This Machine Kills

We get into the collapse of investor confidence in the AI boom, then turn to the thriving black markets for smuggling vast quantities of AI microchips into China and the geopolitics of technological p...

16 Aug 20248min

We are joined by Danya Glabau and Laura Forlano, authors of Cyborg, a new book that explores how this archetype of sci-fi stories is also a critical theory for understanding the tangle of socio-techni...

11 Aug 20241h 13min

We first get an update on regulatory arbitrage in the weed vape industry, then discuss how the benchmarks used to rank AI models—and make claims about their "intelligence" relative to humans—are large...

7 Aug 20248min

We first talk about how all news stories, even the most world historic ones, feel ephemeral and disposable, and how this is the perverse effect of a (news/social/cultural) media ecosystem that is desi...

1 Aug 20241h 14min

We talk about that paragon of capitalism, car dealerships, and the deceptive, manipulative, extractive tactics they have perfected to make the experience as hellish as possible — particularly by turni...

29 Juli 20246min

We are a bit ahead with recording, but we had to talk about the Trump assassination attempt and JD Vance being tapped for vice president (for like the first 30 minutes). Then we get into a great essay...

23 Juli 20241h 24min

We take a look at recent reports where venture capitalists like Sequoia and the investment banks like Goldman Sachs are starting to wonder out loud whether AI will ever be able to generate enough reve...

17 Juli 202410min

We refocus on the war in Ukraine and the country’s pivot toward being the “Silicon Valley for autonomous drones and other weaponry.” Thanks to a combination of foreign investment, entrepreneurial gove...

15 Juli 20241h 17min