This Machine Kills

We get into the new decree from Trump that “artificial intelligence” is now called “super intelligence” – it sounds less fake and more powerful — and the broader currents of tech advice and policy in the Trump administration. Then we discuss how OpenAI and Anthropic are behaving like rogue agents, who are also irresponsible and incompetent to a degree that should be unbelievable.

••• Trump says the US is officially renaming AI to ‘super intelligence’ https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/998816/donald-trump-ai-super-intelligence

••• OpenAI Has Gone Rogue https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/09/ai-hacks-infestation/688806/

Standing Plugs:

••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite

••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble

••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

We learn all about how leftists are against any new regulations for AI. It’s the unbelievable return of horseshoe theory as we discuss the curious new discourse cycle being promoted by prominent pundits.

••• The Curious Left-Wing Argument Against New AI Regulations https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/09/ai-regulation-anti-monopoly-challenge/688707/

••• Obsolete: The AI Industry’s Trillion-Dollar Race to Replace Us – and How to Stop It – book review https://www.counterfire.org/article/obsolete-the-ai-industrys-trillion-dollar-race-to-replace-us-and-how-to-stop-it-book-review/

Standing Plugs:

••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite

••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble

••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

We jump off from the OpenAI - Hugging Face hacking incident as a way to talk about the misleading, cynical, and hysterical ways we talk about AI and the stranglehold that existential risk has on our framings and discourses. The OAI-HF event shows that rather than treating machine learning as certain kind of technology that does things in ways that can be explained and contextualized, even when our understanding is somewhat murky or incomplete, AI is proffered as an emergent god with mystified intentions, a great becoming that is equally horrifying and awe-inspiring.

••• LLMs are real, AI is fake https://pluralistic.net/2026/09/12/god-in-the-box/

••• We Must Pace the Frontier https://darioamodei.com/post/we-must-pace-the-frontier

Standing Plugs:

••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite

••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble

••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

We bring together two different stories about the tech sector and speculative real estate booms. First, how Netflix promises to turn the Jersey Shore into “Hollywood East”. Second, how the data centre bonanza is stretching Wall Street beyond its limits.

••• Can Netflix remake Jersey Shore — and its property market? https://www.ft.com/content/abbc3601-9ebc-4f3a-a317-0b1eee96e5a8

••• The multiplying risks of financing data centres https://www.ft.com/content/9cb63980-cd43-419d-a7e5-42039b9fd01e

Standing Plugs:

••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite

••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble

••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

[We had technical difficulties and had to use a backup recording, sorry!] We chat with JS Tan and Clarissa Redwin — both veteran tech workers and labor organizers — about their new book which chronicles the tech worker movement over the last ten years. JS and Clarissa have been deeply involved in this movement, which gives them the perfect vantage point to trace the catalyzing events and organizing efforts, as well as discuss what went right, what went wrong, and how the tactics for class consciousness and worker resistance must be adapted for the tech sector.

••• Against Tech Oligarch | Book and Tour Dates https://againsttecholigarchy.com/

Standing Plugs:

••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite

••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble

••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

We turn our sights down under by taking a closer look at the new all-of-government strategy for AI in Australia’s Interests. Australia has plotted out a bold, progressive vision where AI enthusiasm is mandatory, no is not an option (and. in fact, the lack of choice is actually empowering), and the country, with all its open space and valuable resources, is the next great investment opportunity for foreign capital. But don’t worry, just like mining companies before, tech firms are expected to earn their social license to operate. What does that mean in practice? Just leave the details to the devil.

••• AI in Australia's interests https://www.pm.gov.au/media/ai-australias-interests-0

••• NSW government offers fast-track scheme for data centres that comply with new guidelines https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-17/data-centres-fast-tracked-under-new-nsw-scheme/107043984

Standing Plugs:

••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite

••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble

••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

We take a deep dive into New York’s police-surveillance infrastructure, a sprawling leviathan that Mayor Zohran Mamdani was outspoken against during his campaign, but has now inherited and is even warming up to as his administration settles into power.

••• Mamdani’s Surveillance State https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/mamdani-surveillance-state.html

••• Walking the Thin Blue Line https://www.thedriftmag.com/walking-the-thin-blue-line/

••• The New York City Police Department’s Domain Awareness System (pdf) https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/Levine%20-%20Interfaces%20-%20The%20New%20York%20City%20Police%20Department%E2%80%99s%20Domain.pdf

Standing Plugs:

••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite

••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble

••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

We chat about Ed’s engagement with communities pushing back against data center development in Tulsa, plus some major reporting showing the sheer scale of fossil-fuelled data center development in the United States. We’re talking more than 120 GIGAWATTS of new gas-burning power plants in development just to electrify data centers. There’s simply no way to equivocate about this amount of new pollution — new smog, new acid rain, new environmental health crises — being emitted for the purpose of spinning up more GPUs so that some of the most noxious companies in the world can become even more, well, noxious.

••• AI Data Centers: The Frontier of Capitalist Extraction — Live Event https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY0XnY0DA7U

••• How Data Centers Broke American Politics https://www.wired.com/story/how-data-centers-broke-american-politics/

••• no data centers in my backyard https://jasmi.news/p/no-data-centers-in-my-backyard

••• Trump’s Vision for A.I. Dominance Comes With Major Air Pollution https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/05/climate/data-centers-pollution-trump-ai-energy.html

Standing Plugs:

••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite

••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble

••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

We’re joined by Nik Suresh, director of Hermit Tech and excellent blogger on the software industry. You might know Nik for an incredible essay he wrote a couple years ago about piledriving anybody who mentions AI. Well he’s back at it with another great piece analysing the AI mania that has seemingly possessed every manager in every institution in every sector. We chat about where this mania comes from, how it’s manifesting, and what happens when reality eventually catches up to these delusions.

••• Nik’s company website: https://hermit-tech.com/

••• AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decision-Making https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/ai-mania-is-eviscerating-global-decision-making/

••• I Will Fucking Piledrive You If You Mention AI Again https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/i-will-fucking-piledrive-you-if-you-mention-ai-again/

••• Lawsuit Claims the Mayo Clinic’s Use of AI Is Butchering Patient Care https://futurism.com/health-medicine/lawsuit-mayo-clinic-ai-tools-hospital-maya

Standing Plugs:

••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite

••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble

••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

First we get into a very circular (the strongest shape in nature) deal between Nvidia, OpenAI, and Softbank to finance a $250 billion 10-gigawatt data center complex, powered by a natural gas plant built by the US and Japanese governments, on a decommissioned uranium-enrichment site in Ohio, which will be filled by a further $350 billion of chips sold and financed by Nvidia. All very normal stuff. Then we revisit the hysteria over retail theft, why every pharmacy is a prison, and the admission by companies that “maybe we cried too much” about a problem that doesn’t exist. Vibes are a very powerful thing.

••• Jathan’s new paper: Deconstructing the Machine Learning Value Chain https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=7084259

••• Nvidia in Talks With OpenAI to Guarantee $250 Billion Financing for Data Center https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/nvidia-in-talks-with-openai-to-guarantee-250-billion-financing-for-data-center-3dd6eae3

••• We used to be able to buy things in this country https://dannykatch.substack.com/p/we-used-to-be-able-to-buy-things

••• British Police Built a Sprawling Crime-Prediction Machine. Some Results Couldn’t Be Trusted https://www.wired.com/story/british-police-built-a-sprawling-crime-prediction-machine-some-results-couldnt-be-trusted/

Standing Plugs:

••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite

••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble

••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)