This Machine Kills

Part 1 –– We welcome returning champ Nick Chavez – mechanical engineer, marxist political economist – for a long conversation about his new essay examining the real nitty-gritty aspects of production and labor, knowledge and management. Time to step down from the ivory tower and onto the shop floor. We talk extensively about different modes of manufacturing and the stratification of technical expertise within capitalist production – and what needs to be kept, changed, and abolished in a transition to communist production. ••• Nick’s essay: https://brooklynrail.org/2023/12/field-notes/Technical-Expertise-and-Communist-Production ••• Nick’s new blog: https://designformanufracture.wordpress.com/ ••• Nick’s new twitter: https://twitter.com/DFManufracture Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Grab TMK gear: https://www.bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)

We dip into the a16z omnibus of predictions for the tech industry in 2023. Time to learn what the thought masters of the universe are trying to wishcast into existence because they have a material interest in making them happen. Stuff we reference: ••• Big Ideas in Tech for 2023: An a16z Omnibus https://a16z.com/2022/12/15/big-ideas-in-tech-2023/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Grab TMK gear: https://www.bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)

Ed takes us on a guided tour of Odin Intelligence, SweepWizard, CloudFactory and other tech bullshit that sounds like embarrassing nonsense while also contributing in their own way to monetizing, mobilizing, and heightening the eschaton. Stuff we reference: ••• Police Contractor That Promised to Track Homeless People Hacked https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgyjnq/odin-intelligence-hacked ••• Crime App ‘Citizen’ Fires Overseas $2 an Hour Workers https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkg5nk/citizen-fires-overseas-kenya-nepal-workers-cloudfactory ••• CNET pauses publishing AI-written stories after disclosure controversy https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/20/23564311/cnet-pausing-ai-articles-bot-red-ventures Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Grab TMK gear: https://www.bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)

It’s been a while since we’ve done a real reading series. So we spend time with a group of rogue entrepreneurs who are taking it upon themselves to save the planet by geoengineering the atmosphere. Stuff we reference ••• A startup says it’s begun releasing particles into the atmosphere, in an effort to tweak the climate https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/12/24/1066041/a-startup-says-its-begun-releasing-particles-into-the-atmosphere-in-an-effort-to-tweak-the-climate/ ••• Saudi Aramco bets on being the last oil major standing https://www.ft.com/content/513b770b-836b-472b-a058-3e4a95437c69 Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Grab TMK gear: https://www.bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)

We spend more time talking about the political economy of AI – the production and application of AI within a capitalist system and how it might (and should) differ within a socialist or communist system. We pay particular attention to discussing the growing and specialized industries for producing, supporting, propping up, and stepping in for AI in a variety of applications. Living labor creates the machinery of dead labor, which then acts as an agent of capital to discipline and dominate living labor, making it more machine-like, thus turning the living into the undead. Stuff we reference ••• Seven questions to ask about AI https://maxread.substack.com/p/seven-questions-to-ask-about-ai ••• Human_Fallback https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-44/essays/human_fallback/ ••• The Worldwide Data Annotation Tools Industry is Expected to Reach $13.2 Billion by 2030 https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220824005423/en/The-Worldwide-Data-Annotation-Tools-Industry-is-Expected-to-Reach-13.2-Billion-by-2030---ResearchAndMarkets.com Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Grab TMK gear: https://www.bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)

They don’t make things like they used to… No really. They don’t. We discuss how a perfect storm of things like stagnant wages, rising inflation, declining profits, expedited production, among other factors have led to a real drop in the quality of consumer goods along with generally lowered expectations of living conditions and technological innovations. Stuff we reference ••• Your stuff is actually worse now https://www.vox.com/the-goods/23529587/consumer-goods-quality-fast-fashion-technology ••• Why Tech Billionaires Want to Shape Our Future w/ Rose Eveleth https://techwontsave.us/episode/149_why_tech_billionaires_want_to_shape_our_future_w_rose_eveleth Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Grab TMK gear: https://www.bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)

