This Machine Kills

We’ve got a great reading series that redirects our attention to another big bugbear of TMK: the destruction – and salvation – of nature via asset markets and risk management. We talk about how the business world is coming around to the idea that is nature is *not* a “a free, infinitely extractable resource” and might actually be a valuable asset worth safeguarding—but only if it has clear and direct links to immediate profit! This has led to a number of great new innovations like “biodiversity credits,” which will surely create all kinds of great and desirable outcomes.

••• Pre-order Jathan’s new book! https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite

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

••• Do businesses need to care about biodiversity? https://www.ft.com/content/8c6dd560-604b-4d2c-8ff6-4e60a8a4726d

Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! 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 tie together a number of things: first, the assassination of UnitedHealth Group’s CEO and the reactions to this event; second, a new startup in the Thiel family that rehabilitates Sauron as a shining beacon of security for the terrified tech elite; and third, the vision put forward by Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, for an army of ethical techno-slaves that are powered by a new vaporware platform called Agentforce.

Pre-order Jathan’s new book! https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite

••• Why "we" want insurance executives dead https://www.usermag.co/p/yes-we-want-insurance-executives

••• Fearful of crime, the tech elite transform their homes into military bunkers https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/12/05/tech-ceos-elites-home-security-silicon-valley/

••• How the Rise of New Digital Workers Will Lead to an Unlimited Age https://time.com/7178872/agents-unlimited-age/

Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! 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 talk about the legal battles that Musk and Amazon are waging against the National Labor Relations Board, in part by claiming the NLRB is unconditional because it violates employers’ rights to a trial by jury. We then get into a broader discussion of how the right-wing has organised a highly effective — while also ideologically inconsistent — political movement which is based on a single-minded obsession with — and demonic hatred of — the bureaucratic minutiae of oft-overlooked government agencies and appointments. We argue that the left needs a new theory of the state, which can underlie its own obsession with the concrete operations of bureaucratic power and a political movement focused on taking control of this administrative machinery.

Pre-order Jathan’s new book! https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite

••• How Elon Musk And Amazon Could Deal A Blow To Workers' RightsHow Elon Musk And Amazon Could Deal A Blow To Workers' Rights https://www.huffpost.com/entry/elon-musk-spacex-amazon-nlrb_n_67472463e4b0f973902fa591

Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! 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 brilliant critical review of the new book AI Snake Oil and talk about the shortcomings of analysis that are so focused on demystifying the hype about what AI can do that the hype becomes the only thing that matters. We sharpen our own critique by sparring with this interesting and thoughtful — but also limited and naive — critique of AI. Rather than treating hype as the root of all evil in tech — and thus framing our solutions to AI harms as a technical exercise of discerning snake oil from real cures — we must push further to attack the material foundations of the AI industry.

Pre-order Jathan’s new book! https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite

••• AI Scams Are the Point https://newrepublic.com/article/188313/artifical-intelligence-scams-propaganda-deceit

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

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

We get into the New York Times's lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, which challenges the use of copyrighted material as training data for AI models. The NYT’s case is built on notions of “romantic authorship” — or the irreducible / ineffable quality of creativity and individuality in human works — and discuss the analytical weakness of building critiques and strategies on such immaterial, shifty grounding, and the serious limits such a framing puts on potential solutions. We also chat about OpenAI’s further push into education and its effects on teaching.

Pre-order Jathan’s new book! https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite

••• New York Times Says OpenAI Erased Potential Lawsuit Evidence https://www.wired.com/story/new-york-times-openai-erased-potential-lawsuit-evidence/

••• NYT v. OpenAI: The Times’s About-Face https://harvardlawreview.org/blog/2024/04/nyt-v-openai-the-timess-about-face/

••• AI Companies Are Trying to Get MIT Press Books https://www.404media.co/mit-press-ai-training-on-books/

••• There’s No Longer Any Doubt That Hollywood Writing Is Powering AI https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/11/opensubtitles-ai-data-set/680650

••• OpenAI releases a teacher’s guide to ChatGPT, but some educators are skeptical https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/20/openai-releases-a-teachers-guide-to-chatgpt-but-some-educators-are-skeptical/

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

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

In our first recording back from holiday, we get into the Silicon Valley Election and go through the relationship between Trump and Musk. What can we expect from the President and his First Buddy — personally and politically, institutionally and financially? Beyond Musk, how might the tech elite behave and benefit in another Trump administration? There’s a lot of potential and speculation and promises and hype at this point—and a lot of open questions that remain to be seen—but we set the scene and put the players on the board for what’s shaping up to be an exciting (and stupid) new season of TMK.

