Author: Paris Marx, Dan McQuillan

Paris Marx is joined by Dan McQuillan to discuss the global push by governments to rapidly adopt AI at all costs and how citizens can critically rethink our dependence on these technologies while imagining a collective future that benefits everyone.

Dan McQuillan is a lecturer at Goldsmiths College, University of London and the author of Resisting AI.

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. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Dan recently gave a talk about decomputing as resistance and published the text on his website.
• The UK Labour Government is going all in on data centre development, while planning for future water shortages.
• Academic institutions are rapidly adopting AI technologies, with a little help from industry leaders.
• The GKN Factory Collective offers an inspiring example of collective action.

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Our Data Vampires series may be over, but Paris interviewed a bunch of experts on data centers and AI whose insights shouldn’t go to waste. We’re releasing those interviews as bonus episodes for Patreon supporters. Here’s a preview of this week’s premium episode with Dan McQuillan, author of Resisting AI and a lecturer at Goldsmiths University of London. For the full interview, support the show on Patreon.

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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