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Tech Won't Save Us

Tech Won't Save Us
Author: Paris Marx
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© 2023 Tech Won't Save Us
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Silicon Valley wants to shape our future, but why should we let it? Every Thursday, Paris Marx is joined by a new guest to critically examine the tech industry, its big promises, and the people behind them. Tech Won’t Save Us challenges the notion that tech alone can drive our world forward by showing that separating tech from politics has consequences for us all, especially the most vulnerable. It’s not your usual tech podcast.
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Paris Marx is joined by Mary-Jane Rubenstein to discuss how ideas that underpinned colonization and Manifest Destiny are now setting the foundation for the billionaire space race and the plan to colonize the cosmos. Mary-Jane Rubenstein is the author of Astrotopia: The Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race. She’s also a Professor of Religion and Science in Society at Wesleyan University.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. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.Also mentioned in this episode:An excerpt of Mary-Jane’s book was published in Metapolis.Paris wrote about the business behind the billionaire space race and the problem with Starlink.Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin recently got a contract to build a moon lander for NASA.One of Barack Obama’s legacies is pushing for the privatization of space flight.The US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015 and Artemis Accords are attempts to unilaterally rewrite space law for US commercial interest.Catherine L. Newell wrote Destined for the Stars: Faith, the Future, and America's Final Frontier.Support the show
Paris Marx is joined by Julia Black to discuss tech billionaires’ embrace of pronatalism and how it’s part of a broader rationalist project to remake society and protect their privileged positions. Julia Black is a senior correspondent at Insider and previously worked at Esquire and Vox. Follow Julia on Twitter at @mjnblack.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. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.Also mentioned in this episode:Julia wrote about pronatalism, Lex Fridman, and Sam Altman.Paris wrote about eugenics in Silicon Valley.Marc Andreessen wrote “It’s Time to Build” in April 2020.Timnit Gebru gave a presentation on the TESCREAL bundle of ideologies. Émile Torres made a thread on Twitter about it.Support the show
Paris Marx is joined by David A. Banks to discuss how cities have been reshaped to attract tech companies and what the consequences have been for the people who live in them. David A. Banks is the author of The City Authentic: How the Attention Economy Builds Urban America. He’s a lecturer in the Geography and Planning department at University at Albany, SUNY. David also writers Other Day and co-hosts Iron Weeds. Follow David on Twitter at @DA_Banks.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. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network. Also mentioned in this episode:David wrote about Richard Florida, the creative class, and his book The New Urban Crisis.An excerpt of his book was published in Dwell.Support the show
Paris Marx is joined by Matt Binder to discuss Elon Musk’s first six months at Twitter and how his obsession with blue checks has decimated the company’s finances. Matt Binder is a reporter at Mashable and the host of Scam Economy and Doomed. Follow Matt on Twitter at @MattBinder.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. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network. Also mentioned in this episode:Matt wrote about how few people are signing up for Twitter Blue, the people subscribing to Musk’s tweets, the Block the Blue campaign, and whether Bluesky will challenge Twitter.Paris wrote about what a recent BBC interview tells us about Musk’s knowledge of what’s happening on Twitter and what his history tells us about his plans for Twitter.Twitter revenue from its top 10 advertisers dropped 89% from September-October to March-April.William Shatner said his trip to space left him with “among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered.”After Musk gave many high-profile users blue checks again, many wonder if he could be sued for false endorsement since they haven’t actually paid for the service.Support the show