We offer some thoughts on where the tech sector is heading right now, how the markets are performing amidst a down turn, and what big trends for tech and capital are looking strong in the new year. Stuff we reference ••• A new era: the end of cheap money https://www.ft.com/content/6d312b6c-9f74-4816-ad7e-7e797c5e0f6b ••• Silicon Valley start-ups race for debt deals in funding crunch https://www.ft.com/content/d12a4baa-53c6-4256-b125-d25622f9555f ••• Silicon Valley staff rush to offload start-up shares as valuations plummet https://www.ft.com/content/7178364f-1f0d-46e4-9692-b648ea258d06 ••• Private Markets Don’t Like to Go Down https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-01-04/private-markets-don-t-like-to-go-down#footnote-1 ••• Forecast: Startup M&A Could Pick Up In 2023 As Fundraising Tightens Further https://news.crunchbase.com/ma/startup-forecast-2023-fundraising-venture-valuations/ ••• A New Area of A.I. Booms, Even Amid the Tech Gloom https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/07/technology/generative-ai-chatgpt-investments.html Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Grab TMK gear: https://www.bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)

We do a postmortem on 2022, the year of Web3, talking about the goofs and grifts, speed and scale, crashes and canaries, with our major takeaway and theme being that just as FTX is not anomalous for Web3, nor is Web3 anomalous for Silicon Valley. It is, instead, a product and paragon of the structural conditions and systemic imperatives that define how the political economy of technology operates within capitalism. Stuff we reference ••• In 2022, web3 went just great https://newsletter.mollywhite.net/p/in-2022-web3-went-just-great ••• Web3 grift leaderboard https://web3isgoinggreat.com/charts/top ••• Imprinting the economy: The structural power of venture capital https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0308518X221136559 ••• MicroStrategy Hit Lowest Since 2020 After Bitcoin Sale https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-29/microstrategy-mstr-hits-lowest-since-2020-after-bitcoin-sale-announcement?srnd=technology-vp Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Grab TMK gear: https://www.bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)

We give some personal updates, then get distracted talking about a new survey on consumer sentiments and insurance technology. It turns out that actually the vast majority of people *do not* want to use surveillance technology and exchange data for any insurance discounts. Remember this when insurance policies that require using devices and sharing data still proliferate. It's not because consumers want them, but because insurers demand them. Stuff we reference: ••• Most Americans still refuse to install data-sharing devices for insurance discounts https://www.policygenius.com/auto-insurance/home-auto-technology-survey-2022/ ••• Grim Findings for Insurers’ Digital Strategies https://www.ethicsandinsurance.info/grim-reading-for-insurers-digital-strategies/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Grab TMK gear: https://www.bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)

We breakdown ChatGPT, the conversational large language model created by OpenAI. How this system works. How it has been fetishized by consumers and reporters, critics and advocates. Why most of the hand wringing and claim making about the impacts of this technology has been wrongheaded. And why our analysis of the implications for such a system being integrated into everyday life—regardless of how well it does or does not work—must push past the bounds of bias and misinformation. We are talking here about the AI of Delphi. The perception of meaning via the production of reality. Yet another in a long line of interpretive systems for simultaneously constructing and understanding the world. Stuff we reference: ••• How come GPT can seem so brilliant one minute and so breathtakingly dumb the next? https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/how-come-gpt-can-seem-so-brilliant ••• What to Expect When You’re Expecting… GPT-4 https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting ••• Every answer https://robhorning.substack.com/p/every-answer ••• The great Transformer: Examining the role of large language models in the political economy of AI https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20539517211047734 ••• ChatGPT, Galactica, and the Progress Trap https://www.wired.com/story/large-language-models-critique/ ••• Exclusive: ChatGPT owner OpenAI projects $1 billion in revenue by 2024 https://www.reuters.com/business/chatgpt-owner-openai-projects-1-billion-revenue-by-2024-sources-2022-12-15/ ••• Did a Fourth Grader Write This? Or the New Chatbot? https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/12/26/upshot/chatgpt-child-essays.html?referringSource=articleShare Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Grab TMK gear: https://www.bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)