Generative AI is making its way into many parts of society, and schools are no different. Tom Mullaney joins Paris Marx to discuss how generative AI has been adopted in K-12 education and the many concerns it presents for students and teachers.

Tom Mullaney is a high school social studies teacher in the suburbs of Philadelphia.

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:

• Here is the New Yorker article on AI in schools.
• For those looking for a refresher on Weizenbaum and ELIZA.
• Here is the paper “On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big”.
• For those curious about the Canvas breach.
• Students have been booing pro-AI speeches and AI presence in graduation ceremonies.
• xAI is facing a lawsuit for polluting Black neighborhoods.

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Polymarket and Kalshi are everywhere. But what are they doing to society? Jathan Sadowski joins Paris Marx to discuss the rise of prediction markets and their negative social effects as they push the global economy closer toward the financialization of everything. 

Jathan Sadowski is an Associate Professor at Monash University. He is the author of The Mechanic and the Luddite and co-hosts This Machine Kills.

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:

• Jathan wrote about Kalshi trying to bring about the financialization of everything in Fast Company.
• The NYT reported on the use of classified information by a US soldier to place a bet on the capture of Maduro.
• Wired just reported on how the US is using AI to spot insider trading.
• Polymarket users sent death threats to a reporter.

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Paris Marx is joined by Ed Niedermeyer to discuss the years-long relationship between Elon Musk and Jeffrey Epstein, and how their relationship sheds light on the murky inner workings of the one percent.

Ed Niedermeyer is the author of Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors and a co-host of the Autonocast.

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.

Go to surfshark.com/SAVEUS to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN, plus there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee or just punch in code SAVEUS at checkout!

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Ed has written two recent pieces about Elon Musk’s relationship with Epstein.
• Here’s more information on Juleanna Glover’s relationship with Epstein.

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Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are the dominant players in the cloud market. Around the world, they’re building massive hyperscale data centers that they claim are necessary to power the future of our digital existence. But they also increase their power over other companies and come with massive resource demands communities are getting fed up with. Is their future really the one we want? This is episode 1 of Data Vampires, a special four-part series from Tech Won’t Save Us.

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 show is hosted by Paris Marx. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Senior cloud consultant Dwayne Monroe and Associate Professor in Economics Cecilia Rikap were interviewed for this episode.
• Interviews with Jeff Bezos and The Oregonian journalist Mike Rogoway were cited.

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Paris Marx is joined by Karl Bode to discuss how Mark Zuckerberg's makeover and the PR campaign that’s accompanied it shouldn’t distract from the ongoing harms of his company.

Karl Bode is a freelance tech journalist and consumer rights reporter.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Paris wrote about the problem with the “Zuckessance” for Disconnect.
• The New York Times published an article about the political evolution of Mark Zuckerberg.
• Facebook’s Free Basics was widely called out for being a form of digital colonialism.
• Joel Kaplan was a key figure within Facebook defending right-wing content from effective moderation.
• Neil Postman wrote the book Amusing Ourselves to Death in 1985.

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Paris Marx is joined by Tamara Kneese to discuss the difficult question of what happens to our digital presence after we die and why some tech billionaires are so desperate to make themselves into chatbots.

Tamara Kneese is a researcher, organizer, and author of Death Glitch: How Techno-Solutionism Fails Us in This Life and Beyond.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Tamara wrote some pieces on AI and death for Wired and The Baffler.

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Paris Marx is joined by Rob Larson to discuss the recent ruling that Google is a monopolist, what consequences it might face, and what lessons we can learn from the Microsoft antitrust case in the early 2000s.

Rob Larson is the author of Mastering the Universe: The Obscene Wealth of the Ruling Class, What They Do with Their Money, and Why You Should Hate Them Even More and Professor of Economics at Tacoma Community College.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Rob has written about the Google antitrust case and its likely outcomes.
• Paris also wrote about why it won’t solve the problems with the internet.
• Watch a highlight reel of Bill Gates' deposition on YouTube.
• Google has been deemed to have an illegal monopoly in online search.
• A second trial over Google’s monopolistic position in the online ads market is ongoing.
• The Obama administration let Google off the hook a decade ago.
• Some tech billionaire donors are pushing Kamala Harris to remove Lina Khan as head of the Federal Trade Commission if she becomes president.

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Paris Marx is joined by Matt Pearce to discuss how Google sidestepped two California bills aimed at funding journalism and how major tech companies are transforming the web to make hyperlinks less relevant.

