We start with a long chat about Dune 2 – to avoid spoilers, or if you just don’t want to hear about Dune, skip to this timestamp: 34:43. We then get into the FTC / DOJ’s case against the rent maximizing algorithms being used by landlords to collude on price and drive up rents. It’s a real delight seeing antitrust enforcers knock back these obviously problematic technologies and deny the corporations’ totally idiotic legal defense of them.

••• Price fixing by algorithm is still price fixing https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2024/03/price-fixing-algorithm-still-price-fixing 

Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills   

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)

324. Dune Dudes 2 // Evicting RENTMaximizer

A podcast about technology and political economy /// Agitprop against innovation and capital /// Hosted by Jathan Sadowski and Edward Ongweso Jr., Produced by Jereme Brown /// Hello friends and enemies

Listen anywhere that fine podcasts are distributed. Subscribe at patreon.com/thismachinekills to get premium episodes every week.

Technology

Tech News

Podcasting

Gadgets

Software How-To

We do a reading series on a major anti-trust lawsuit brought by the Department of Justice against Live Nation / Ticketmaster and the absolutely wild tactics the company used to intimidate competitors, enforce market domination, and totally lockdown the live entertainment industry. Then we wrap up with the new licensing deals between OpenAI and The Atlantic, Vox Media, News Corp – and what they portend for the hollowed out future of news media.

••• How Live Nation’s Monopoly Works https://prospect.org/power/2024-05-24-how-live-nations-monopoly-works/
••• The Monopoly Case Against Ticketmaster, Explained https://www.404media.co/the-monopoly-case-against-ticketmaster-explained/
••• Exclusive: The Atlantic, Vox Media ink licensing, product deals with OpenAI https://www.axios.com/2024/05/29/atlantic-vox-media-openai-licensing-deal 
••• Former OpenAI board member explains why CEO Sam Altman got fired before he was rehired https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/29/former-openai-board-member-explains-why-ceo-sam-altman-was-fired.html 
••• America’s premier pronatalists on having ‘tons of kids’ to save the world: ‘There are going to be countries of old people starving to death’ https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/article/2024/may/25/american-pronatalists-malcolm-and-simone-collins 

Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills   

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)

Patreon Preview – 345. Thuggish Ruggish Live Nation

We check in with an old enemy of the show, Uber, to discuss it’s recent battles with states over wage floors and worker rights, and get a masterclass on how Uber weaponizes complexity through it’s platform to abuse workers and avoid regulation, while also wielding the threat of capital flight to great effect against politicians and governments. 

••• Minneapolis just called Uber’s bluff — other cities must follow their lead https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/4550102-minneapolis-just-called-ubers-bluff-other-cities-must-follow-their-lead/
••• Uber’s and Lyft’s ride-hailing deal with Minnesota comes at a cost https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/21/uber-and-lyfts-ride-hailing-deal-with-minnesota-comes-with-a-cost/
••• The Gig Economy vs. America’s Workers https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/uber-lyft-doordash-ballot-measures-massachusetts-legalize-gig-workers-by-sandeep-vaheesan-2024-05 
••• How Uber and Lyft Avoid Millions in Business Taxes https://slate.com/business/2024/05/uber-lyft-gig-economy-driver-classification-business-taxes-unemployment.html 

Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills   

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)

344. How Uber Weaponizes Complexity to Abuse Workers and Bully States

Discussing a new surveillance program by NYC Mayor Eric Adams and the public-private partnerships with Fusus by Axon, we dig into how the moral panic around “organized retail theft” has become a smoke screen / cynical moral alibi for an arms race of policing. It’s new software for the old hardware of an oppressive corporate state.

••• Mayor Adams Announces new Pilot Program to Combat Retail Theft, Create Efficiencies, Improve Police-Community Relations Using Innovative Technology https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/383-24/mayor-adams-new-pilot-program-combat-retail-theft-create-efficiencies-improve#/0 
••• Privacy or safety? U.S. brings 'surveillance city to the suburbs' https://www.context.news/digital-rights/privacy-or-safety-us-brings-surveillance-city-to-the-suburbs 

Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills   

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)

Patreon Preview – 343. Broken Windows Redux

We talk about how everybody on the superalignment team at OpenAI—focused on safety, risk, adversarial testing, societal impacts, and existential concerns—is resigning, including high-profile people like Illya Sutskever. And nobody can talk about it because of draconian rules (even for Silicon Valley) about non-disclosure and non-disparagement people must sign (or risk their vested equity) upon exiting the company. For us, the turmoil of OpenAI is indicative of conflict between true believers (superalignment) and cynical operators (Sam Altman).

Outro: Aunty Donna – Real Estate Agents https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGm267O04a8

••• “I lost trust”: Why the OpenAI team in charge of safeguarding humanity imploded https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2024/5/17/24158403/openai-resignations-ai-safety-ilya-sutskever-jan-leike-artificial-intelligence
••• ChatGPT can talk, but OpenAI employees sure can’t https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2024/5/17/24158478/openai-departures-sam-altman-employees-chatgpt-release 

Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills   

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)

342. Superalignment with Sam Altman’s Values

After revisiting our discussion of stimulants from last episode, we dive deep into a new hive of freaks on the internet and examine the psychology of forum posters on the Cybertruck Owners Club.

••• Cybertruck Owners Club https://www.cybertruckownersclub.com/forum/ 

Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills   

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)

324. Dune Dudes 2 // Evicting RENTMaximizer

Download our free app to listen on your phone