?More like this: The Toxic Relationship Between AI and Journalism w/ Nic DawesWe talked to a global expert and leading voice on this issue for the past 20 years, Sam Gregory to get his take. We started way back in 1992 when Rodney King was assaulted by 4 police officers in Los Angel
The Toxic Relationship Between AI & Journalism w/ Nic Dawes
What happens when AI models try to fill the gaping hole in the media landscape where journalists should be?More like this: Reanimating Apartheid w/ Nic DawesThis week Alix is joined by Nic Dawes, who until very recently ran the non-profit newsroom The City. In this conversation we explore journalism’s new found toxic relationship with AI and big tech: can journalists meaningfully use AI i
Unlearning in the AI Era w/ Nabiha Syed at Mozilla Foundation
Mozilla Foundation wants to chart a new path in the AI era. But what is its role now and how can it help reshape the impacts and opportunities of technology for… everyone?More like this: Defying Datafication w/ Abeba BirhaneAlix sat down with Nabiha Syed to chat through her first year as the new leader of Mozilla Foundation. How does she think about strategy in this moment? What role does
You Seem Lonely. Have a Robot w/ Stevie Chancellor
Loneliness and mental health illnesses are rising in the US, while access to care dwindles — so a lot of people are turning to chatbots. Do chatbots work for therapy?More like this: The Collective Intelligence Project w/ Divya Siddarth and Zarinah AgnewWhy are individuals are confiding in chatbots over qualified human therapists? Stevie Chancellor explains why an LLM can’t replace a thera
Local Laws for Global Technologies w/ Hillary Ronen
What’s it like working as a local representative when you live next door to Silicon Valley?More like this: Chasing Away Sidewalk Labs w/ Bianca WylieWhen Hilary Ronen was on the board of supervisors for San Francisco, she had to make lots of decisions about technology. She felt unprepared. Now she sees local policymakers on the frontlines of a battle of resources and governance in an AI e
Gotcha! Enshittification w/ Cory Doctorow
Welcome to the final boss of scams in the age of technology: Enshittification More like this: Nodestar: The Eternal September w/ Mike MasnickThis is our final episode of Gotcha! — our series on scams, how they work, and how technology both amplifies and obscures them. For this final instalment we have Cory Doctorow on to chat about his new book Enshittification.Is platformisation essentia
Gotcha! ScamGPT w/ Lana Swartz & Alice Marwick
Thought we were at peak scam? Well, ScamGPT just entered the chat.More like this: Gotcha! The Crypto Grift w/ Mark HaysThis is part three of Gotcha! — our series on scams, how they work, and how technology is supercharging them. This week Lana Swartz and Alice Marwick join Alix to discuss their primer on how generative AI is automating fraud.We dig into the very human, very dark world of
NYC Live: Let Them Eat Compute
This just in with data centers: Energy grids are strained, water is scarce, utility costs are through the roof — ah well, let them eat compute, I guess!More like this: AI Thirst in a Water-Scarce World w/ Julie McCarthyIt was just climate week in NYC and we did a live show on data centers with four amazing guests from around the US…Thank you to the Luminate Foundation for sponsoring this
Are AI Companies Cooking the Books? w/ Sarah Myers West
OpenAI just secured a bizarre financial deal with Nvidia — but the math is not mathing. Is the AI sector an actual market, or a series of high-profile announcements of circular relationships between a tiny number of companies?More like this: Making Myths to Make Money w/ AI NowAlix sat down with Sarah Myers-West to go through the particulars of this deal, and other similar deals that are
Gotcha! How MLMs Ate the Economy w/ Bridget Read
Multi-level marketing schemes have built an empire by enticing people with promises of self-realisation and economic freedom. The cost is simple: exploit and be exploited.More like this: Worker Power & Big Tech Bossmen w/ David SeligmanThis is part two of Gotcha! Our series on scams, how they work, and how technology is super-charging them. This week Bridget Read came to Alix with a v
Gotcha! The Crypto Grift w/ Mark Hays
Hey you! Do you want some free internet money? If this sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is!More like this: Making Myths to Make Money w/ AI NowThis is Gotcha! A four-part series on scams, how they work, and how technology is supercharging them. We start with Mark Hays from Americans for Financial Reform (AFR), and get into one of the biggest tech-fuelled financial scams out t
Gotcha!
