We chat for a bit about Trump’s AI Action Plan – more to come on this next week – before getting into broader questions about Silicon Valley imperialism, American force projection and soft power through AI, the endlessly convenient competition against China, the impossibility of winning an AI arms race with no defined finish line, among other things. Plus a new addition to our tech freak watch.
••• Come to Jathan’s book launch in Melbourne on August 14th at 6:00pm! There will be fun conversation, an open bar, and books for sale! Register for free here: https://events.humanitix.com/sadowkski-the-mechanic-and-the-luddite-launch
••• Trump's AI Action Plan is a blueprint for dystopia https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/trumps-ai-action-plan-is-a-blueprint
••• Trump Plans to Give A.I. Developers a Free Hand https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/technology/trump-ai-executive-orders.html
••• Why Big Tech is threatened by a global push for data sovereignty https://restofworld.org/2025/big-tech-data-sovereignty/
••• OpenAI signs deal with UK to find government uses for its models https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/21/openai-signs-deal-with-uk-to-find-government-uses-for-its-models
••• The metamorphosis of Shaun Maguire https://www.businessinsider.com/shaun-maguire-silicon-valleys-most-maga-firebrand-sequoia-mamdani-2025-7
Standing Plugs:
••• 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
••• 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)
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415. It’s Time to Build… Radical Policy for AI (ft. Sarah Myers West, Amba Kak)
We are joined by Amba Kak and Sarah Myers West — co-directors of the AI Now Institute — to discuss their excellent new Landscape Report on Artificial Power. We discuss Trump’s AI Action Day and his administration’s use of AI as an alibi to justify further consolidating wealth and power into a few hands, while making vague promises about economic growth and technological progress, without actually delivering any material benefits to everyday people. We then get into the AI Now Institute’s Roadmap for Action which lays out a bold, urgent, and practical policy agenda for creating and enforcing regulations on AI.
••• Artificial Power: 2025 Landscape Report | AI Now Institute https://ainowinstitute.org/publications/research/ai-now-2025-landscape-report
••• People's AI Action Plan https://peoplesaiaction.com/
••• Come to Jathan’s book launch in Melbourne on August 14th at 6:00pm! There will be fun conversation, an open bar, and books for sale! Register for free here: https://events.humanitix.com/sadowkski-the-mechanic-and-the-luddite-launch
Standing Plugs:
••• 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
••• 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)
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Patreon Preview – 414. Deus Ex Zuck
After chatting about Ed’s trip to Greece, we turn our sights on the incredible amount of money that Mark Zuckerberg is spending to poach big names from across the tech sector and assemble the greatest crossover event in AI history. What could possibly make this level of investment into creating the Meta Superintelligence Lab a worthwhile endeavor? We lay out the Meta logic as it seems to be playing out.
••• Here’s What Mark Zuckerberg Is Offering Top AI Talent https://www.wired.com/story/mark-zuckerberg-meta-offer-top-ai-talent-300-million/
••• Here Is Everyone Mark Zuckerberg Has Hired So Far for Meta’s ‘Superintelligence’ Team https://www.wired.com/story/mark-zuckerberg-welcomes-superintelligence-team/
••• Zuckerberg Leads AI Recruitment Blitz Armed With $100 Million Pay Packages https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/meta-ai-recruiting-mark-zuckerberg-5c231f75
••• Meta held talks to buy Thinking Machines, Perplexity, and Safe Superintelligence https://www.theverge.com/command-line-newsletter/690720/meta-buy-thinking-machines-perplexity-safe-superintelligence
••• Meta Wins Blockbuster AI Copyright Case—but There’s a Catch https://www.wired.com/story/meta-scores-victory-ai-copyright-case/
••• 'A Black Hole of Energy Use': Meta's Massive AI Data Center Is Stressing Out a Louisiana Community https://www.404media.co/a-black-hole-of-energy-use-metas-massive-ai-data-center-is-stressing-out-a-louisiana-community/
Standing Plugs:
••• 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
••• 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)
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413. ScamGPT – How AI Supercharges Fraud (ft. Alice Marwick)
We chat with Alice Marwick — director of research at Data & Society — about a new report she co-authored on how generative AI is now unleashing a new world of scams and fraud. AI is supercharging the business of scamming by making it easier and cheaper than ever to deploy sophisticated scams at scale. Scams are now automated, ubiquitous, and dynamic. The victims of AI-fuelled fraud are not just traditional demographics like older people. We get into types of fraud like pig butchering and harpoon whaling, and what we can do to defend against the automation of fraud. Then we discuss how these technical infrastructures are compounded by social conditions (and societal crises) that are making more people vulnerable to scams—but also to high risk behaviors like gambling, forms of financial exploitation like multi-level marketing, and misinformation like conspiracy theories.
••• Data & Society | Research https://datasociety.net/research/
••• Scam GPT: GenAI and the Automation of Fraud https://datasociety.net/library/scam-gpt/
••• The Future of Conspiracy Theory Scholarship https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19331681.2025.2491687
••• Mountains of Evidence: Processual “Redpilling” as a Socio-Technical Effect of Disinformation https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/21934
Standing Plugs:
••• 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
••• 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)
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Patreon Preview – 412. Sweat Your Genetic Assets
We dive into Nucleus Genomics, a startup backed by the Founders Fund, that wants to help you evaluate, rank, and name your embryos in a pre-IVF dashboard designed for “genetic optimization.” We talk about the junk science and wild ideologies that drive these desires to treat your genes and children like assets to be managed – with the ultimate goal of creating and enforcing a society ordered by genetic hierarchies. We then wrap up by tying these biotech visions to their AI counterparts in the “Gentle Singularity.”
••• This 25-Year-Old Biotech Founder Says His Startup Can ‘Optimize’ Embryos for Intelligence https://www.inc.com/ben-sherry/kian-sadeghi-says-nucleus-genomics-can-optimize-embryos-for-intelligence/91198815
••• Controversial genetics testing startup Nucleus Genomics raises $14M Series A https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/30/controversial-genetics-testing-startup-nucleus-genomics-raises-14m-series-a/
••• Genetics testing startup Nucleus Genomics criticized for its embryo product: ‘Makes me so nauseous’ https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/06/genetics-testing-startup-nucleus-genomics-criticized-for-its-embryo-product-makes-me-so-nauseous/
••• OpenAI wins $200m contract with US military for ‘warfighting’ https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jun/17/openai-military-contract-warfighting
••• This is the gentle singularity? https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/this-is-the-gentle-singularity
••• China shuts down AI tools during nationwide college exams https://www.theverge.com/news/682737/china-shuts-down-ai-chatbots-exam-season
Standing Plugs:
••• 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
••• 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)
A podcast about technology and political economy /// Agitprop against innovation and capital /// Hosted by Jathan Sadowski and Edward Ongweso Jr., Produced by Jereme Brown /// Hello friends and enemies
Listen anywhere that fine podcasts are distributed. Subscribe at patreon.com/thismachinekills to get premium episodes every week.
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