Matt Pearce is the President of Media Guild of the West and a former reporter at the Los Angeles Times.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Matt wrote about the disingenuous arguments against the California Journalism Preservation Act and the changing nature of hyperlinks online.
• Google sidestepped the two California bills to carve out a separate deal that includes funding for an AI initiative.
• When you compare per capita public broadcast funding across wealthy nations, Canada is near the bottom, but the United States is barely on the chart.
• Google will distribute $100 million to news publishers in Canada after a bargaining process there.
• Digital media companies have been doing layoffs and shutting down in droves.
• The New York Times used AI to assist in identifying the deadly weapons Israel is using against the people of Gaza.
• The Media Ecosystem Observatory looked at the effects of Meta's news ban on its platforms in Canada.

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Paris Marx is joined by Taylor Welling and Kathryn Friesen to discuss how they formed wall-to-wall unions in the video game industry and their thoughts on broader challenges like layoffs and corporate consolidation.

Taylor Welling is a producer and union member at OneBGS and Kathryn Friesen is quest designer and member of the World of Warcraft GameMakers Guild.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• OneBGS and the World of Warcraft GameMakers Guild each won their union votes in July 2024.
• More video game workers have already been laid off in 2024 than did in all of 2023.
• Microsoft and the Communication Workers of America signed a labor neutrality agreement in 2022, to take effect 60 days after its acquisition of Activision Blizzard closed. In May, that agreement was extended to ZeniMax Studios.
• Microsoft laid off 1,900 gaming workers in January and closed four internal studios in May.
• Blizzard provides swords, shields, and helmets to employees celebrating 5, 10, and 20 years at the company.
• The ZeniMax Workers Union struck an agreement with their employer on the use of AI.
• Nicole Carpenter at Polygon put together a list of video game unions and an explainer on the rise of video game unions.
• Communication Workers of America has more information on unionizing as part of their CODE-CWA campaign.

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Paris Marx is joined by Mohammad Khatami and Gabi Schubiner to discuss the complicity of Google, Amazon, and Microsoft in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and how tech workers are organizing to stop it.

Mohammad Khatami and Gabi Schubiner are former Google software engineers and organizers with No Tech for Apartheid.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Find out more about No Tech for Apartheid from their website. Microsoft workers have also launched No Azure for Apartheid.
• Yuval Abraham reported on the Israeli military’s use of Amazon, Google, and Microsoft’s cloud services and AI in Gaza.
• Mohammad wrote about being fired by Google in The New Arab.
• Gabi refers to JWCC, with is a reference to the Department of Defense Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract with Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Oracle.
• Google fired 50 workers earlier this year for organizing over its ties to Israel.
• The Information reported on how many Arab Americans in tech are scared to speak out in support of Palestinians for fear of retaliation.
• In 1970, Polaroid workers under the banner of the Polaroid Revolutionary Workers Movement began the first anti-apartheid boycott of a US company by organizing against their employer’s complicity in South African apartheid.
• The IBM Black Workers Alliance was central to the anti-apartheid campaign at that company.

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Paris Marx is joined by Molly White to discuss why the crypto industry is spending millions on this election cycle and Coinbase’s potential breach of election finance law.

Molly White writes the Citation Needed newsletter. She is the creator of Web3 Is Going Just Great and Follow the Crypto.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Molly wrote about the Coinbase campaign finance violation and Donald Trump’s Bitcoin conference speech in her newsletter.
• Paris wrote about some of the concerns about Kamala Harris’ stance on tech.
• Fairshake spent $10 million on attacks ads against Katie Porter in California. It spent millions more targeting Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush.
• The crypto industry hates SEC head Gary Gensler, who is leading the regulatory effort against cryptocurrency.

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Paris Marx is joined by Hussein Kesvani to discuss the far-right attacks that happened after the Southport stabbing in the UK and how larger structural issues in media, politics, and tech laid the groundwork for violence against visible minorities.

Hussein Kesvani is a co-host of Trashfuture and Ten Thousand Posts.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• The stabbing in Southport resulted in the deaths of three children and injuries to eight children and two adults.
• After days of far-right attacks, there were large anti-fascist and anti-racist demonstrations across the UK.
• Some fascists attacked hotels housing asylum seekers, but in places like Bristol, locals started defending the hotels.
• In 1968, Conservative MP Enoch Powell delivered the “rivers of blood” speech.
• Elon Musk has been sharing a series of incendiary posts and false information that have helped fuel these attacks.
• The billionaire’s changes to Twitter have helped fuel right-wing misinformation.

