For this episode, we talk to award-winning journalist Karen Hao about her path from working in the tech industry to critical tech reporting; her efforts to track down the environmental impacts of AI and data centers; her latest reporting on Microsoft's AI- and cloud-based entanglement with the fossil fuel industry; her current book project on OpenAI; and her work training other journalists to cover the tech industry critically for their own communities (recorded in October 2024).

Karen's reporting discussed in this episode:
"Microsoft's Hypocrisy on AI," The Atlantic (September 2024)
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/09/microsoft-ai-oil-contracts/679804/

"AI Is Taking Water From the Desert," The Atlantic (March 2024)
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/03/ai-water-climate-microsoft/677602/

"Training a single AI model can emit as much carbon as five cars in their lifetimes," MIT Tech Review (June 2019)
https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/06/06/239031/training-a-single-ai-model-can-emit-as-much-carbon-as-five-cars-in-their-lifetimes/

For this episode, Wikimedia Foundation vice president and Consent of the Networked author Rebecca MacKinnon joins the podcast to dig into the public discourse on internet platforms and tech regulation, unique challenges faced by nonprofit online platforms, and how to improve policy debates, laws, and regulations aimed at a more transparent, responsible online ecosystem. Plus, learn about the 'Wikipedia Test' and how it can help frame the debate.

For this episode, law professor and Industry Unbound author Ari Ezra Waldman joins the podcast to discuss LGBTQIA+ privacy, the collection of data about sexuality and gender, and the nature of public- and private-sector bureaucracies engaged in surveillance.

For this episode, journalist Byron Tau joins the podcast to discuss his new book "Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government Is Creating a New American Surveillance State" and the current state of commercial and government surveillance in the US. 

Welcome to our debut episode of “Power On, Power Off,” a podcast about technology, people, power, and whatever else we’re in a mood about.

In this inaugural episode (recorded two months before posting, we'll get better at this!) we focus on the latest discourse about artificial intelligence, the future of human safety and security, and AI’s impacts on democracy, information, and civic participation in a major global election year. We cover:

• Rhetorical framings of AI
• “Vagueness by design”
• AI development, environmental impacts, and exploitative labor practices
• Predictions for AI, information, and elections in 2024