This Machine Kills

With the news of interest rates dropping again, we refocus our attention on Masayoshi Son, the man who perhaps most embodies the pathologies of technological capitalism. Thanks to a new biography, we learn fascinating color about Masa’s character which further support what we already to know to be true: he is an ambitious disrupter who is burdened with delusions of grandeur, a degenerate gambler who has turned his addiction to leverage into a personal mythos, and a gifted intermediary who knows how to engineer debt and extract fees. ••• The mystery of Masayoshi Son, SoftBank’s great disrupter https://www.ft.com/content/424eb5f8-efb4-4fc8-b86a-0359f6fac9eb 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)

Jumping off a spate of recent reporting, we revisit the deep relations between the tech sector and fossil fuel industry and discuss how companies like Microsoft are turning to oil and gas companies as a solution for AI’s profit problem. How are tech companies going to offset their trillion dollars of capital investment into AI infrastructure? One revenue strategy: selling bespoke AI systems to companies like ExxonMobil and Chevron which make fossil fuel extraction even more efficient, thus optimizing the process of socio-ecological collapse. Gotta capture those profits while there’s still time! ••• Microsoft’s Hypocrisy on AI https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/09/microsoft-ai-oil-contracts/679804/ ••• AI Boom Is Driving a Surprise Resurgence of US Gas-Fired Power https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-09-16/us-natural-gas-power-plants-just-keep-coming-to-meet-ai-ev-electricity-demand ••• The U.S. Has a Methane Problem. A.I. Is Making It Worse. https://newrepublic.com/article/186213/methane-emissions-ai-flaring-court ••• Data center emissions probably 662% higher than big tech claims. Can it keep up the ruse? https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/sep/15/data-center-gas-emissions-tech ••• Three Mile Island Plans to Reopen as Demand for Nuclear Power Grows https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/20/climate/three-mile-island-reopening.html ••• AI is revitalizing the fossil fuels industry, and big tech has nothing to say for itself https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/ai-is-revitalizing-the-fossil-fuels ••• AI is fueling a data center boom. It must be stopped. https://disconnect.blog/ai-is-fueling-a-data-center-boom/ 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 dive into a weird but revealing article about the phalanx of private security that Elon Musk has amassed around him, spending a small fortune on ex-operators who plan escape routes for his events, clear rooms before he enters, and assess (perceived) threats to his personal safety. His “mushrooming security apparatus” has caused a feedback loop or paranoia and isolation as he becomes further removed from any social connections to other people. We relate this to a broader zeitgeist of fear in American society that has given rise to—and is fuelled by—the explosion of growth in private security firms. ••• Inside Elon Musk’s Mushrooming Security Apparatus https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/13/technology/elon-musk-security.html ••• The Thin Purple Line https://harpers.org/archive/2024/09/the-thin-purple-line-jasper-craven-private-security-guard/ 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 are joined by Gaby Del Valle who has written a great—and distressingly relevant—essay for The Baffler, which reports on the “eugenic foundations of the war on woke.” We dig into the beliefs of innate biological hierarchy and genetic superiority that underpin so much of mainstream right-wing politics. Whether it’s the convergence of Christian nationalist and tech rationalists around issues like declining birth rates and embryo engineering, or its the resurgence of blood libel with JD Vance’s fascist fairy tale about Haitian migrants, or its the cultural war against woke universities and DEI committees—these various sects are all unified by their use of biological essentialism to justify social domination. ••• Live Free or DEI https://thebaffler.com/salvos/live-free-or-dei-del-valle ••• Follow Gaby: https://x.com/gabydvj 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)

Keeping with our recent theme of exploring the relations between the military and tech sector, we jump off a great essay in The Baffler to discuss a crucial part of this complex: university research. Universities – especially, academics in STEM faculties – must be understood as defense contractors who are partners with the military (and adjacent agencies); they advance the military’s goals and are dependent on the military’s cash. You can call them “research grants,” you can say their purpose is to “advancing knowledge,” you can extoll the benefits of “supporting academics and higher education,” but those are just euphemisms for the realities of the military-industrial-university complex. ••• War Machine Learning https://thebaffler.com/salvos/war-machine-learning-mccarthy 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)

Explore the intriguing thoughts of Yuval Noah Harari and the mixed reactions to his influential works like 'Sapiens'. Discover the concept of 'dumb smart guys' and how Silicon Valley's innovation contrasts with New York's stagnant culture. Delve into the Biblical themes in political discourse, particularly regarding Israeli politics. Unravel the societal impact of technology, from historical innovations to today's AI debates in education. The conversation urges a deeper understanding of power dynamics shaping our world, pushing for transformative change.