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Paris Marx is joined by Luke LeBrun and Rachel Gilmore to discuss Shopify's connection to right-wing politics, through its interpersonal connection to a far-right news outlet and its reluctance to enforce its content policy on users selling hateful merchandise through their platform.

Luke LeBrun is the editor of PressProgress and Rachel Gilmore is an independent journalist.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Luke reported on Shopify COO Kaz Nejatian’s involvement in and funding of a right-wing Canadian “news” website called True North.
• Rachel reported on Shopify’s decisions not to disable support for stores that sell fraudulent goods and promote hate that’s in violation of their Acceptable Use Policy. She recently pointed out a series of stores Shopify still supports that sell Nazi memorabilia.
• Last year, an anonymous former Shopify worker spoke out about the right-wing culture at the company. Rachel confirmed the person had worked for Shopify.
• In 2022, Tobi Lutke was granted a “founder’s share,” guaranteeing him 40% voting power. 46% of shareholders voted against the proposal.
• Shopify found itself in the spotlight in 2021 when employees found a noose emoji had been added to the company’s Slack system.
• Shopify President Harley Finkelstein has been publicly opposing plans to raise taxes on capital gains. Only 0.13% of Canadians will be paying more tax under the plan.
• Some right-wing figures in Canada deny the truth of the residential schools.

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Paris Marx is joined by Gita Jackson to discuss why the left’s hatred of AI is justified, why a different approach to technology is necessary, and how they’re reassessing their own relationships with digital tech.

Gita Jackson is a co-founder of Aftermath.

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:

• Gita wrote about why the left doesn’t hate technology.
• Gita also wrote about downloading digital music onto a Snowksy Fiio Echo Mini.
• Chris Person wrote about the Boox Palma eReader as an alternative to Kindle.
• Learn more about Mike Pondsmith and his Cyberpunk TTRPG.
• Gita will one day get Paris to watch Frieren.

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Paris Marx is joined by Chris Carlsson to discuss Processed World, a tech-critical, anti-capitalist magazine that satirized the absurdity of work in its publishing run between 1981 and 2005. 

Chris Carlsson is the author of many books, including most recently When Shells Crumble. He’s the director of Shaping SF and a cofounder of Critical Mass. He was also one of the people behind Processed World.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• You can find the full archive of Processed World on the Internet Archive.
• Chris wrote about his experience making Processed World in Notes from Below.
• Jacob Silverman wrote a great piece on the legacy of Processed World for The Baffler.

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Paris Marx is joined by Jacob Silverman to discuss why tech billionaires have become more supportive of  Donald Trump in the upcoming US election and whether Kamala Harris’ candidacy will disrupt their plans.

Jacob Silverman is the co-author of Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud and is working on a new book called Gilded Rage that is scheduled for Fall 2025.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Jacob wrote about Silicon Valley’s embrace of Trump for The Nation.
• Paris wrote about what Silicon Valley wants from Trump in Disconnect.
• Molly White’s new project is called Follow the Crypto.
• Elon Musk is reportedly committing $45 million a month to a pro-Trump Super PAC.
• Mark Zuckerberg called Trump a badass, while saying he won’t endorse any candidate.
• Eric Schmidt is pushing the Pentagon’s embrace of AI for war.
• Peter Thiel says he’d vote for Trump this cycle if there was a gun to his head.
• Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz wrote a Little Tech Agenda containing a basic policy program.
• Reid Hoffman funded a disinformation campaign in Alabama.
• Reed Hastings has already put $7 million into a pro-Kamala Super PAC.

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Paris Marx is joined by Sasha Luccioni to discuss the catastrophic environmental costs of the generative AI being increasing shoved into every tech product we touch.
 
Sasha Luccioni is an artificial intelligence researcher and Climate Lead at Hugging Face.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Sasha published a paper looking at the climate impacts of generative AI.
• Paris wrote about the increased emissions at Google and Microsoft, and the consequences of the growing data center buildout.
• Google’s emissions are up 48% in five years, while Microsoft’s are up 30% between 2020 and 2023.
• Bill Gates is telling governments not to “go overboard” with concerns about AI energy use. He’s been much more active in Microsoft’s AI strategizing than he’s admitted publicly.
• Microsoft President Brad Smith says its carbon “moonshot” is much farther away because of generative AI. The company is accelerating its data center construction plans.
• Sam Altman says we can geoengineer the planet if we can’t develop an energy breakthrough to power AI.

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Paris Marx is joined by David Gerard to discuss Jack Dorsey’s decision to leave Bluesky, his obsession with Bitcoin, and his contributions (or lack thereof) to modern technology.

