Machines Like Us

The past few months have seen a series of bold proclamations from the most powerful people in tech.In September, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta had developed “the most advanced glasses the world had ever seen.” That same day, Open AI CEO Sam Altman predicted we could have artificial super intelligence within a couple of years. Elon Musk has said he’ll land rockets on Mars by 2026.We appear to be living through the kinds of technological leaps we used to only dream about. But whose dreams were those, exactly?In her latest book, Imagination: A Manifesto, Ruha Benjamin argues that our collective imagination has been monopolized by the Zuckerbergs and Musks of the world. But, she says, it doesn’t need to be that way.Mentioned:“Imagination: A Manifesto,” by Ruha BenjaminSummer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), directed by Questlove“The Black Woman: An Anthology,” by Toni Cade Bambara“The New Artificial Intelligentsia,” by Ruha Benjamin“Race After Technology,” by Ruha BenjaminBreonna's Garden, with Ju'Niyah Palmer“Viral Justice,” by Ruha BenjaminThe Parable Series, by Octavia ButlerFurther Reading:“AI could make health care fairer—by helping us believe what patients say,” by Karen Hao“How an Attempt at Correcting Bias in Tech Goes Wrong,” by Sidney Fussell“Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines,’” by Joy Buolamwini“The TESCREAL bundle: Eugenics and the promise of utopia through artificial general intelligence,” by Timnit Gebru and Émile P. Torres

Margrethe Vestager has spent the past decade standing up to Silicon Valley. As the EU’s Competition Commissioner, she’s waged landmark legal battles against tech giants like Meta, Microsoft and Amazon. Her two latest wins will cost Apple and Google billions of dollars.With her decade-long tenure as one of the world’s most powerful anti-trust watchdogs coming to an end, Vestager has turned her attention to AI. She spearheaded the EU’s AI Act, which will be the first and, so far, most ambitious piece of AI legislation in the world.But the clock is ticking – both on her term and on the global race to govern AI, which Vestager says we have “very little time” to get right.Mentioned:The EU Artificial Intelligence Act“Dutch scandal serves as a warning for Europe over risks of using algorithms,” by Melissa Heikkilä“Belgian man dies by suicide following exchanges with chatbot” by Lauren WalkerThe Digital Services ActThe Digital Markets ActGeneral Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)“The future of European competitiveness” by Mario Draghi“Governing AI for Humanity: Final Report” by the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-level Advisory BodyThe Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA)Further Reading:“Apple, Google must pay billions in back taxes and fines, E.U. court rules” by Ellen Francis and Cat Zakrzewski“OpenAI Lobbied the E.U. to Water Down AI Regulation” by Billy Perrigo“The total eclipse of Margrethe Vestager” by Samuel Stolton“Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology” by Anu Bradford“The Brussels Effect: How the European Union Rules the World” by Anu Bradford

We’re off this week, so we’re bringing you an episode from our Globe and Mail sister show Lately. That creeping feeling that everything online is getting worse has a name: “enshittification,” a term for the slow degradation of our experience on digital platforms. The enshittification cycle is why you now have to wade through slop to find anything useful on Google, and why your charger is different from your BFF’s. According to Cory Doctorow, the man who coined the memorable moniker, this digital decay isn’t inevitable. It’s a symptom of corporate under-regulation and monopoly – practices being challenged in courts around the world, like the US Department of Justice’s antitrust suit against Google.Cory Doctorow is a British-Canadian journalist, blogger and author of Chokepoint Capitalism, as well as speculative fiction works like The Lost Cause and the new novella Spill. Every Friday, Lately takes a deep dive into the big, defining trends in business and tech that are reshaping our every day. It’s hosted by Vass Bednar. Machines Like Us will be back in two weeks.

The tech lobby has quietly turned Silicon Valley into the most powerful political operation in America. Pro crypto donors are now responsible for almost half of all corporate donations this election. Elon Musk has gone from an occasional online troll to, as one of our guests calls him, “MAGA’s Minister of Propaganda.” And for the first time, the once reliably blue Silicon Valley seems to be shifting to the right. What does all this mean for the upcoming election? To help us better understand this moment, we spoke with three of the most prominent tech writers in the U.S. Charles Duhigg (author of the bestseller Supercommunicators) has a recent piece in the New Yorker called “Silicon Valley, the New Lobbying Monster.” Charlie Warzel is a staff writer at the Atlantic, and Nitasha Tiku is a tech culture reporter at the Washington Post.Mentioned:“Silicon Valley, the New Lobbying Monster” by Charles Duhigg“Big Crypto, Big Spending: Crypto Corporations Spend an Unprecedented $119 Million Influencing Elections” by Rick Claypool via Public Citizen“I’m Running Out of Ways to Explain How Bad This Is” by Charlie Warzel“Elon Musk Has Reached a New Low” by Charlie Warzel“The movement to diversify Silicon Valley is crumbling amid attacks on DEI” by Naomi Nix, Cat Zakrzewski and Nitasha Tiku“The Techno-Optimist Manifesto” by Marc Andreessen“Trump Vs. Biden: Tech Policy,” The Ben & Marc Show “The MAGA Aesthetic Is AI Slop” by Charlie WarzelFurther Reading:“Biden's FTC took on big tech, big pharma and more. What antitrust legacy will Biden leave behind?” by Paige Sutherland and Meghna Chakrabarti“Inside the Harris campaign’s blitz to win back Silicon Valley” by Cat Zakrzewski, Nitasha Tiku and Elizabeth Dwoskin“The Little Tech Agenda” by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz“Silicon Valley had Harris’s back for decades. Will she return the favor?” by Cristiano Lima-Strong and Cat Zakrzewski“SEC’s Gensler turns tide against crypto in courts” by Declan Harty“Trump vs. Harris is dividing Silicon Valley into feuding political camps” by Trisha Thadani, Elizabeth Dwoskin, Nitasha Tiku and Gerrit De Vynck“Inside the powerful Peter Thiel network that anointed JD Vance” by Elizabeth Dwoskin, Cat Zakrzewski, Nitasha Tiku and Josh Dawsey