Some news, as they say: System Crash is going on hiatus as Brian and Paris are overloaded with other projects they need to take care of. Thanks for plugging in, and stay tuned to this feed for updates on what's next.

Until then, subscribe to Brian’s newsletter Blood in the Machine, check out Paris’ newsletter Disconnect, and go listen to Tech Won’t Save Us.

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Brian is out this week, so we’re dropping one of our bonus episodes to give you a preview of the benefits of supporting the show over on Patreon. In the episode, Brian and Paris dig into Anduril CEO Palmer Luckey’s scary vision for the future of warfare — and how he plans to profit off the whole thing. Arming countries to the teeth with automated weapons, to the degree they’re considered “porcupines,” might sound bad to some people, but to Luckey it’s the obvious goal of the Western “warrior class.”

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This week on System Crash: Canada drops its digital services tax under pressure from Trump, the 10-year ban on state-level AI regulation is dead, and the backlash to generative AI just keeps growing. Plus, Peter Thiel and his buddies are starting a new bank named after something else from Middle Earth, Microsoft is cutting thousands of jobs, and people are using chatbots to text their friends.

Subscribe to Paris’s newsletter Disconnect.

Subscribe to Brian’s newsletter Blood in the Machine.

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This is a preview of System Crash’s monthly bonus episode, where Paris and Brian present the first System Crash Culture Club by interrogating the new film Mountainhead and how it gets into the minds of our Silicon Valley oligarchs. To get the full bonus episode, become a supporter on Patreon.

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This week on System Crash: A court rules Anthropic can train on copyrighted works as long as they’re not pirated, and Elon Musk rolls out Tesla’s Robotaxi service in Austin — with all the problems you’d expect. Plus, Australia’s social media ban for under 16s moves forward, a new Fairphone is coming soon, Brian has a new series, and more!

Subscribe to Paris’s newsletter Disconnect.

Subscribe to Brian’s newsletter Blood in the Machine.

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This week on System Crash: A new player is about to take the smartphone world by storm, the AI industry is forging deeper partnerships with the military, and the Iran-Israel conflict is already overrun with AI slop. Plus, Tesla pauses production again, AI is creating problems for libraries, some Danish governments want to get off Microsoft, and more!

Subscribe to Paris’s newsletter Disconnect.

Subscribe to Brian’s newsletter Blood in the Machine.

Support the show

This is a preview of System Crash’s monthly bonus episode, digging into Anduril CEO Palmer Luckey’s scary vision for the future of warfare — and how he plans to profit off the whole thing. To get the full bonus episode, become a supporter on Patreon.

Support the show

This week on the show: The Donald Trump/Elon Musk feud continues into a second week and protests torch Waymos as Trump ramps up an authoritarian clampdown of Los Angeles. Plus, Ohio state mandates AI use to make undergrads “bilingual” in AI, video game performers have a tentative union agreement, Chinese tech companies are restricting AI tools, and more.

Subscribe to Paris’s newsletter Disconnect.

Subscribe to Brian’s newsletter Blood in the Machine.

Support the show

This week on the show: Elon Musk is out at DOGE, kind of. He leaves with a black eye, literally. And figuratively. We dive into what Musk’s exit means for the Department of Government Efficiency, the role of the Tesla Takedown protests in tanking his reputation, and where things stand to go from here. PLUS: Musk’s failed quest to kill OpenAI’s Stargate, Palantir’s mass data collection on Americans, and so much MORE.

Subscribe to Paris’s newsletter Disconnect.

Subscribe to Brian’s newsletter Blood in the Machine.

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This week on System Crash: Sam Altman and Jony Ive announce they’re expecting — a piece of AI hardware. Donald Trump wants to hit iPhones with a 25% tariff if Apple doesn’t start making them in the United States, and we discuss whether that’s possible. Plus, BYD beats Tesla in Europe, Google’s Veo 3 goes viral, Duolingo tries to clean up its AI mess, Marc Andreessen’s techno-optimist screed gets a print edition, and so much more!

Subscribe to Paris’s newsletter Disconnect.

Subscribe to Brian’s newsletter Blood in the Machine.

Support the show