Paris Marx is joined by Shoshana Wodinsky to discuss the unconvincing arguments being made for a TikTok ban in the United States, then by Daniel Greene to explore how the turn against Chinese technology signals a shift in US policy on the internet and technology. Shoshana Wodinsky is a freelance reporter, previously at Marketwatch and Gizmodo. She writes the Tubes newsletter. Daniel Greene is an assistant professor at the University of Maryland’s College of Information Studies and the author of The Promise of Access: Technology, Inequality, and the Political Economy of Hope. Follow Shoshana on Twitter at @swodinsky and Daniel at @Greene_DM.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. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network. Also mentioned in this episode:Paris wrote about the effort to ban TikTok and why it shows the US desire to protect its technological dominance.Shoshana broke down the Congressional hearing with TikTok’s CEO in her newsletter and explained how data brokers get data from many social media apps.A priest was outed through his Grindr data, which was part of a campaign by Catholic conservatives to identify priests using gay dating apps.The Strava fitness app gave away the location of secret US military bases when soldiers used the app on their runs.The FBI and Department of Homeland Security have been buying US phone data.Meta paid a firm linked to the Republican Party to smear TikTok.In Foreign Affairs, Dan Wang explained how China has developed its tech industry with insights gained through the manufacturing process.After TikTok, there’s a campaign to get Shein in the crosshairs of lawmakers.Adam Tooze wrote for Foreign Policy about why the US shouldn’t feel it can dictate the path of China’s development.Support the show
Paris Marx is joined by Aaron Benanav to discuss OpenAI’s claims that generative AI will take our jobs, how previous periods of automation hype haven’t resulted in mass job loss, and why we need to ensure it doesn’t further empower employers. Aaron Benanav is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and the author of Automation and the Future of Work. Follow Aaron on Twitter at @abenanav.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. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network. Also mentioned in this episode:Aaron wrote about why chatbots won’t take your job for the New Statesman.Microsoft is rolling out generative AI in its enterprise software services and its Azure platform.The Writers Guild is proposing contract language on AI in scriptwriting to ensure writers still get the credit.Support the show
Paris Marx is joined by Emily M. Bender to discuss what it means to say that ChatGPT is a “stochastic parrot,” why Elon Musk is calling to pause AI development, and how the tech industry uses language to trick us into buying its narratives about technology. Emily M. Bender is a professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Washington and the Faculty Director of the Computational Linguistics Master’s Program. She’s also the director of the Computational Linguistics Laboratory. Follow Emily on Twitter at @emilymbender or on Mastodon at @emilymbender@dair-community.social. 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. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon. The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network. Also mentioned in this episode:Emily was one of the co-authors on the “On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots” paper and co-wrote the “Octopus Paper” with Alexander Koller. She was also recently profiled in New York Magazine and has written about why policymakers shouldn’t fall for the AI hype.The Future of Life Institute put out the “Pause Giant AI Experiments” letter and the authors of the “Stochastic Parrots” paper responded through DAIR Institute.Zachary Loeb has written about Joseph Weizenbaum and the ELIZA chatbot.Leslie Kay Jones has researched how Black women use and experience social media.As generative AI is rolled out, many tech companies are firing their AI ethics teams.Emily points to Algorithmic Justice League and AI Incident Database.Deborah Raji wrote about data and systemic racism for MIT Tech Review.Books mentioned: Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neil, Algorithms of Oppression by Safiya Noble, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff, Race After Technology by Ruha Benjamin, Ghost Work by Mary L Gray & Siddharth Suri, Artificial Unintelligence by Meredith Broussard, Design Justice by Sasha Costanza-Chock, Data Conscience: Algorithmic S1ege on our Hum4n1ty by Brandeis Marshall.Support the show
Paris Marx is joined by Moira Weigel to discuss the third-party sellers who supply many of the goods sold through Amazon, how the company’s policy decisions reshape small businesses to act like mini-Amazons, and what that means for regulatory responses.Moira Weigel is an Assistant Professor at Northeastern University, a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard Law School, and a founding editor of Logic Magazine. Her most recent book is Voices from the Valley: Tech Workers Talk about What They Do--And How They Do It, co-edited with Ben Tarnoff. Follow Moira on Twitter at @moiragweigel.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. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.Also mentioned in this episode:Moira recently wrote a report for Data & Society looking into Amazon’s “trickle-down monopoly,” and previously worked with Ava Kofman and Francis Tseng on research into white nationalist publishing on Amazon.Aiha Nguyen and Eve Zelickson wrote a report on how Ring doorbells are used to surveil delivery workers.Logic Magazine published an interview with an anonymous AWS engineer.In March 2020, an Amazon seller bought 17,700 bottles of hand sanitizer and tried to price gouge.Marketplace Pulse found that Amazon fees for sellers now account for 51.8% of an average sale, rising from 35.2% in 2016.Amazon is now the third-largest digital advertising company after Google and Facebook.In January, John Herman wrote about the state of Amazon that touched on some of the Chinese brands.Amazon has been scaling back its private label business, in part due to regulatory fears.Books mentioned: Work and Alienation in the Platform Economy: Amazon and the Power of Organization by Sarrah Kassem, Blockchain Chicken Farm: And Other Stories of Tech in China's Countryside by Xiaowei Wang, and The Labor of Reinvention: Entrepreneurship in the New Chinese Digital Economy by Lin Zhang.Support the show
Tech Won’t Save Us is turning three years old, so Paris recorded a quick update on the show and announced plans for a new Elon Musk series if the show gets 200 new Patreon supporters in April.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. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.Support the show
Paris Marx is joined by Kate Wagner to discuss the goals behind Saudi Arabia’s architectural megaprojects, the incentives for major architects to work on projects for despotic regimes, and how architecture’s relationship to tech is driven by profits and PR.Kate Wagner is an architecture critic and journalist. She’s also the creator of McMansion Hell. Follow Kate on Twitter at @mcmansionhell.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. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.Also mentioned in this episode:Kate wrote about Saudi Arabia’s big architecture projects, the problem with PR-chitecture, the ethical failings of modern architecture, and why utopian architectural projects suck.In 2020, Bjarke Ingels met with Jair Bolsonaro about a tourism plan for Brazil.Workers in the architecture industry have begun to unionize.Support the show
Paris Marx is joined by Jacob Silverman to discuss the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, how it’s part of a larger crisis in the tech sector, and why it’s turning people against the industry’s venture capitalists.Jacob Silverman is a journalist and the host of The Naked Emperor, a new CBC podcast. Follow Jacob on Twitter at @SilvermanJacob.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. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.Also mentioned in this episode:Jacob wrote about the lessons from the Silicon Valley Bank collapse in the Globe and Mail.Paris wrote about how the SVB collapse should be a radicalizing moment against venture capitalists.A video circulated about Jason Calacanis bragging about SVB offering him favorable banking services.A screenshot shows a founder complaining about Chase closing his bank account because his company doesn’t have a physical office, saying SVB never required one.Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund told its portfolio companies to pull their money out of SVB before its collapse.SVB’s President pushed for Congress to reduce regulations and oversight on banks like SVB as it grew.Support the show
Paris Marx is joined by James Wright to discuss Japan’s efforts to develop robots to care for its growing elderly population, what the government hoped to achieve with that plan, and why it hasn’t worked out as planned.James Wright is a research associate with Turning Institute and a visiting lecturer at Queen Mary University of London. He’s also the author of Robots Won’t Save Japan. You can follow James on Twitter at @jms_wright.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. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.Also mentioned in this episode:Paris is visiting New Zealand and doing a number of events through the latter half of March. Find all the dates and details here.James wrote about Japan’s efforts to automate elder care for MIT Tech Review.Jennifer Robertson spoke about the gendering of robots to cement conservative gender norms.Support the show
Paris Marx is joined by Dan McQuillan to discuss how AI systems encourage ranking populations and austerity policies, and why understanding their politics is essential to opposing them.Dan McQuillan is a Lecturer in Creative and Social Computing at Goldsmiths, University of London. He’s also the author of Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence. You can follow Dan on Twitter at @danmcquillan.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. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.Also mentioned in this episode:Dan wrote specifically about ChatGPT and how we should approach it on his website.Dan mentions TWIML as a podcast that has conversations with industry players that’s informative for how these technologies work (though you’re not likely to get a critical perspective on them), and Achille Mbembe’s book Necropolitics.OpenAI used Kenyan workers earning $2/hour to make ChatGPT less toxic.The UK had to scrap a racist algorithm it was using for visa applications and many councils dropped the use of algorithms in their welfare and benefits systems.Dan mentions a Human Rights Watch report on the EU’s flawed AI regulations and its impacts on the social safety net.The Lucas Plan was developed by workers at Lucas Aerospace in the 1970s, but rejected by their bosses.Support the show
