Author: Paris Marx, Ben Tarnoff

Paris Marx is joined by Ben Tarnoff to discuss the ELIZA chatbot created by Joseph Weizenbaum in the 1960s and how it led him to develop a critical perspective on AI and computing that deserves more attention during this wave of AI hype.
 
Ben Tarnoff writes about technology and politics. He is a founding editor of Logic, and author of Internet for the People: The Fight for Our Digital Future. You can follow Ben on Twitter at @bentarnoff.

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:

• Ben wrote a long article about Weizenbaum and what we can learn from his work for The Guardian.
• Paris wrote a skeptical perspective on AI hype and the promises of ChatGPT in Disconnect.
• Zachary Loeb has also written about Weizenbaum’s work and perspective on AI and computing.

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Paris Marx is joined by Ben Tarnoff to discuss why the problems with the modern internet, including its excessive concentration in the hands of a few companies and the way its dominant firms shape our interactions to generate profit, find their root in the decision to privatize the network. To fix them, that needs to be changed.

Ben Tarnoff is the author of Internet for the People: The Fight for Our Digital Future and the co-founder of Logic Magazine. Follow Ben on Twitter at @bentarnoff.

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.

Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• An excerpt of Ben’s book was published in the New York Times.
• Victor Pickard wrote about the history of public media in Democracy Without Journalism.
• Newt Gingrich and George Gilder, once featured by Wired for their visions for the internet, have now become big crypto fans.
• The United States has terrible broadband access.
• Major tech companies are buying up undersea internet cables.
• Tarleton Gillespie wrote about the politics of platforms and what the term suggests.
• Jathan Sadowski compares platforms to shopping malls.
• Tressie McMillan Cottom wrote about the predatory inclusion of the internet.
• Community internet has shown success in the United States, while provincial public telcos have a history of positive outcomes in Canada.

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Paris Marx is joined by Ben Tarnoff to discuss why we should look to the Luddites for inspiration, how history could inform a better future of technology, and what tech organizing might look like under a Joe Biden administration.

Ben Tarnoff is a co-founder of Logic Magazine and co-authored “Voices from the Valley: Tech Workers Talk About What They Do–and How They Do It” with Moira Weigel. The book will be released in October and can be preordered now. Follow Ben on Twitter as @bentarnoff.

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.

Mentioned in this episode:

• “To decarbonize we must decomputerize: why we need a Luddite revolution” by Ben Tarnoff
• “From Manchester to Barcelona” by Ben Tarnoff
• “The Making of the Tech Worker Movement” by Ben Tarnoff
• “The Making of the English Working Class” by E.P. Thompson
• “The Machine Breakers” by Eric Hobsbawm
• “Present Tense Technology” by David Noble

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