Pre-order Jathan’s new book! https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite

••• Why Is Elon Musk Really Embracing Donald Trump? https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-financial-page/why-is-elon-musk-really-embracing-donald-trump

••• Elon Musk may already be overstaying his welcome in Trump's orbit https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/elon-musk-trump-donald-mar-a-lago-appointment-position-rcna179826

••• The cult of the founders https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/the-cult-of-the-founders

••• Musk Wants to Slash $2 Trillion in Federal Spending. Is That Possible? https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/16/us/politics/dept-government-efficiency-explainer.html

••• US commission proposes ‘Manhattan Project-like’ initiative for AI https://www.computerworld.com/article/3609516/us-commission-proposes-manhattan-project-like-initiative-for-ai.html

••• Tech companies will have it easy under Trump. Just like they did under Biden https://www.fastcompany.com/91224437/tech-companies-will-have-it-easy-under-trump-just-like-they-did-under-biden

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

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

[This interview was recorded before the election; we’ll talk about that in the next premium episode] We are joined by Susan Li and Alec Karakatsanis who work at Civil Rights Corps to talk about their important legal work against the prison tech industry—an extraordinarily predatory, extractive, and profitable industry dominated by private equity firms which control (and surveil and commodify) all communications between prisoners and their families. These firms charge exorbitant rates per minute for access to telephone use, video calls, emails, ebooks, and more—and then use that data to create and sell bogus AI surveillance products. We also talk about the corruption at the heart of this industry—such as the lucrative contracts between industry and prisons where sheriffs get a cut of corporate profits—and how these financial incentives have caused jails and prisons to restrict, or even eliminate, in-person visits between prisoners and their families. This is the basis of Susan and Alec’s work for the Right 2 Hug project, which is advocating for the legal right to physical, face-to-face contact between prisoners and their families.

••• Right 2 Hug https://www.right2hug.org/

••• Do Children Have a “Right to Hug” Their Parents? https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/05/20/the-jails-that-forbid-children-from-visiting-their-parents

••• Michigan Counties Ban Jail Visits to Profit From Videochat Fees, Lawsuits Say https://theappeal.org/michigan-counties-allegedly-ban-jail-visits-to-profit-from-videochat-fees/

••• Prisons Across the U.S. Are Quietly Building Databases of Incarcerated People’s Voice Prints https://theappeal.org/prisons-across-the-u-s-are-quietly-building-databases-of-incarcerated-peoples-voice-prints/

••• The Prison Industry | Worth Rises https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58e127cb1b10e31ed45b20f4/t/621682209bb0457a2d6d5cfa/1645642294912/The+Prison+Industry+How+It+Started+How+It+Works+and+How+It+Harms+December+2020.pdf

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

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

Just a quick note – TMK is on holiday for a couple weeks! Jathan is enjoying his honeymoon totally disconnected from all work, while Ed and Jereme are taking a much needed break. We'll back later in November with more exciting episodes. Until then – later!

We bullshit about ICP, the Joker, and Megalopolis for the first 33 minutes. So jump a bit into the episode if you wanna skip the verbal shit posting and get to the analytical discussion of BYD. We chat broadly about the background and rapid rise of BYD, the Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer. We explain why BYD is such a fascinating company that is worth keeping a close eye on because it sits at the intersection of multiple TMK interests: industrial policy, geopolitics of technology, political economy of green innovation, and the economic Cold War between the US and China.

••• BYD Is Winning the Global Race to Make Cheaper EVs https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-10-16/electric-car-brand-byd-leads-race-to-make-cheap-evs-despite-tariffs

••• The Electric Vehicle Developmental State https://www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/byd/

••• Apple Secretly Worked With China’s BYD on Long-Range EV Battery https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-16/apple-secretly-worked-with-china-s-byd-on-long-range-ev-battery

••• China’s Economic Growth Is Good, Actually https://jwmason.org/slackwire/chinas-economic-growth-is-good-actually/

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

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

First we have an update on an old startup as Worldcoin changes its name to World and redesigns its Orb to be more than just an eyeball scanner but also now an identification service called Deep Face. Repeat the satanic mantra after me: World, Orb, Deep Face. We then sit back as Prof Ed walks us through an in-depth investigation into how Uber and Lyft used driver lockouts—preventing them from logging on, seemingly at random and for long periods—as a cynical response to minimum pay laws in New York City. This regulatory arbitrage and brutal optimization resulted in significant impacts on drivers and major savings for the companies.

••• Sam Altman’s Worldcoin Gets a New Name, and New Hardware https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-17/sam-altman-s-worldcoin-gets-a-new-name-and-new-hardware

••• How Uber and Lyft Used a Loophole to Deny NYC Drivers Millions in Pay https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2024-uber-lyft-nyc-drivers-pay-lockouts/?srnd=phx-technology

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

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