We do a deep dive into Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism Strategy and Little Tech Agenda, which together lay out a clear ideology of how tech startups are integral to the American empire. All this venture capital firm asks for is your belief in a16z as a conduit for the spirit of innovation, your trust in America as a vessel for the progressive spirit, and your optimism in a future led by a16z’s vision. Oh yeah, and also billions of dollars to invest in bringing about “the glory of a Second American Century.” ••• Blackstone set to acquire Australian data centre business AirTrunk https://www.ft.com/content/d7399891-15a4-47fb-b8f3-47970e156956 ••• American Dynamism https://a16z.com/american-dynamism ••• Building American Dynamism https://a16z.com/building-american-dynamism/ ••• The Little Tech Agenda https://a16z.com 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 chat with friend of the show Michael Richardson—author of the new book Nonhuman Witnessing—about the ongoing, deepening relationships between Silicon Valley and the US military. We check up on new activities from old enemies—Y Combinator, Anduril, Palantir, among others—and get into the changing cultures on both sides as they converge around defense innovation as a solution for Silicon Valley’s problems of needing another endless pool of capital and the Pentagon’s problems of needing to maintain a dying empire and beat China in an arms race. ••• Michael’s new book – Nonhuman Witnessing: War, Data, and Ecology after the End of the World https://dukeupress.edu/nonhuman-witnessing ••• Start-up incubator Y Combinator backs its first weapons firm https://www.ft.com/content/17f16071-87e0-4675-a152-6d6285b97fd5 ••• Anduril now valued at $14 billion, set to build autonomous weapons factories https://www.axios.com/2024/08/08/anduril-14-billion-autonomous-weapons ••• Army chooses Palantir to build next-generation targeting system https://www.c4isrnet.com/artificial-intelligence/2024/03/06/army-chooses-palantir-to-build-next-generation-targeting-system/ ••• Palantir Ontology https://www.palantir.com/docs/foundry/ontology/overview/ 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 chat about a heinous crossover as Axon – major police tech firm, maker of tasers and body cameras – creates a new AI product with ChatGPT that automates police reports using audio recordings from body cameras. We get into this whole political economy of cop power and carceral tech. Then we talk about how all the economists are Big Mad because of proposed bans for price gouging of food. ••• Police officers are starting to use AI chatbots to write crime reports. Will they hold up in court? https://apnews.com/article/ai-writes-police-reports-axon-body-cameras-chatgpt-a24d1502b53faae4be0dac069243f418 ••• The Body Camera: The Language of our Dreams | Alec Karakatsanis https://campuspress.yale.edu/yjll/volume-4/3/ ••• Sometimes You Just Have to Ignore the Economists https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/08/economists-kamala-harris-price-gouging/679547/ ••• Kamala Harris and America’s broken capitalism https://www.ft.com/content/41d31b4b-b0bd-4971-9f0f-543990a27103 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)

{Producer’s note: this episode has an electronic buzz in parts due to a dying microphone. I cleaned it up as much as possible, but it couldn’t be totally removed. So it goes!} We go deep on the recent federal antitrust case against Google, which ruled that the company is a monopoly (obviously). We get into the details of the case, before spinning off to talk more broadly about market domination and disaster capitalism, then get back to the potential remedies for addressing Google’s power over search and the implications for techno-economic regulation. ••• Disaster Capitalism Revisited https://theideasletter.substack.com/p/disaster-capitalism-revisited ••• Will Google’s Monopoly Be Vanquished? https://prospect.org/justice/2024-08-09-will-googles-monopoly-be-vanquished/ ••• Google as monopolist https://www.ft.com/content/1d01b2d1-fc70-4d4a-823a-13fb24c9a7ef ••• Monopoly Money https://www.wheresyoured.at/monopoly-money/ 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)