Paris Marx is joined by Karen Hao to discuss how Sam Altman’s goal of scale at all costs has spawned a new empire founded on exploitation of people and the environment, resulting in not only the loss of valuable research into more inventive AI systems, but also exacerbated data privacy issues, intellectual property erosion, and the perpetuation of surveillance capitalism.

Karen Hao is an award-winning journalist and the author of Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Karen was the first journalist to profile OpenAI.
• Karen has reported on the environmental impacts and human costs of AI.
• The New York Times reported on Why We're Unlikely to Get Artificial General Intelligence Anytime Soon. 

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Paris Marx is joined by Sam Biddle to discuss how Silicon Valley is shamelessly courting government military contracts, using tactics to silence employee dissent and normalize the situation to the public, and what it all means for the future of military geopolitics.

Sam Biddle is a senior technology reporter at The Intercept.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Sam wrote about how defense tech companies sought to capitalize on Trump’s return to office and OpenAI’s embrace of nationalism.
• Trae Stephens was interviewed by Wired last year, where he made his comments about the military industrial complex.
• Meta and Anduril teamed up to provide VR and AR devices to the US military.
• Trump’s US Army appointee won’t give up his Anduril stock.
• Palantir’s CEO wrote the Defense Reformation report and Andreessen Horowitz launched an American Dynamism division.

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Paris Marx is joined by Casey Johnston to discuss why she pared back on social media, made her smartphone much dumber, and what she learned about how bodies are treated online through her fitness journey.

Casey Johnston is the creator of the She’s A Beast newsletter and author of A Physical Education: How I Escaped Diet Culture and Gained the Power of Lifting.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Casey wrote about her DIY Dumbphone Method and reducing social media use.
• Facebook reportedly detected when teenage girls deleted photos so it could serve them beauty ads.

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Paris Marx is joined by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna to discuss the harms of generative AI, how the industry keeps the public invested while companies flounder under the weight of unmet promises, and what people can do to push back.

Emily M. Bender is a Professor in the Department of Linguistics at University of Washington. Alex Hanna is Director of Research at the Distributed AI Institute. They are the authors of The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• New York Magazine reported on the consequences of increasingly widespread use of ChatGPT in education.

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Paris Marx is joined by Tim Fernholz to discuss how Elon Musk’s influence in the White House is shaping the US Space Program, why he’s pushing NASA toward Mars instead of the Moon, and whether the Starship rocket is in trouble.

Tim Fernholz is a senior reporter at Payload Space and the author of Rocket Billionaires: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the New Space Race.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Tim wrote about Donald Trump’s NASA budget and Jared Isaacman’s confirmation hearing.
• The Wall Street Journal wrote about Elon Musk’s plans to get NASA to refocus on Mars.
• Trump’s proposed budget aims to cut NASA’s science budget by 47% as part of a larger 24% cut to the agency’s top-line funding.
• SpaceX’s Starship rocket is running into serious problems.

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Paris Marx is joined by Julia Carrie Wong to discuss Elon Musk’s recent opposition to empathy, how it comes out of the Christian right, and the relationship it has to previous discussions of longtermism. 

Julia Carrie Wong is a features writer at The Guardian.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Julia wrote about how the Christian right is reframing empathy as a threat to civilization. In 2017, she also interviewed Elon Musk about worker injuries at Tesla.
• In February, none other than Pope Francis pushed back on JD Vance’s use of a Christian theological concept to justify Trump’s inhumane immigration policies.

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Paris Marx is joined by Jason Koebler to discuss the economy behind AI slop generation, how people are building businesses on AI-generated images, and the wider consequences of their proliferation on social media.

Jason Koebler is a cofounder of 404 Media and cohost of the 404 Media Podcast.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Jason wrote about how Brainrot AI is monetized on Instagram and the wider effects of AI slop on how we perceive reality.
• He also wrote about how whether the tech industry’s bet on Donald Trump is working out with Emanuel Maiberg.

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Paris Marx is joined by Laleh Khalili to discuss Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son, the structural factors that allowed him to build an empire, and the many ways he’s shaped the modern tech industry.

Laleh Khalili is Professor of Gulf Studies at the University of Exeter and the author of Sinews of War and Trade and her forthcoming book Extractive Capitalism.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Laleh wrote a review of a new book about Masa.
• She also mentioned The Box by Marc Levinson and The Next Shift by Gabriel Winant.

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Paris Marx is doing a solo episode this week to bring together some important issues that have been on his mind lately. This is a recording of a talk Paris gave in Auckland, New Zealand on how Silicon Valley’s alliance with Donald Trump forces us to reassess the politics of the internet and challenge our collective dependence on US tech as it embraces the project of American empire.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Paris co-wrote a white paper on digital sovereignty and has written about the need to challenge US tech in response to Silicon Valley’s alliance with Trump.
• Paris also mentioned the EuroStack and British Digital Cooperative report.
• Dark Times Academy offers courses on a wide range of topics.

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Paris Marx is joined by Aline Blankertz to discuss whether Europe is going to finally make a serious push to end its dependence on US tech and how different European interests are trying to take advantage of those debates.

Aline Blankertz is an economist working on digital policy. She currently works with Rebalance Now and was previously at Wikimedia Germany.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Aline published some thoughts on the push for tech sovereignty in Europe.
• Paris co-wrote a white paper on digital sovereignty last year and more recently argued the US needs to feel the consequences for its actions.
• If you want to apply to be the show’s producer, find more information here.

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