David Gerard is the author of Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain and Libra Shrugged. He also makes Pivot to AI with Amy Castor.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• David wrote about Jack Dorsey abandoning Bluesky on his blog.
• Business Insider reported on how Dorsey gave money to the far-right founder of Nostr.
• Dorsey was interviewed by Mike Solana on Pirate Wires.
• Dorsey has posted in support of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and the response to it is why he deleted his Bluesky account.

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Paris Marx is joined by Jason Koebler to discuss the AI-generated spam filling Facebook, how the platform seems to have given up trying to stop it, and where the internet goes from here.

Jason Koebler is the co-host 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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Jason wrote about his theory of the zombie internet and what he’s been seeing on Facebook.
• Back in 2018, Motherboard reported on the rules Facebook gave its content moderators.
• Users of Facebook Free Basics and Wikipedia Zero in Angola found out how to make their own video streaming service for free.

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Paris Marx is joined by Jason Hickel to discuss how technology would change in a degrowth society and why it doesn’t make sense to organize society around profit and infinite expansion.

Jason Hickel is the author of Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World. He’s also a Professor at the Institute for Environmental Science and Technology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and a Visiting Senior Fellow at the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Jason wrote about technology and degrowth and the objectives of democratic ecosocialism for Monthly Review.

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Paris Marx is joined by tante to discuss why it’s hard for Europe to challenge the US and China on tech and why we should change how we think about innovation.

tante is a writer, speaker, and Luddite working on tech and its social impact.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• tante spoke about innovation at re:publica 2024.
• Paris also gave a presentation on data centers.
• German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron wrote an op-ed about shared priorities in the Financial Times.
• Sam Altman successfully lobbied to water down the EU’s AI Act.

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Paris Marx is joined by Nitasha Tiku to discuss how US tech companies are flocking to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to fund their expensive AI ambitions.

Nitasha Tiku is a tech culture reporter at the Washington Post.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Read the pieces Nitasha contributed to on Silicon Valley getting funding from Saudia Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and its embrace of the US military.
• Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul in 2018. There’s still be no accountability.
• Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman met with many Silicon Valley CEOs months before Khashoggi’s murder.
• The United Arab Emirates launched its own AI strategy in 2018.
• The UAE also put Pegasus spyware on the phone of Khashoggi’s wife months before his murder.
• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was photographed signing a woman’s chest on June 4.
• Many Arab Americans in Silicon Valley have reported being scared to speak out in support of Palestinians for fear of retaliation.

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Paris Marx is joined by Joseph Cox to discuss how the FBI created an encrypted phone company called Anom to read criminals’ messages and eventually carry out the largest international sting operation by law enforcement.

Joseph Cox is the author of Dark Wire: The Incredible True Story of the Largest Sting Operation Ever and the host 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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Read an excerpt of Dark Wire at Wired.
• Joseph wrote about the revelation that Lithuania hosted the Anom interception server and provided the intercepted messages to the FBI.

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Paris Marx is joined by Nora Kenworthy to discuss how people rely on GoFundMe to access healthcare and the further inequities that adds to an already deeply unequal healthcare system. 

Nora Kenworthy is the author of Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare and an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing and Health Studies at the University of Washington Bothell.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Nora is doing an online event with the Debt Collective on June 13.
• GoFundMe bought many of its competitors through the 2010s.
• In 2020, GoFundMe posted in a campaign it set up in response to Covid: “We’re in a growth industry: pain.”

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Paris Marx is joined by Tim Schwab to discuss the evolving story of Bill Gates and his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, as well as the issues that arise from allowing billionaires to use philanthropy to push personal political agendas and launder their reputations.

Tim Schwab is the author of The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning with the Myth of the Good Billionaire.

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 why Bill Gates should be removed from the foundation over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
• Here is the interview Melinda French Gates did with NPR
• Here is the Wall Street Journal article covering Bill Gates apology to Gates Foundation staff for his relationship with Epstein

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Paris Marx is joined by Gil Duran to discuss Balaji Srinivasan’s plan to implement “tech Zionism” in San Francisco and the threat posed by Silicon Valley's growing opposition to democracy.

Gil Duran is an independent journalist and former editorial page editor for the Sacramento Bee.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry. 

