#1721 The Evolution of the Military Industrial Complex: Now with AI!
Air Date: 7-9-2025
It's an old joke that "military intelligence" is a good example of an oxymoron so I just asked an AI chatbot to finish a joke about what a military becomes when they implement artificial intelligence. It said, "an oxymoron squared - or as the generals call it, "strategically enhanced stupidity with a confidence interval of 95%" which is not funny but still managed to be pretty on point regarding the dangers of overconfidence that inevitably follows from the implementation of new technology.
Read more#1612 New Tech and the New Luddite Movement; Inequitable Distribution of Benefits from New Technology Always Sparks Demands from Labor and AI is Rekindling the Old Arguments (Throwback)
Original Air Date: 2-20-2024
"Luddite" should never have become the epithet that it is as the Luddites were never afraid of or opposed to technological advancement, they only opposed the exploitation of workers and the degradation to society that came with the unfair distribution of the benefits of the targeted technology.
Read more#1663 Recovering from Disaster(ous) Policy Amid Disinformation: Hurricanes and Wild Fires at the forefront of our climate emergency
Air Date: 10-15-2024
Just as COVID tended to expose the preexisting fractures and inequalities in our society causing undue harm, supercharged by disinformation, so do natural disasters. And the impact of disinformation and conspiracy has only grown in recent years.
Read more#1655 A Pivotal Moment for Big Tech, Both Old and New: Google Search, the A.I. Boom, Antitrust, and Regulation
Air Date: 9-13-2024
We've been living through the modern equivalent of the oil boom, back when poking a hole in the ground would make one of the world's most valuable substances, upon which entire economies would be built. But in our case, it's not oil, it's data. Now we are at a pivotal moment as the old unchallenged master of data, Google, has been found guilty of illegal anti-competitive behavior at the same time as generative AI companies are in a new desperate rush to stake claims on every last piece of data they can find.
Read more#1638 AI: From Killer Apps to Killer Robots, the Present and Future of Artificial Intelligence Spans the Spectrum
Air Date: 6-28-2024
AI, like all new technologies, won't be all good or all bad. In fact, my favorite understanding of emerging technologies is that they often bring simultaneous utopia and dystopia, though many tend to focus on the benefits while only discovering the drawbacks later.
Read more#1615 Envisioning a Leftisț Economic Future of Postcapitalism, High-Tech Automation, Universal Basic Income and a World (Mostly) Without Work
Air Date: 3-1-2024
We don't have to think too hard to understand the fears of a world in which work, and the ability of millions to support themselves, are lost to automation and artificial intelligence. But that is only a capitalist future in which the benefits of technological advancement are hoarded by the already-wealthy. Today we imagine a different path.
Read more#1614 Deep-Fakery and Deep Consequences for Democracy: AI-generated fake news threatens elections around the world and makes people question the ability to know what is real.
Air Date: 2-28-2024
AI-generated deepfakes, entirely fabricated audio and video of recognizable people, are here. They have been on the horizon for years but they have finally arrived during the biggest global election year in history which may prove to be a make-or-break year for democracy itself as we struggle to separate fact from fiction and autocracy is on the rise around the world.
Read more#1612 New Tech and the New Luddite Movement; Inequitable Distribution of Benefits from New Technology Always Sparks Demands from Labor and AI is Rekindling the Old Arguments
Air Date: 2-20-2024
"Luddite" should never have become the epithet that it is as the Luddites were never afraid of or opposed to technological advancement, they only opposed the exploitation of workers and the degradation to society that came with the unfair distribution of the benefits of the targeted technology.
Read more#1599 Taming the Beast: AI Regulation Before Human Relegation
Air Date: 12-20-2023
AI needs to be regulated by governments even though politicians don't understand computers just as the government regulates the manufacture and operation of aircraft even though your average politician doesn't know their ass from an aileron. That's why expert advisory panels are for.
Read more#1578 A.I. is a big tech airplane with a 10% chance of crashing, should society fly it?
Air Date: 8–20-2023
Big tech is currently scrambling to bring untested A.I. products to market, over-promising, under-delivering, and working hard obscure and ignore any possible downsides for society. Big tech needs A.I. regulation now before we all suffer the easily foreseeable consequences as well as some unforeseeable ones.
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