Paris Marx is joined by Ben Wray to discuss the fight to win a pro-worker Platform Work Directive in the European Union, Uber’s rollout of dynamic pricing, and how Barcelona taxi workers have fought back against ride-hailing.Ben Wray is the coordinator of The Gig Economy Project and the co-author of Scotland after Britain: The two souls of Scottish independence. You can follow Ben on Twitter at @Ben_Wray1989.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. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.Also mentioned in this episode:The Gig Economy Project has a weekly newsletter on the gig economy in Europe.Ben wrote about the Platform Work Directive for Context.In 2022, the Uber Files gave us greater insight into Uber's lobbying activities, with a specific focus on what had gone on in Europe. The leaks implicated French President Emmanuel Macron, but he said he’d do it all again.The Gig Economy Project broke down what dynamic pricing would mean for workers and spoke to Leïla Chaibi about the Platform Work Directive.The UCLA Labor Center, transport analyst Hubert Horan, and Rideshare Drivers United with the Asian Law Caucus have all found Uber raising prices while cutting driver pay.Spain passed the Riders Law to regulate gig work, and Barcelona has pushed back against ride-hailing with the backing of a taxi union called Élite Taxi.Support the show
Paris Marx is joined by Rosie Collington to discuss the consequences of outsourcing tech to the private sector, how it causes governments to lose important capacities to serve the public, and how the push for open government data empowered large tech firms.Rosie Collington is a PhD candidate at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at University College London. She’s also the co-author of The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens Our Businesses, Infantilizes our Governments and Warps our Economies with Mariana Mazzucato. You can follow Rosie on Twitter at @RosieCollingto.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. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.Also mentioned in this episode:Rosie wrote a paper called “Disrupting the Welfare State? Digitalisation and the Retrenchment of Public Sector Capacity” for New Political Economy, and a report calling “Digital Public Assets” for Common Wealth.Palantir has a massive and controversial contract with the NHS. That hasn’t stopped Peter Thiel from criticizing the UK’s public healthcare system.Mar Hicks wrote about the masculinization of the computer workforce in Programmed Inequality: How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge in Computing.Support the show
Paris Marx is joined by Malcolm Harris to discuss the sordid history of Silicon Valley, including the long influence of eugenics at Stanford, how Silicon Valley profited from the United States’ wars throughout the 20th century, and why the libertarian narrative of tech hide a much darker reality.Malcolm Harris is the author of Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World. You can follow Malcolm on Twitter at @BigMeanInternet.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. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.Also mentioned in this episode:You can read an excerpt of Malcolm’s book in The Atlantic.Support the show
Paris Marx is joined by Edward Niedermeyer to discuss the rollercoaster ride of Tesla’s share price, the escalating regulatory and legal scrutiny the company faces, and the challenges it faces in the electric car market.Edward Niedermeyer is the author of Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors and a co-host of The Autonocast. You can follow Edward on Twitter at @Tweetermeyer or on Mastodon at @niedermeyer@sfba.social.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. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.Also mentioned in this episode:Argo AI shut down in October and Apple pushed back its car project again in December.California found “Full Self-Driving” was a misleading term and couldn’t be used in Tesla marketing.A Tesla engineer testified that a 2016 video to promote Autopilot was staged.Tesla is facing a number of Autopilot cases in the coming months, including an important one in Florida.Liza Dixon wrote about “autonowashing”.In January, Tesla admitted it was under investigation by the Department of Justice.Tesla’s Head of Autopilot Software testifying he doesn’t know what an operational design domain is presents serious red flags.Chinese car companies are planning to significantly expand vehicle exports, as BYD is already selling more vehicles in China than Tesla sells globally.Since recording, Elon Musk was found not liable in the “funding secured” trial.Support the show
