This Machine Kills - 396. Need to Justify? Need an Alibi? Blame the AI!

We run through a roundup of recent stories about how different types of AI are already having real, material, immediate impacts on people’s lives — including AI facial recognition used by police to shortcut actually investigating crimes, AI systems used by bosses to monitor, control, and threaten to replace human workers, AI tools for coding that are actively deskilling programmers. Across these examples, AI is treated as a convenient justification and scapegoat by those who use the systems to do awful things to other people. Then we end on up note about a new organization that’s training lawyers and advocates how to fight back against forms of algorithmic discrimination by government agencies. ••• Arrested by AI: Police ignore standards after facial recognition matches https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2025/police-artificial-intelligence-facial-recognition/ ••• Your boss is watching https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/02/24/1111664/worker-monitoring-employee-surveillance/ ••• AI is Creating a Generation of Illiterate Programmers https://nmn.gl/blog/ai-illiterate-programmers ••• New Junior Developers Can’t Actually Code https://nmn.gl/blog/ai-and-learning ••• Rage Against The Algorithm https://www.levernews.com/rage-against-the-algorithm/ Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

Stuff They Don't Want You To Know - CLASSIC STDWYTK, Live: Real-life Covens

True story: Ben, Matt and Noel know 'witches.' We’re all familiar with the spooky, stereotypical witch depicted in film, fiction and folklore – a creepy crone with a pointy hat, riding a broom through the sky and cackling at the moon, often accompanied by her animal sidekick. But how accurate are these depictions? Were there ever really any covens, any infernal Black Masses and secret rituals dedicated to the powers of darkness? Join Stuff They Don’t Want You To Know as the guys explore fact, fiction and controversy around the real-life stories of witches and covens. (Spoiler, this is a live show, which means the thing they call Ben is required to stay on the rails.)

They don't want you to read our book.: https://static.macmillan.com/static/fib/stuff-you-should-read/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Native America Calling - Monday, March 3, 2025 – Native education advocates assess the new political landscape

President Donald Trump has promised to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education. Education advocates worry about what that means for the $119 billion the federal government sends to public K-12 schools and what becomes of the programs supporting Native American students. We’ll get a sense of what the future for Native primary and secondary education along with concerns from Native educators and policy advocates.

It Could Happen Here - The Future of Peacekeeping In Africa

James talks to Kevin McDonald about the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the history and future of peacekeeping there.

Buy Kevin's book: https://www.mayobooks.ie/A-Life-Less-Ordinary-Kevin-McDonald

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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It Could Happen Here - CZM Book Club: Cool Zone 2055: The Peace Department

Margaret from the future reports on the dinosaur creche in Finland.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Serious Inquiries Only - SIO474: They’ve Been Telling Us They’d Do This for a Long Time. Many Just Weren’t Listening

Katherine Stewart joins us again (she was on episode 439) to talk about her new book, Money, Lies, and God!

Katherine's books have been vital to understanding the Right. This book tackles different factions - the billionaires, Christian Nationlists, and the New Right, among others - and their strange alliances that have successfully taken over our country.

Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here!

Please support the show on patreon! You get ad free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content!

Ologies with Alie Ward - Field Trip: Activism Art Panel Recorded at WonderCon

Exactly the inspiration you need. Exactly the perfect time. Pass it on to anyone who loves art and/or speaking up. I went to Comic-Con’s little sister, WonderCon, to moderate a panel on protest art with expert Carol Wells, the founder of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics and C. Andrew Hall, from the Spesh Ep: Functional Magic's Environmental Art episode we did in 2021 about the non-profit he founded. So come along to WonderCon – free admission – as we chat about protest art, different approaches graphically, camouflage among ads, defining propaganda, the tiniest mightiest posters, collectible gig posters for the climate, and how the anti-war movement affected history. Also, short warning, we do discuss a few images of war photojournalism in this episode.

Donations were made to the Center for the Study of Political Graphics and Functional Magic

Yay! Functional Magic t-shirt Kickstarter!

Zoom: March 3, 8pm EST: A Beginners Guide to Street Art with Dr. Sarah McAnulty

More episode sources and links

Smologies (short, classroom-safe) episodes

Other episodes you may enjoy: Spesh Ep: Functional Magic's Environmental Art, Modern Toichographology (MURALS & STREET ART), FIELD TRIP: I Take You to the Making of a Mural, Genocidology (CRIMES OF ATROCITY), Agnotology (WILLFUL IGNORANCE), Critical Ecology (SOCIAL SYSTEMS + ENVIRONMENT), Theoretical & Creative Ecology (SCIENCE & ECOPOETRY)

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Transcripts and bleeped episodes

Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month

OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!