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Gil has written about Balaji’s Network State, Garry Tan of Y Combinator, and the plan to build a tech city in Northern California.
• Paris wrote about Marc Andreessen’s Techno-Optimist Manifesto.
• Peter Thiel no longer feels “freedom and democracy are compatible.”
• Elon Musk claimed he sent ventilators to hospitals. They received biPAP and CPAP machines.
• Gil mentioned Quinn Slobodian’s “Crack Up Capitalism.”

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Paris Marx is joined by Paolo Gerbaudo to discuss how Chinese electric car maker BYD operates, its growing international success against Tesla, and whether it will be able to move into the North American market.

Paolo Gerbaudo is the author of The Digital Party and The Great Recoil. He’s a senior research fellow at the Department of Political History, Theories and Geography of Complutense University in Madrid.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Paolo analyzed the business model of BYD in Phenomenal World.
• The New York Times wrote an in-depth piece on BYD back in February.
• Foreign Affairs published an article on the success of the Chinese tech industry in the face of US dominance.
• After recording, the United States announced a 100% tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles.
• In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan put quotas on Japanese car imports, making them more expensive to US consumers to help domestic automakers like GM and Ford.
• BYD is increasingly challenging on Tesla’s position as top seller of electric vehicles.

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Paris Marx is joined by Ed Niedermeyer to discuss Tesla's stagnation as an electric vehicle manufacturer and what that could mean for its future as competitors cut into their market share.

Ed Niedermeyer is the author of Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors and co-host of the Autonocast.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Paris wrote about the problems facing Tesla, written before Musk began the mass layoffs.
• Ed wrote at the end of last year about the lies that underpinned Tesla’s story being exposed.
• The Cybertruck is facing significant manufacturing issues in Austin, and recently they all had to be recalled for issues with the accelerator pedal, which caused the company to reveal that only 3,878 vehicles had been delivered to customers.
• Tesla is laying off a large number of staff, including the Supercharger and new vehicle teams.
• Elon Musk is doing mass layoffs to reestablish his power over the company, but it’s destabilizing the actual business.
• Reuters reported that Musk cancelled plans for a low-cost car in favor of robotaxis.
• Automakers were warning they couldn’t phase out Chinese minerals from the battery supply chain by 2025. After recording, the Biden administration announced some rules would be delayed until 2027.
• BYD has been looking to build a factory in Mexico.

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Paris Marx is joined by Nicole Lipman to discuss SHEIN’s rise to the top of the fast fashion industry and how it exacerbates the sector’s labor and environment problems.

Nicole Lipman is a writer and assistant editor at n+1.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Nicole did a deep dive into SHEIN and how it operates for n+1.
• Paris wrote about the Shut Down Shein campaign.
• Amazon benefits immensely from the US de minimis rule.
• Ten years after the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh, many problems remain. 

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Paris Marx is joined by Meghan O’Gieblyn to discuss parallels between transhumanism and Christian narratives of resurrection, despite the fact many transhumanists identify as staunch atheists.

Meghan O’Gieblyn is an advice columnist at Wired and the author of God, Human, Animal, Machine.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Meghan wrote about transhumanism and religion for n+1.
• Paris wrote about the religion of techno-optimism in Disconnect.
• Amy Kurzweil wrote about her father’s chatbot of his own father.
• In China, AI “deathbots” are being used to help people grieve.
• Richard Dawkins now identifies as a “cultural Christian” (not Catholic, as Paris mistakenly said in the episode).

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Paris Marx is joined by Alex Shephard to discuss the legalization of sports betting in the United States, the growing influence of gambling in professional sports, and its negative impact on the lives of sports fans.

Alex Shephard is a senior editor at The New Republic.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Alex wrote about sports gambling for The New Republic.
• The Wall Street Journal recent explored the wider backlash to sports betting in light of the Shohei Ohtani scandal.
• Last year, the New York Times gutted its unionized sports section to replace it with non-union writers at The Athletic.
• Psychologist Meredith K. Ginley explained how sports betting apps hook people on regular gambling.

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Paris Marx is joined by Edward Ongweso Jr. to discuss Kara Swisher’s attempt to rebrand herself as the most feared journalist in Silicon Valley, how she spent her career forwarding the industry’s narratives, and the larger problems with access journalism.

Edward Ongweso Jr. is finance editor at Logics Magazine and co-host of This Machine Kills.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Ed wrote a critical review of Burn Book in The Baffler.
• In Disconnect, Paris also wrote a critical review of Swisher’s book and explained his journey to becoming a tech critic.
• In 2021, Kara told CNBC that just because NFTs are digital “doesn’t mean it’s not of value.” The following year she also defended promoting investments in crypto for retirement.