Paris Marx is joined by Anousha Sakoui to discuss the prospect of a writer’s strike later this year, what workers are fighting for, and how the move to streaming has affected working conditions and compensation in Hollywood.Anousha Sakoui is an entertainment industry writer for the Los Angeles Times, covering topics including labor and litigation in Hollywood. She was part of the team that was a 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist in breaking news for work covering the tragic shooting on the “Rust” film set. You can follow Anousha on Twitter at @anoushasakoui.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. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.Also mentioned in this episode:Anousha wrote about how the Writers Guild and Directors Guild are approaching upcoming negotiations with studios.David Robb wrote about the history of Writers Guild strikes, and why another one seems overdue.WGA West recently blasted Warner Discovery for reducing opportunities for content creators after its merger.In 2021, IATSE was poised to go on strike before reaching a last-minute deal with the studios that was accepted by members.A new deal will loosen some Covid protocols on film sets.In 2021, Apple was paying lower rates to production crews because it said its TV+ service has less than 20 million subscribers. In July 2022, it started paying the higher rate.In 2018, the Hollywood Reporter reflected on the 2007 writers strike after ten years.The 2007 writers strike helped revive Donald Trump’s flagging The Apprentice show with a spinoff, The Celebrity Apprentice.Support the show
Paris Marx is joined by Quinn Myers to discuss the launch of Google Glass, why the product failed so badly, and what lessons we can learn from it as tech companies make another push for AR glasses.Quinn Myers is the author of Google Glass and a freelance writer who used to write for MEL. You can follow him on Twitter at @quinmyers.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. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.Also mentioned in this episode:Please participate in our listener survey this month to give us a better idea of what you think of the show: https://forms.gle/xayiT7DQJn56p62x7Apple is planning to release a mixed-reality headset, but its AR glasses have reported been delayed due to ongoing technical issues.Mark Zuckerberg said you’ll be able to text people during a meeting on your glasses.Google released a video called “One Day” that vastly overpromised what Glass would deliver.Sergey Brin’s affair with an employee working on Glass was revealed in 2013.After 8 years, the “Twitter tax cut” finally ended in 2019.Residents protested against Google’s use of public bus stops in San Francisco.The PRISM revelations showed the NSA had access to tech company servers.The Daily Show skewered Google Glass in a 2014 segment.Support the show
Paris Marx is joined by Timnit Gebru to discuss the misleading framings of artificial intelligence, her experience of getting fired by Google in a very public way, and why we need to avoid getting distracted by all the hype around ChatGPT and AI image tools.Timnit Gebru is the founder and executive director of the Distributed AI Research Institute and former co-lead of the Ethical AI research team at Google. You can follow her on Twitter at @timnitGebru.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. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.Also mentioned in this episode:Please participate in our listener survey this month to give us a better idea of what you think of the show: https://forms.gle/xayiT7DQJn56p62x7Timnit wrote about the exploited labor behind AI tools and how effective altruism is pushing a harmful idea of AI ethics.Karen Hao broke down the details of the paper that got Timnit fired from Google.Emily Tucker wrote an article called “Artifice and Intelligence.”In 2016, ProPublica published an article about technology being used to “predict” future criminals that was biased against black people.In 2015, Google Photos classified black women as “gorillas.” In 2018, it still hadn’t really been fixed.Artists have been protesting AI-generated images that train themselves on their work and threaten their livelihoods.OpenAI used Kenyan workers paid less than $2 an hour to try to make ChatGPT less toxic.Zachary Loeb described ELIZA in his article about Joseph Weizenbaum’s work and legacy.Support the show
@50:30: Another lazy commentator who fancies herself a journalist, yet spreads rumors (which were started to undermine unions' negotiating positions) that could be dispelled with a simple Google search. "The Apprentice" began in 2004. It's beginning had nothing to do with the 2007 labor strike. Good grief. Do your job.
@52:50: Paris thinks there's only a weak genetic component of intelligence, and that there's little evidence to the contrary? Good grief, he does like to speak confidently--with hedged hyperbole--about things he clearly knows little about. Ugh, it seems a "liberal education" increasingly entails training people to make smug, ignorant "critiques" and has little to do with learning anything... presumably because that would evince a colonially hegemonic othering of their lived ways of knowing, or some such BS.
