This Machine Kills

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)