Tech Won't Save Us

Paris Marx is joined by Nitasha Tiku to discuss how AI companies are preying on users to drive engagement and how that’s repeating many of the problems we’re belatedly trying to address with social media companies at an accelerated pace. Nitasha Tiku is a technology 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 [https://www.patreon.com/techwontsaveus]. The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. Also mentioned in this episode: * Nitasha wrote about how chatbots are messing with people’s minds [https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/05/31/ai-chatbots-user-influence-attention-chatgpt/]. * Paris wrote about Mark Zuckerberg’s comments about people needing AI friends [https://www.disconnect.blog/p/mark-zuckerberg-wants-to-you-be-lonely]. * AI companies are facing [https://www.npr.org/2024/12/10/nx-s1-5222574/kids-character-ai-lawsuit] ongoing lawsuits [https://apnews.com/article/chatbot-ai-lawsuit-suicide-teen-artificial-intelligence-9d48adc572100822fdbc3c90d1456bd0] over harmful content. Support the show [https://patreon.com/techwontsaveus]

Paris Marx is joined by Laís Martins to discuss the recent enforcement measures against tech companies like X and Rumble in Brazil, how the country is grappling with the overreach of US tech companies, and the wider discussion about tech policy in Brazil. Laís Martins is a technology reporter at The Intercept Brasil. 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 [https://patreon.com/techwontsaveus]. The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. Also mentioned in this episode: * Laís has reported on Rumble's fight against the Brazilian Supreme Court [https://www.techpolicy.press/why-the-rumble-suit-against-a-brazilian-justice-is-not-about-free-speech/] as well as the decisions the Brazilian government is making to welcome AI data centers [https://www.techpolicy.press/brazil-is-handing-out-generous-incentives-for-data-centers-but-what-it-stands-to-gain-from-it-is-still-unclear/]. * Former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff was spied on [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/24/brazil-president-un-speech-nsa-surveillance] by US intelligence services. * The Brazilian government has long used and supported [https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-the-end-of-google-as-we-know-it-could-be-your-biggest-opportunity-yet/] open source software. Support the show [https://patreon.com/techwontsaveus]

Paris Marx is joined by Karen Hao to discuss how Sam Altman’s goal of scale at all costs has spawned a new empire founded on exploitation of people and the environment, resulting in not only the loss of valuable research into more inventive AI systems, but also exacerbated data privacy issues, intellectual property erosion, and the perpetuation of surveillance capitalism. Karen Hao is an award-winning journalist and the author of Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI [https://bookshop.org/a/18331/9780593657508]. 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 [https://patreon.com/techwontsaveus]. The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. Also mentioned in this episode: * Karen was the first journalist [https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/02/17/844721/ai-openai-moonshot-elon-musk-sam-altman-greg-brockman-messy-secretive-reality/] to profile OpenAI. * Karen has reported on the environmental impacts [https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/03/ai-water-climate-microsoft/677602/] and human costs [https://www.wsj.com/tech/chatgpt-openai-content-abusive-sexually-explicit-harassment-kenya-workers-on-human-workers-cf191483?mod=author_content_page_1_pos_3] of AI. * The New York Times reported on Why We're Unlikely to Get Artificial General Intelligence [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/technology/what-is-agi.html] Anytime Soon.  Support the show [https://patreon.com/techwontsaveus]

Paris Marx is joined by Sam Biddle to discuss how Silicon Valley is shamelessly courting government military contracts, using tactics to silence employee dissent and normalize the situation to the public, and what it all means for the future of military geopolitics. Sam Biddle is a senior technology reporter at The Intercept. 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 [https://www.patreon.com/techwontsaveus]. The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. Also mentioned in this episode: * Sam wrote about [https://theintercept.com/2024/11/17/tech-industry-trump-military-contracts/] how defense tech companies sought to capitalize on Trump’s return to office and OpenAI’s embrace of nationalism [https://theintercept.com/2025/06/03/openai-sam-altman-trump-china/]. * Trae Stephens was interviewed [https://www.wired.com/story/big-interview-trae-stephens-has-built-ai-weapons-and-worked-for-donald-trump-as-he-sees-it-jesus-would-approve/] by Wired last year, where he made his comments about the military industrial complex. * Meta and Anduril teamed up [https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/29/meta-anduril-partner-on-vr-ar-project-intended-for-us-army.html] to provide VR and AR devices to the US military. * Trump’s US Army appointee won’t give up [https://theintercept.com/2025/05/08/mike-obadal-army-trump-anduril-stock-elizabeth-warren/] his Anduril stock. * Palantir’s CEO wrote the Defense Reformation [https://www.18theses.com] report and Andreessen Horowitz launched an American Dynamism [https://a16z.com/american-dynamism/] division. Support the show [https://patreon.com/techwontsaveus]

Paris Marx is joined by Casey Johnston to discuss why she pared back on social media, made her smartphone much dumber, and what she learned about how bodies are treated online through her fitness journey. Casey Johnston is the creator of the She’s A Beast newsletter and author of A Physical Education: How I Escaped Diet Culture and Gained the Power of Lifting [https://bookshop.org/a/18331/9781538773253]. 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 [https://patreon.com/techwontsaveus]. The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. Also mentioned in this episode: * Casey wrote about her DIY Dumbphone Method [https://www.shesabeast.co/the-diy-dumbphone-method/] and reducing social media use [https://www.shesabeast.co/how-to-return-to-the-real-world-from-social-media/]. * Facebook reportedly detected when teenage girls deleted photos [https://futurism.com/facebook-beauty-targeted-ads] so it could serve them beauty ads. Support the show [https://patreon.com/techwontsaveus]