Gotcha! is a four-part series on scams, how they work, and how technology is supercharging them — running through to October 10.In the series we look at:Crypto: Mark Hays on how a thing touting financial freedom ended up being a kind of fin-cult, rife with scammingMulti-Level Marketing : Bridget Read on the history of the biggest and most successful type of scam that still plagues us toda
Nodestar: Turning Networks into Knowledge w/ Andrew Trask
What if you could listen to multiple people at once, and actually understand them?More like this: **The Age of Noise w/ Eryk Salvaggio**In our final instalment (for now!) of Nodestar, Andrew Trask shares his vision for a world where we can assembly understanding from data everywhere. But not in a way that requires corporate control of our world.If broadcasting is the act of talking to mul
Nodestar: Building Blacksky w/ Rudy Fraser
Social media isn’t really social anymore. But that might be changing. Rudy Fraser over at Blacksky Algorithms has built something new. He has built the infrastructure to provide a safe online space for the black community, and in the process challenges the ideas of hierarchical, centralised networks. His work — even outside the very cool development of Blacksky — is an amazing, concrete e
Nodestar: The Eternal September w/ Mike Masnick
How did the internet become three companies in a trenchcoat? It wasn’t always that way! It used to be fun, and weird, and full of opportunity. To set the scene for the series, we spoke to a stalwart advocate of decentratilsation, Mike Masnick.More like this: Big Tech’s Bogus Vision for the Future w/ Paris MarxThis is part one of Nodestar, a three-part series on decentralisation: how the i
Short: UK Groups Sue To Block Data Center Expansion
Foxglove and Global Action Plan have just sued the UK government over their YOLO hyperscale data center plans.More like this: Net0++: Data Centre SprawlLocal government rejected the data center. But Starmer’s administration overruled them. They want to force the development of a water-guzzling, energy draining data center on a local community who has said no. And all of this is on the gre
Big Tech’s Bogus Vision for the Future w/ Paris Marx
What’s the deal with Silicon Valley selling imagined futures and never delivering on them. What are the consequences of an industry all-in on AI? What if we thought more deeply than just ‘more compute’?More like this: Big Dirty Data Centres with Boxi Wu and Jenna RuddockThis week, Paris Marx (host of Tech Won’t Save Us) joined Alix to chat about his recent work on hyperscale data centres,
Consciously Uncoupling from Silicon Valley w/ Cori Crider
How do we yank power out of tech oligarch hands without handing it over to someone else?More like this: Is Digitisation Killing Democracy? w/ Marietje SchaakeCori Crider is a fearless litigator turned market-shaping advocate. She started litigating during many years at leading human rights organisation Reprieve, and then moved on to co-founding Foxglove so she could sue big tech. Now she’
After the FAccT: Labour and Misrepresentation
Did you miss FAccT? We interviewed some of our favourite session organisers!More like this: Part One of our FAccT roundup: Materiality and Militarisation.Georgia, Soizic, and Hanna from The Maybe team just went to FAccT. Georgia and Soizic interviewed a bunch of amazing researchers, practitioners, and artists to give you a taste of what the conference was like if you didn’t get to go. Ali
Short: Musk: Reanimating Apartheid w/ Nic Dawes
In May, Grok couldn’t stop talking about white genocide. This injection of right-wing South African politics triggered a conversation with a Musk contemporary, Nic Dawes.In this short Nic shares his perspective on how post-apartheid white communities have dealt with apartheid’s end. And how Musk is basically seeking out an information environment that can recreate the apartheid informatio
After the FAccT: Materiality and Militarisation
Georgia, Soizic, and Hanna from The Maybe team just went to FAccT. Georgia and Soizic interviewed a bunch of amazing researchers, practitioners, and artists to give you a taste of what the conference was like if you didn’t get to go. Alix missed it too — you’ll learn along with her!In part one we explore the depth of AI’s hidden material impacts, including its use in military applications
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