Democracy - Anna Colom

Empire - Karen Hao

Tech journalist Karen Hao joins us to discuss her book, "Empire of AI". Karen explains why she believes that the Silicon Valley hyper-scaled LLM flavour of AI is an imperial technology, and has become even more explicitly imperial in the 12 months since the book first came out as it is being more and more incorporated in the US military's wars. The paperback edition of the book has just been released in the US and UK, so if you live in either of those places and haven't read the book yet, be sure to pick it up! Mentioned in this episode: 1. Empire of AI [https://karendhao.com/] - book by Karen Hao 2. Empire of AI [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/460331/empire-of-ai-by-hao-karen/9781802064650] - UK paperback 3. Empire of AI [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/743569/empire-of-ai-by-karen-hao/] - US paperback 4. Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 [https://dair-institute.org/maiht3k/] - podcast by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna 5. Microsoft's Hypocrisy on AI [https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/09/microsoft-ai-oil-contracts/679804/] - article by Karen Hao [permalink [https://web.archive.org/web/20260404134843/https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/09/microsoft-ai-oil-contracts/679804/]] See the transcript footnotes [https://politechs.dev/episodes/s02-empire/#footnotes-section] for more! We'd love to hear from you if you disagree with something we've said. Please read our rules of engagement for good faith discussions [https://politechs.dev/rules.html], and then send an email to podcast@politechs.dev [podcast@politechs.dev] or hit us up on socials. To view full show notes, including transcripts, please visit the episode page [https://politechs.dev/episodes/s02-empire/index.html]. Be sure to follow us on BlueSky [https://bsky.app/profile/politechs.bsky.social] and Mastodon [https://mastodon.social/@politechs]! Cover art by Anya K. Jordan [https://anyakjordan.com/] @anyakjordan.bsky.social [https://bsky.app/profile/anyakjordan.bsky.social] Theme music by Xylia [https://soundcloud.com/ptzery] Politechs is provided under the terms of the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoAI licence [https://politechs.dev/licence.html]

Democracy - Anna Colom

We welcome our favourite political scientist, Dr. Anna Colom, back on the show to dive into democracy: what is it really, how does AI threaten it, and how can it be built for real? Anna is a researcher with The Data Tank, a "think and do tank"; they work with people, organisations and institutions around the world to unlock data's potential: gathering, accessing, and reusing it responsibly, so we’re all better equipped to tackle the pressing issues of our time. Mentioned in this episode: 1. The Sciences of the Democracies [https://uclpress.co.uk/book/the-sciences-of-the-democracies/] - book by Jean-Paul Gagnon and Benjamin Abrams [permalink [https://web.archive.org/web/20251219065243/https://uclpress.co.uk/web/20251219065243/https://uclpress.co.uk/book/the-sciences-of-the-democracies/]] 2. The Tech Coup [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/208187020-the-tech-coup] - book by Marietje Schaake [permalink [https://web.archive.org/web/20241227195441/https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/208187020-the-tech-coup]] 3. Polis [https://pol.is/home2] - an open-source platform that helps entire cities, states, or even countries find common ground on complex issues [permalink [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pol.is]] We'd love to hear from you if you disagree with something we've said. Please read our rules of engagement for good faith discussions [https://politechs.dev/rules.html], and then send an email to podcast@politechs.dev [podcast@politechs.dev] or hit us up on socials. To view full show notes, including transcripts, please visit the episode page [https://politechs.dev/episodes/s02-democracy/index.html]. Be sure to follow us on BlueSky [https://bsky.app/profile/politechs.bsky.social] and Mastodon [https://mastodon.social/@politechs]! Cover art by Anya K. Jordan [https://anyakjordan.com/] @anyakjordan.bsky.social [https://bsky.app/profile/anyakjordan.bsky.social] Theme music by Xylia [https://soundcloud.com/ptzery] Politechs is provided under the terms of the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoAI licence [https://politechs.dev/licence.html]

