For our season finale, we're joined by the one and only Brian Merchant (@bcmerchant.bsky.social) to discuss how we can take lessons and inspiration from the original Luddites and apply them to resistance against AI and Big Tech more generally today.

politechs.dev/episodes/ai-...

As we work on the season finale, we'd like to share an interview we did for another podcast that made us realise that Season 1 of Politechs had to be about AI. Social scientist and researcher Anna Colom joins us to talk about the real risks of AI.

politechs.dev/episodes/ai-...

Automation is usually presented to us as an unalloyed good, a way to remove tedium from our lives so we can spend our time on the things that truely matter. But is this really the case?

politechs.dev/episodes/ai-...

When you're trying to convince somebody of something (for example, to examine whether AI is a good thing), you need to know your audience. In Episode 6, we look at programmers and thinking through how to talk to the various audiences within that big tent.

politechs.dev/episodes/ai-...

We’re a little behind on production, so Episode 6 won’t come out until tomorrow. Sorry for the delay! 🙏🏻

If anyone is interested in volunteering to transcribe an episode, please send a DM here or email podcast@politechs.dev. The process involves cleaning up an automated transcript, and we have tooling to help do that. As a bonus, you get early access to the episode you’re transcribing! 😀

Why do so many people buy into the narrative that AI is inevitable so we might as well get on board (or throw up our hands in despair)? We get to the bottom of this, realise that Skynet might happen after all, and channel the great Lina Khan. Check out Episode 5:

politechs.dev/episodes/ai-...

We're joined this week by Dr. Chris Gilliard (@hypervisible.bsky.social), Co-Director of the Critical Internet Studies Institute to talk about what generative AI means for surveillance, and how this technology disproportionately harms marginalised groups:

politechs.dev/episodes/ai-...

Whilst everyone has an opinion about AI, there are certain top-level narratives driving the hype bubble. We look at the Doomer / Booster divide and peek behind the curtain to see which corporations and people are pushing these narratives and what they have to gain.

politechs.dev/episodes/ai-...

Episode 2 is out!

Our societies are necessarily based on trust, but how do we decide what institutions, people, and technologies to place our trust in? And why have we collectively decided that since "computers don't make mistakes", they are always worthy of our trust? politechs.dev/episodes/ai-...

Episode 1 is out!

Join us as we lay down a Luddite argument against AI from the perspective of software engineers and talk about how to have good faith discussions with people who might not see or be willing to acknowledge the real dangers of AI.

politechs.dev/episodes/ai-...

In recent years, there has been a desire from certain high-profile tech companies for an "apolitical workplace". This in itself is a political act, designed to suppress the power of tech workers. They know that politics is inextricable from tech. And now so do you.

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