Follow Ologies on Instagram and Bluesky

Follow Alie Ward on Instagram and TikTok

Editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Jake Chaffee

Managing Director: Susan Hale

Scheduling Producer: Noel Dilworth

Transcripts by Aveline Malek 

Website by Kelly R. Dwyer

Theme song by Nick Thorburn

It Could Happen Here - It Could Happen Here Weekly 171

All of this week's episodes of It Could Happen Here put together in one large file. 

  1. The President of Argentina's Meme Coin Scandal

  2. How Trump is Changing Trans Healthcare

  3. Textbooks and Holy Books feat. Steven Moncelli & Dr. Michael Phillips

  4. Democratic Insiders Are Sharing A Warning About Curtis Yarvin, Elon Musk & Neoreactionaries
  5. Executive Disorder: White House Weekly #5

You can now listen to all Cool Zone Media shows, 100% ad-free through the Cooler Zone Media subscription, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. So, open your Apple Podcasts app, search for “Cooler Zone Media” and subscribe today!

http://apple.co/coolerzone 

Sources/Links:

The President of Argentina's Meme Coin Scandal

https://www.citationneeded.news/issue-77/

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/argentina-main-stock-index-falls-after-milei-crypto-scandal-2025-02-17/

https://crimethinc.com/2024/06/17/six-months-in-a-neoliberal-dystopia-social-cannibalism-versus-mutual-aid-and-resistance-in-argentina

Textbooks and Holy Books feat. Steven Moncelli & Dr. Michael Phillips

Dana Goldstein, “Two States.  Eight Textbooks. Two American Stories,” New York Times, January 12, 2020.

Kevin M. Kruse, One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America (New York: Basic Books, 2015.)

James W. Loewen, Lies My History Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995.)

Alan Nadel, Containment Culture: American Narratives, Postmodernism, and the Atomic Age (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1995.) 

Michael Phillips, White Metropolis: Race, Ethnicity, and Religion in Dallas, 1841-2011  (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006.)

Democratic Insiders Are Sharing A Warning About Curtis Yarvin, Elon Musk & Neoreactionaries

https://shatterzone.substack.com/p/democratic-insiders-are-sharing-a

Executive Disorder: White House Weekly #5

https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/02/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-reins-in-independent-agencies-to-restore-a-government-that-answers-to-the-american-people/

https://www.jurist.org/news/2025/02/trump-signs-order-declaring-only-president-and-ag-can-interpret-us-law-for-executive-branch/ 

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/reevaluating-and-realigning-united-states-foreign-aid/ 

https://pages.devex.com/rs/685-KBL-765/images/109160-memo.pdf?version=0 

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.277336/gov.uscourts.dcd.277336.21.0_7.pdf

https://www.one.org/us/what-we-do/the-issues/foreign-assistance-pause-faq/ 

https://mutualaidsudan.org/

https://www.state.gov/emergency-humanitarian-waiver-to-foreign-assistance-pause/

https://oig.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/2025-02/USAID%20OIG%20-%20Oversight%20of%20USAID-Funded%20Humanitarian%20Assistance%20Programming%20021025.pdf

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy7x87ev5jyo

https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/permanent-workers/employment-based-immigration-fifth-preference-eb-5/about-the-eb-5-visa-classification

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/24/nx-s1-5306990/dan-bongino-fbi-deputy-director

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/new-fbi-director-kash-patel-plans-relocate-1500-119064886 

https://www.dailyuw.com/news/washington-state-congressional-candidate-set-to-lead-counterterrorism-center/article_251db152-f32f-11ef-b56b-d7ae1ea3885f.html

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/fbi-kash-patel-antifa-blm-terror-groups

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/24/neo-nazi-trump-fbi-chief 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Stuff They Don't Want You To Know - CLASSIC: Cryptids You’ve Never Heard Of

Everyone's heard of Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster -- but what about the hundreds of other cryptids rumored to exist around the world? Join the guys as they delve into the stories of cryptids you may have never heard of.

They don't want you to read our book.: https://static.macmillan.com/static/fib/stuff-you-should-read/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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