Sci-fi - Syed Mustafa Ali

Josh and Ray sit down with Dr. Syed Mustafa Ali, author of a recent paper entitled "A Butlerian Hauntology" to unpack the dense payload of insight contained within the paper. Dr. Ali grabs threads from Dune, critical race theory and world-systems theory, political economy, political ecology, and political theology, actually existing fascism, computer science, classic Luddism, literature, film and television, labour power, and anticolonial jihad and masterfully weaves them together in a critical computing tapestry of extraordinary beauty. Gaze upon it, ye tech bros, and despair! Mentioned in this episode: 1. Imaginary Futures from Thinking Machines to the Global Village [https://www.plutobooks.com/product/imaginary-futures/] - book by Richard Barbrook [permalink [https://web.archive.org/web/20260422060719/https://www.plutobooks.com/product/imaginary-futures/]] 2. Empire of AI [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/460331/empire-of-ai-by-hao-karen/9780241678923] - book by Karen Hao 3. Aliens R Us: The Other in Science Fiction Cinema [https://www.plutobooks.com/product/aliens-r-us/] - book edited by Ziauddin Sardar and Sean Cubitt [permalink [https://web.archive.org/web/20260422061312/https://www.plutobooks.com/product/aliens-r-us/]] 4. A Cyborg Manifesto [https://monoskop.org/images/4/4c/Haraway_Donna_1985_A_Manifesto_for_Cyborgs_Science_Technology_and_Socialist_Feminism_in_the_1980s.pdf] - essay by Donna Haraway [permalink [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Cyborg_Manifesto]] 5. Artificial Intelligence Meets Natural Stupidity [https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/1045339.1045340] - paper by Drew McDermott See the transcript footnotes [https://politechs.dev/episodes/s02-sci-fi/#footnotes-section] for more! We'd love to hear from you if you disagree with something we've said. Please read our rules of engagement for good faith discussions [https://politechs.dev/rules.html], and then send an email to podcast@politechs.dev [podcast@politechs.dev] or hit us up on socials. To view full show notes, including transcripts, please visit the episode page [https://politechs.dev/episodes/s02-sci-fi/index.html]. Be sure to follow us on BlueSky [https://bsky.app/profile/politechs.bsky.social] and Mastodon [https://mastodon.social/@politechs]! Cover art by Anya K. Jordan [https://anyakjordan.com/] @anyakjordan.bsky.social [https://bsky.app/profile/anyakjordan.bsky.social] Theme music by Xylia [https://soundcloud.com/ptzery] Politechs is provided under the terms of the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoAI licence [https://politechs.dev/licence.html]

Writers - Foz Meadows

Foz Meadows joins us to discuss his "Against AI" polemic, written in response to Erin Underwood's open letter to SFWA and the SFF community in the wake of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association's announcement that works written by LLM tools and works for which LLM tools were used at any point in the writing process would not be eligible for consideration. The conversation touches on not only Foz's piece, but also the sheer stupidity of thinking we can outsource the act of thinking to machines that do not think, what the introduction of LLMs is doing to education, and the role that writers—especially science fiction and fantasy writers—have to play in resisting the inevitability narrative. Mentioned in this episode: 1. Against AI [https://fozmeadows.substack.com/p/against-ai] - Foz's response to Erin Underwood's open letter to SFWA and the SFF community [permalink [http://web.archive.org/web/20260108175054/https://fozmeadows.substack.com/p/against-ai]] 2. Nebula Awards Rules [https://nebulas.sfwa.org/about-the-nebulas/nebula-rules/] - section 9.11 deals with LLM tools [permalink [https://web.archive.org/web/20260110232231/https://nebulas.sfwa.org/about-the-nebulas/nebula-rules/]] 3. Open Letter to the Science Fiction Writers Association and Community [https://file770.com/erin-underwood-open-letter-to-the-science-fiction-writers-association-and-community/] - by Erin Underwood [permalink [http://web.archive.org/web/20260108125211/https://file770.com/erin-underwood-open-letter-to-the-science-fiction-writers-association-and-community/]] 4. xkcd: Duty Calls [https://xkcd.com/386/] - someone is wrong on the internet 5. Dodge v. Ford Motor Co. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_v._Ford_Motor_Co.] - case in which the Michigan Supreme Court held that Henry Ford had to operate the Ford Motor Company in the interests of its shareholders, rather than for the benefit of his employees or customers 6. No Take, Only Throw [https://cupcakelogic.tumblr.com/post/124392369931/she-is-still-learning] - a webcomic strip in which a dog wants to play fetch with its owner [permalink [https://web.archive.org/web/20150720034454/https://cupcakelogic.tumblr.com/post/124392369931/she-is-still-learning]] We'd love to hear from you if you disagree with something we've said. Please read our rules of engagement for good faith discussions [https://politechs.dev/rules.html], and then send an email to podcast@politechs.dev [podcast@politechs.dev] or hit us up on socials. To view full show notes, including transcripts, please visit the episode page [https://politechs.dev/episodes/s02-writers/index.html]. Be sure to follow us on BlueSky [https://bsky.app/profile/politechs.bsky.social] and Mastodon [https://mastodon.social/@politechs]! Cover art by Anya K. Jordan [https://anyakjordan.com/] @anyakjordan.bsky.social [https://bsky.app/profile/anyakjordan.bsky.social] Theme music by Xylia [https://soundcloud.com/ptzery] Politechs is provided under the terms of the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoAI licence [https://politechs.dev/licence.html]