@9:15: The guest thinks no one had ever heard of rationalism or effective altruism before 2022?! Talk about solipsism. Just because it's new to her doesn't mean it's new to the universe. She might even discover that if she were to, I don't know, look into things a bit--almost like a journalist would. And she thinks rationalism and effective altruism are "right-wing"? What is this crap? Is she equating effective altruism with the narrow issue of "earning to give"? If so, the criticism shouldn't be against the process that identifies that course as effective, but against the economic system that makes the observation true... or perhaps against its misuse in practice. In any case, she's bad at thinking or bad at communicating. Many podcast guests seem more interested in provocation than in accuracy. Maybe accuracy doesn't "drive engagement"--and yet again, a podcast criticizing tech replicates its vices.
@9:04: Anti-entropy? I assume that's more deontological than teleological. If it's a goal, good luck with that.
@3:22: Good effort. It's pronounced ay-oh-tay-ah-roh-ah, meaning Land of the Long White Cloud, the Maori name from before it was called New Zealand.
Paris, for the love of God, please learn an alternative to "puh-ticular".
Interesting and thought-provoking. Thanks.
The second guest was truly awful. He just blathered ignorant, nonsensical, naive "critiques" one tends to find in the social-pseudoscience backwaters of U.S. universities. He presented an army of strawmen that he attacked with malapropisms. Moreover, if you search for his positive position (which he seems to conceal), he's seemingly advocating an incredibly childish, willfully naive, victim-worshipping point of view. It's just a pile of garbage.
@39:59: It's unfortunate that this podcast often hosts guests who regurgitate misrepresentations seemingly to signal their liberal bona files. E.g., the IMF doesn't impose debt. It is the international lender of last resort. If countries manage their economies so poorly that they are insolvent and can't get loans from any other sources--often resulting in sky-rocketing inflation and civil unrest--they can CHOOSE to avail of loans at highly confessional rates based on terms set by the IMF's 190+ member countries. Enough with the ignorant victim-worshipping BS. Bother to KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT.
@40:03: For someone who seems to take such pride in critiquing the methods of studies with which he disagrees, this guest is rather glib about making unsupported accusations. E.g., what evidence is there for the broad accusation made at the time stamp?
@37:27: This was a flawed accusation. You stated that these people believe X and Y, which they explain by asserting that their belief in X leads them to believe in Y. You then simply asserted that their beliefs in Y lead them to believe in X. Where is the evidence for that accusation? In what way is their explanation insufficient to explain what we see?
Please think of another word for boost.
I wonder why lisping is so much more common in the UK than in other English-speaking countries.
@38:10: "... the identities they inhabit." ?! Good grief. Why is "their identities" not enough? There's a terrible irony in a linguist adding words in order to be less clear. I suspect that the signal is that she's super-sensitive to unstated (unknown, imaginary, hypothetical) nuances, or super-scared of clarity. Less clarity = more plausible deniability.
@35:30: Ugh. Perhaps the actual research is better than the guest is conveying here, but at a minimum, her version suggests she isn't as knowledgeable about methods as she thinks she is. In order to warrant emphasizing the racial component, she'd need to compare that same rate for other races. But then, maybe that would slow down the virtue-signalling.
Thanks for this interview. Wonderful guest. Some of her interpretations seemed unduly and prejudicially oriented toward the virtue-signalling jargon of social quasi- (or pseudo-) sciences, but the gist of her views was well founded and well stated. As in most interviews, Paris could've engaged more substantially rather than sounding as if he reflexively and exuberantly agrees with every utterance. As ever, he could also be more thoughtful about his diction, which is ironic in a conversation about language and artificial intelligence.
@18:26: It might not have been *merely* a coincidence, but it *was* a coincidence. By definition, a coincidence is when events coincide. It's right there in the word.
In one podcast, I reached my 10-year tolerance limit for the term "off ramp". Learn more words.
Tesla, not Tezla.
The podcast could be shortened 10% by removing the phrase "kind of".