Blood in the Machine

Brian Merchant
  • 4.9 (24)
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A show about AI, labor, and power. Veteran tech journalist Brian Merchant chronicles the growing backlash and resistance to Silicon Valley and big tech. www.bloodinthemachine.com

  1. 3d ago

    Data centers, AI, and the 2026 elections. Ft. Paris Marx.

    If you’ve heard anything at all about the midterm elections, you’ve heard at least two things: it’s going to be a ‘blue wave’ in which Democrats are poised for major electoral gains, and that everyone involved hates data centers. We’re all used to hearing about that data center hate now, it’s almost a given; “the single most bipartisan issue in politics,” and so on, but I want to pause to underline how remarkable this is. This time last year, data centers were a niche issue in a handful of local political fights. Now they’re one of America’s most visible, universal and undeniable political battlegrounds. To investigate how we got here, I sit down with Paris Marx; tech reporter, critic, and author of the new book Hyperscale: The Ambition and Excess of Big Tech’s Data Empires. Plus, I dig into three things we should be watching during the midterm elections next week. Hyperscale by Paris MarxParis’s Disconnect NewsletterParis on Bluesky Brian’s Bluesky Producer Ryan’s NewsletterRyan’s Bluesky Stories Mentioned Texas sues OpenAI, Sam Altman over product safety - POLITICO Media — Angela Gonzales-Torres for Congress James Talarico on X: “There is something deeply wrong with a political system that allows one trillionaire to buy his own personal U.S. Senator.” / X Elon Musk’s America PAC Is Quietly Funding November’s Most Consequential Elections SpaceX and Tesla have high election stakes as Elon Musk pours $366 million into campaigns Ohio Senate special election | Tech Influence Watch Leading the Future | Tech Influence Watch Exclusive: GOP warns AI companies that data centers are politically radioactive AI and data centers are incredibly unpopular in every poll | The Verge The data center backlash reveals NIMBYism’s great contradiction Texas gubernatorial election, 2026 - Ballotpedia Data Centers | Gina Hinojosa for Texas Governor Elon Musk Is Trying To Buy Texas. It Might Earn Him ‘Retribution.’ How Billionaires Are Fighting the Prop 40 California Wealth Tax - The New York Times https://thewatt.org/en/nota/gas-centros-datos-capacidad-eeuu/ Majority of US’s new AI datacenters to be built on drought-hit land Exclusive: 75% of Americans Now Oppose Local Data Center Development - Heatmap News Cheyenne Won’t Take Data Center Wastewater After Meta Contractor Contaminated System | Cowboy State Daily Why Do Data Centers Use So Much Water? Understanding the Hidden Environmental Cost | Waterless Co Inc. Canada’s AI minister blames OpenAI for ‘failure’ after mass shooting - POLITICO ChatGPT Gave Me Chilling Advice—as I Simulated Planning a Mass Shooting – Mother Jones The Deepfake Nudes Crisis in Schools Is Much Worse Than You Thought | WIRED Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon call for curbs on AI at ‘pro-human’ summit | US politics | The Guardian Character.ai’s Bankruptcy Documents Show the Economics of AI Don’t Work Scoop: Andreessen Horowitz lays off “majority” of portfolio recruiting team Anthropic posts staggering $80.7 billion net loss in first half of 2026 as IPO approaches - Tech Startups Investors dump data centre bonds as AI borrowers face ‘Darwin moment’ $64 billion of data center projects have been blocked or delayed amid local opposition Get full access to Blood in the Machine at www.bloodinthemachine.com/subscribe

    Data centers, AI, and the 2026 elections. Ft. Paris Marx.