Datacentres - Aurora Gómez Delgado

Datacentres might seem boring, but Aurora Gómez Delgado of Tu Nube Seca Mi Río, a Spanish organisation working to combat the ecosocial impact of datacentres, would like you to sit up and take notice of the resources they are stealing from the people who live in the surrounding region. Aurora educates us on the increase in number and size of datacentres, accelerated even further by the AI project, and the corresponding impact on water and power usage, and what that means for farmers trying to grow their crops, people trying to pay their electricity bills, and the availability of clean drinking water. Mentioned in this episode: * Tu Nube Seca Mi Río [https://tunubesecamirio.com/] - Spanish organisation focused on the ecosocial impact of datacentres * SYSTEM OVERLOAD: How new data centres could throw Europe’s energy transition off course [https://beyondfossilfuels.org/2025/02/10/system-overload-how-new-data-centres-could-throw-europes-energy-transition-off-course/] - by Jill McArdle and Pierre Terras * El Escarabajo Verde [https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/el-escarabajo-verde/] - Spanish TV show about the environment * ChatGPT Turned Into a Studio Ghibli Machine. How Is That Legal? [https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/05/openai-studio-ghibli-images/682791/] - by Alex Reisner in The Atlantic [permalink [https://web.archive.org/web/20260131035311/https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/05/openai-studio-ghibli-images/682791/]] * Hayao Miyazaki's thoughts on an artificial intelligence [https://youtu.be/ngZ0K3lWKRc?t=37] * The supply chain capitalism of AI: a call to (re)think algorithmic harms and resistance through environmental lens [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2024.2420021?src=exp-la#abstract] - , by Ana Valdivia * Data Grab: The New Colonialism of Big Tech and How to Fight Back [https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/D/bo216184200.html] - , by Ulises A. Mejias and Nick Couldry * 2024 CrowdStrike-related IT outages [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_CrowdStrike-related_IT_outages] We'd love to hear from you if you disagree with something we've said. Please read our rules of engagement for good faith discussions [https://politechs.dev/rules.html], and then send an email to podcast@politechs.dev [podcast@politechs.dev] or hit us up on socials. To view full show notes, including transcripts, please visit the episode page [https://politechs.dev/episodes/s02-datacentres/index.html]. Be sure to follow us on BlueSky [https://bsky.app/profile/politechs.bsky.social] and Mastodon [https://mastodon.social/@politechs]! Cover art by Anya K. Jordan [https://anyakjordan.com/] @anyakjordan.bsky.social [https://bsky.app/profile/anyakjordan.bsky.social] Theme music by Xylia [https://soundcloud.com/ptzery] Politechs is provided under the terms of the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoAI licence [https://politechs.dev/licence.html]