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Paris Marx is joined by Kat Tenbarge to discuss the proliferation of AI-generated, non-consensual sexual images, their impact on the victims, and the potential fallout for tech companies who helped make it all possible. Note there is some discussion of self-harm and suicide in this episode.

Kat Tenbarge is a tech and culture writer at NBC News.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Kat has reported extensively on this issue, including stories about fake nude images of underage celebrities toping search engine results, nonconsensual deepfake porn showing up on Google and Bing too, Visa and Mastercard being used to fund the deepfake economy, and why plans for watermarking aren’t enough.
• Another Body is a documentary that looks at the scale of the problem of non-consensual deepfake explicit images.
• Microsoft’s Designer AI tool was used to create AI porn of Taylor Swift.
• Middle and high schools in Seattle, Miami, and Beverley Hills are among those already facing the consequences of AI-generated and deepfake nude images.
• In 2014, Jennifer Lawrence called the iCloud photo hack a “sex crime.”

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Paris Marx is joined by Zach Weinersmith to discuss why building space colonies will be much more difficult than the space billionaires want us to believe.

Zach Weinersmith co-wrote A City On Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? with Kelly Weinersmith. He also makes the Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal comic.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• An excerpt of A City on Mars was published by Space.com.

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Paris Marx is joined by Jacob Silverman to discuss the motivations behind the proposed TikTok ban and what the effort tells us about US tech policy.

Jacob Silverman is a tech journalist and the co-author of Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Paris will be speaking in Montreal on March 23 and March 26.
• Jacob wrote about the GOP megadonor who could benefit from whatever happens to TikTok.
• Paris wrote about the geopolitics of the TikTok ban and what it says about US power.
• Taylor Lorenz broke down some of the disputed claims being made about TikTok.
• Sam Biddle wrote about how Facebook knows they violated Palestinian human rights.
• Byron Tau explained how US government agencies are getting people’s personal data from data brokers.

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Paris Marx is joined by Amanda Hanna-McLeer and Lucy Jackson to discuss the story of The Luddite Club, from its beginnings as a high school organization to its pivot into a non-profit and growth into an international movement.

Amanda Hanna-McLeer is a writer, educator, and director of The Luddite Club documentary. Lucy Jackson is an early member of the Luddite Club.

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.

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Also mentioned in this episode:

• The original New York Times article featuring the club
• Amanda shouts out Brian Merchant’s book The One Device and Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing
• The film discussed was John Carpenter’s 1988 sci-fi horror film They Live

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In a bonus episode, Paris Marx is joined by Ed Ongweso Jr. and Brian Merchant to share their thoughts on Dune: Part Two, how it relates to the modern tech industry, and whether today’s Luddites can take anything from Dune’s Butlerian Jihad.

Ed Ongweso Jr is finance editor at Logic(s) Magazine and cohost of This Machine Kills. Brian Merchant is a technology journalist and the author of Blood In the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• You can watch the entire livestream over on YouTube.
• For Disconnect, Paris wrote about how the digital revolution has failed.

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Paris Marx is joined by Ed Zitron to discuss the public’s growing disillusionment with the tech industry as it pivoted to chasing profits instead of providing us with anything useful.

Ed Zitron is the host of Better Offline and writes the Where’s Your Ed At newsletter. He’s also the CEO of EZPR.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Ed wrote about how tech lost its way and the problems with the generative AI hype.
• Paris wrote the failure of the digital revolution, the material costs of data centers, and Kara Swisher’s new book.
• A lot of Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI is cloud compute credits.
• Molly White reviewed Chris Dixon’s new book.

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Paris Marx is joined by Dharna Noor to discuss widely-held misconceptions about the effectiveness of plastic recycling and how industry lobbies invented them to protect the market for plastic products.

Dharna Noor is the fossil fuels and climate reporter 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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• On Friday, March 8, Paris will be speaking with Ed Ongweso Jr. and Brian Merchant about Dune: Part Two and its connection to the growing Luddite movement. Watch it on our YouTube channel at 11am PT / 2pm ET / 7pm GMT.
• Our conversation was based in part on the Center for Climate Integrity’s new report called “The Fraud of Plastic Recycling.”
• Dharna reported on that report and has previously written about plastic materials ending up in landfills, fashion’s use of plastic, and the problem with replacing plastics with other disposables.
• In 2018, Barack Obama said, “That whole ‘suddenly America’s like the biggest oil producer and the biggest gas,’ that was me, people.
• New research has found microplastics in the placentas of unborn babies. The science isn’t settled on the effects on microplastics on human health, but there’s reason to be concerned.

