We are at war with Iran. Journalist and Chapo veteran Séamus Malekafzali returns to help us break down what has happened in the past few days, the spillover into neighboring and nearby Gulf countries, and what the future of this conflict might look like. We also return to the Israeli-USian murder-suicide pact, the protests from neighboring countries versus the celebrations from the Iranian diaspora community, and whether the Fourth Reich will ever fall.
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This is fascinating! Abigail Adams begins a letter to John Adams in Philadelphia that she won't finish until eight days later on March 10. Why? Because she is continually interrupted by bombing in nearby Boston, which unbeknownst to her is the beginning of the consequential taking of Dorchester Heights by the Colonial Army. She also talks about attacks on Adams' reputation, the trouble some friends get into defending him, and her thoughts on "Common Sense."
We get into the love/hate triangle between Anthropic, OpenAI, and the Pentagon and discuss the details of these contracts for AI weapon and surveillance systems, what’s actually at stake here with debates over the terms of “guardrails”, “red lines” and “lawful uses,” and how the competing (a)moral visions for AI and war that are represented in this debate really come down to a difference of opinion about technical capabilities at this current moment, not about the fundamental ethics and politics at play in weaponized AI. Plus, why this lovers spat between Anthropic and Pentagon must not trick you into labelling Dario Amodei as a righteous purveyor of resistance tech. Get real!
••• How Talks Between Anthropic and the Defense Dept. Fell Apart https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/01/technology/anthropic-defense-dept-openai-talks.html
••• Inside Anthropic’s Killer-Robot Dispute With the Pentagon https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/03/inside-anthropics-killer-robot-dispute-with-the-pentagon/686200/
••• The Adolescence of Technology https://www.darioamodei.com/essay/the-adolescence-of-technology
••• A Few Observations on AI Companies and Their Military Usage Policies https://sarahshoker.substack.com/p/a-few-observations-on-ai-companies
••• "All Lawful Use": Much More Than You Wanted To Know https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/all-lawful-use-much-more-than-you
••• Who loses from the Anthropic fight? Maybe Elon Musk and Alex Karp. https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/who-loses-from-the-anthropic-fight
••• AI vs. the pentagon https://jasmi.news/p/ai-pentagon
••• What Rights Do AI Companies Have in Government Contracts? https://jessicatillipman.com/what-rights-do-ai-companies-have-in-government-contracts/
Standing Plugs:
••• Order Jathan’s 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)
U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran have sharply escalated tensions in the Middle East, raising fears of a wider regional conflict and fresh questions about the legal and strategic case for military action.
The third day of the American and Israeli war against Iran was marked again by punishing airstrikes across the Islamic Republic. In return, Iran continued to widen the war, sending volleys of missiles and rockets across the region, targeting most of its Arab neighbors and Israel. The Pentagon says at least six U.S. service personnel have been killed. Nick Schifrin reports. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy
Special correspondent Reza Sayah is in Tehran and joined Amna Nawaz to report on the latest developments in Iran. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy
The U.S. is in its third day of war with Iran, prompting inevitable warnings of another Iraq-style quagmire. But is that the right historical analogy? Long-time national security reporter Eli Lake (The Free Press) joins Mike to explain why this air-only regime decapitation strategy is completely unprecedented in modern warfare. They break down the dangerous math of missile defense, the race to secure Iran's nuclear material, and why this is Trump's ultimate foreign policy gamble.
Produced by Corey Wara
Video and Social Media by Geoff Craig
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