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Paris Marx is joined by Ben Wray to discuss why the European Union’s Platform Work Directive isn’t moving forward, what hope remains for gig workers’ rights in Europe, and what we should make of Uber’s first annual profit.

Ben Wray is the coordinator of the Gig Economy Project and the author of Scotland after Britain: The two souls of Scottish independence.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• On March 8, Paris will be doing a livestream about Dune 2 and Luddites with Ed Ongweso Jr and Brian Merchant. Get notified on YouTube.
• Ben wrote about the failure of the Platform Work Directive, the recent conferences on platform workers’ rights in Brussels, and the Uber CEO’s admission of using driver’s “behavioral patterns” to influence pay rates.
• Paris wrote about the wider context of Uber’s first annual profit.
• Delivery Hero’s business isn’t going well and its share price has been dropping.
• Glovo is facing serious legal trouble in Spain, and even as some fines have been suspended, others have been added.
• Food delivery workers in the UK have been on a major strike. Notes from Below have been publishing some dispatches from it.

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Paris Marx is joined by Grafton Tanner to discuss the dangers and consequences of companies and politicians leveraging nostalgia for their own purposes. 

Grafton Tanner is the author of Foreverism. He also teaches at the University of Georgia.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode: 

• Paris wrote about the material footprint of data centers in Disconnect.
• Ian McKellen broke down on the set of The Hobbit after acting with no other actors on a green screen.
• In an interview with Charlie Rose, George Lucas described differences between Soviet and US film industries.
• Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy told Vanity Fair it wasn’t as fun making Star Wars films today as it was making the original trilogy.
• Jake Gyllenhaal described the difficulty of acting in a Marvel film after Spider-Man: Far From Home.

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Paris Marx is joined by Zachary Kaiser to discuss the power of tech interfaces, why data isn’t an accurate reflection of the world, and why we need to discuss democratic decomputerization.

Zachary Kaiser is an Associate Professor of Graphic Design and Experience Architecture at Michigan State University. He’s also the author of Interfaces and Us: User Experience Design and the Making of the Computable Subject.

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Paris is speaking in Auckland on February 18 at an event hosted by Tohatoha.
• Zachary wrote about dream reading technologies for Real Life.
• Zachary mentions specific works by David Golumbia, Ivan Illich, Aaron Benanav, John Cheney-Lippold, Thomas F. Tierney, Marisa Brandt, Arturo Escobar, and James Ferguson.

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Paris Marx is joined by Nastasia Hadjadji to discuss Emmanuel Macron’s plan to run France like a start-up, how that justified a further dismantling of France's welfare state, and how his desire to create national tech champions is having domestic consequences.

Nastasia Hadjadji is a French journalist looking at tech from the lens of political economy and the author of “No Crypto. Comment Bitcoin a envoûté la planète.”

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. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Paris will be speaking in Auckland on February 18 in an event hosted by Tohatoha.
• Emmanuel Macron aided Uber’s lobbying efforts as Economy Minister under the former Socialist government.
• France worked hard to attract the crypto industry. Macron even took a selfie with Binance’s Changpeng Zhao, who’s now pled guilty to felony charges.
• The group Technopolice documents police surveillance in France.
• La Quadrature du Net campaigns against algorithmic video surveillance.
• Louis Pouzin is considered to have almost created the internet.

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Paris Marx is joined by Victor Pickard to discuss the continued layoffs in news media, and how they are symptomatic of a deeper, structural crisis in journalism.

Victor Pickard is Professor of Media Policy and Political Economy at University of Pennsylvania. He’s also the author of Democracy Without Journalism?: Confronting the Misinformation Society.

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 and produced by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Paris will be speaking in Christchurch on February 4 and Wellington on February 8.
• Victor wrote for Niemen Lab about the need to divorce news and capitalism, and argued for public newspapers in the Washington Post.
• In the US, two-thirds of newspaper jobs, or 43,000 journalists, have been lost since 2005.
• Robert McChesney and John Nichols propose a Local Journalism Initiative.
• Police raided a newspaper in Kansas on August 11, 2023, setting off a major scandal that’s now seen the police chief suspended.

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Paris Marx is joined by Eric Silver to discuss Spotify’s big plan to dominate podcasting, why it’s now pulling back from those efforts, and the difference between highly produced and more independent podcasts.

Eric Silver is a podcast producer and head of development at Multitude.

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 and produced by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Paris will be in Christchurch on February 4 (details here) and Wellington on February 8 (details here). He’s hoping to get an Auckland date organized and is open to going to Australia.
• Spotify pulled back on its podcasting ambitions last year, canceling big shows and laying off staff.
• After buying Gimlet and Parcast, it merged them into Spotify Originals last year.
• Ashley Carman posted a slide from a Spotify presentation presenting the RSS feed as “outdated tech” because it’s harder for them to harvest data from.

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Paris Marx is joined by Timnit Gebru to discuss the past year in AI hype, how AI companies have shaped regulation, and tech’s relationship to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
 
Timnit Gebru is the founder and executive director of the Distributed AI Research Institute.

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 produced by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.
 
Also mentioned in this episode:

• Paris is speaking in Montreal on January 20. Details here.
• Billy Perrigo reported on OpenAI lobbying to water down the EU’s AI Act.
• Nitasha Tiku wrote about the push to train students in a particular idea of AI.
• Politico has been doing a lot of reporting on the influences on AI policy in the US and UK.
• OpenAI made a submission in the UK to try to get permission to train on copyrighted material.
• Arab workers in the tech industry fear the consequences of speaking out for Palestinian rights.
• 972 Magazine reported on Israel’s use of AI to increase its targets in Gaza.
• Jack Poulson chronicles the growing ties between military and tech.
• Timnit mentioned No Tech for Apartheid, Antony Loewenstein’s The Palestine Laboratory, and Malcolm Harris’ Palo Alto.

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Paris Marx is joined by James Vincent to discuss why we’re seeing humanoid robots everywhere, the motivations to pursue an all-purpose robot, how close we are to achieving that goal, and the social implications if we were to achieve it.

James Vincent is a UK-based journalist and author of Beyond Measure: The Hidden History of Measurement from Cubits to Quantum Constants.

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.

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Also mentioned in this episode:

• James wrote about what kicking robots can tell us about the state of modern robotics
• Rodney Brooks makes a case for the difficulty in teaching robots human dexterity
• Here is an in-depth look at what Agility Robotics has been working on
• Shout-out to the 2008 movie Sleep Dealer
• Japanese convenience stores are using robots run by offshore operators
• This is what a toilet cleaning robot looks like

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Paris Marx is joined by Vincent Bevins to discuss the mass protests of the 2010s, the role that social and traditional media played in them, and why the horizontalism of those movements ultimately didn’t work.

Vincent Bevins is a longtime foreign correspondent who has worked for the Washington Post, Financial Times, and LA Times. He’s the author of The Jakarta Method and If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution.

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 and produced by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Read excerpts from If We Burn in The Guardian and In These Times.
• Vincent mentioned the work of Charles Tilley, Cihan Tuğal, Evgeny Morozov, and Andrey Mir.

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Paris Marx is joined by Naomi Klein to discuss the problems with personal branding pushed social media, how the left’s insufficient response to the pandemic created an opening for the right, and the fight over the roots of Western society that will shape our future.
 
Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist, New York Times bestselling author, and a columnist with The Guardian. She is the founding co-director of the UBC Centre for Climate Justice and Professor of Climate Justice at the University of British Columbia. Her newest book is Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World.

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 produced by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.
 
Also mentioned in this episode:

• Read excerpts of Doppelganger in The Guardian and Vanity Fair.
• Naomi mentions Aimé Césaire’s Discourse on Colonialism.

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2023 is over, so it’s time to go through everything! In a special year-end episode, we review the biggest stories of 2023, what we’re thinking of the AI hype, how science fiction makes us think about the future, the worst villains in the tech industry, and what we’re watching in 2024.
 
Gita Jackson is a journalist and cofounder of Aftermath. Molly White is the creator of Web3 is Going Just Great. Aaron Thorpe is co-host of Everybody Loves Communism.
 
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 produced by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.
 
Also mentioned in this episode:

• If you become a Patreon supporter before the end of the year, you’ll be entered into a giveaway for five signed copies of Joanne McNeil’s Wrong Way and Paris Marx’s Road to Nowhere. Sign up now!
• Gita recently launched Aftermath, and you can go subscribe!
• Molly is getting started on TikTok. Go follow her!
• Aaron posts a lot of cool science fiction art over on Twitter. Give him a follow!
• You can see the Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos photos we discuss in the Worst Person in Tech segment on Twitter, Bluesky, and Mastodon.
• Paris was mistaken: Enya sang “May It Be” for Fellowship of the Ring, not “Gollum’s Song” for the Two Towers. That was Emilíana Torrini. But Paris listened to both of them too much.

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