  2. Oct 23

    The big tech defectors you’re not hearing about

    Among the biggest stories in the tech world of late have been the string of high-profile resignations of workers at the major AI companies. Employees like Jacob Coxon at Anthropic have quit their jobs with splashy warnings that AI companies might build a machine god so powerful it exterminates humanity. Those workers get invited onto primetime news shows and weeks of high-profile media coverage. And yet, workers who’ve protested, resigned, or been fired for speaking up about the harms these companies are causing right now are given nowhere near the same treatment. This is maddening, because the AI companies are currently, as we speak, helping to automate, abet and facilitate mass death in Iran, Gaza, and Ukraine; we don’t have to speculate about some future tragedy; the tech companies are directly involved in those tragedies, right now, as I speak these words. This week, on Blood in the Machine, we’ll talk with another employee who was fired from Apple after speaking out against the company’s policies with regards to Palestine, and its treatment of Palestinian employees. Tariq Ra’ouf helped found Apples Against Apartheid, and on October 23, the launch day for iPhone Duo, the group calls on communities everywhere to picket their local Apple Stores. Tariq Ra’ouf on InstagramApples Against Apartheid Blood in the Machine: The NewsletterBrian’s Bluesky Producer Ryan’s NewsletterRyan’s Bluesky Stories Mentioned Apple facing new forced labor and child labor charges - FreedomUnited US group sues Apple over Congo conflict minerals | CNBC Africa Apple accused by DR Congo of using conflict minerals Protesters worldwide claim that Apple is complicit in human rights violations in the DRC and Gaza; co. did not respond Apple Accused of Using “Blood Minerals” in the Congo Apple employees demand CEO Tim Cook speak up for Palestinian lives Team Congo Friends of the Congo Rotten to the Core: How the Gaza genocide has revealed anti-Palestinian racism at Apple – Mondoweiss “When the Bubble Bursts”: Naomi Klein & Astra Taylor on Reclaiming Democracy from AI Oligarchs The Ukraine ‘Kill Zone’ Is AI’s Testing Ground - WSJ Iran war shows how AI speeds up military ‘kill chains’ Probes Reveal Depth of Big Tech Complicity in Israel’s AI-Driven Gaza Slaughter | Common Dreams Google DeepMind Engineer Resigns in Protest of Pentagon Contract Brazil’s President Lula Accuses Meta of Helping His Right-Wing Opponent - The New York Times Musk Ordered Starlink Slowdown That Blindsided Ukraine - WSJ Get full access to Blood in the Machine at www.bloodinthemachine.com/subscribe

    The big tech defectors you’re not hearing about

  3. Oct 16

    California vs. the tech billionaires

    It’s election season, and while most of the national conversation is focused on the midterms and the increasing likelihood that Democrats will take back the House and perhaps even the Senate, in California, the eyes of the tech elite are focused on another target: The ballot measure Proposition 40, aka the billionaire tax. Prop 40 would enact a one-time 5% wealth tax on the 250 or so billionaires that reside in California, and redirect the funding towards healthcare and education. Predictably, billionaires are furious about the idea; leading opponents include Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who, along with other ultra-wealthy Californians, has spent some $200 million dollars to oppose the measure. Today, on Blood in the Machine, we’re going to dive into these fights, with the woman who’s at the center of many of them. Lorena Gonzalez is a former state legislator and current president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, and she’s a driving force supporting both Prop 40 and the slate of new laws designed to protect workers from AI. California Labor Federation Blood in the Machine NewsletterBrian’s Bluesky Producer Ryan’s NewsletterRyan’s Bluesky Articles Mentioned California just passed the strongest AI labor laws in the US California Proposition 40, One-Time Wealth Tax for State-Funded Healthcare, Education, and Food Assistance Programs Initiative (2026) - Ballotpedia Paramount completes $111B Warner merger, creating “Skydance” behemoth - Ars Technica Newsom signs landmark bill aimed at giving lifeline to struggling California newsrooms - Los Angeles Times The NO FAKES Act AI in hiring and firing: California’s No Robo Bosses Act Get the Facts: NO on PROP 40 An AI School, With No Teachers, To Open in Chicago This Fall The billionaires fight back: Propositions 41 and 42 could kill California’s billionaire tax even if it passes Billionaire Google Co-Founder Pumps $102 Million Into Fighting California Wealth Tax | Common Dreams California Billionaires Are Spending Big in Costly Wealth-Tax Fight The Blue Wave Could Reshape Politics in the South | The New Republic $200 million-plus spent fighting and supporting billionaire tax - Los Angeles Times Gavin Newsom backs measure to kill the billionaire tax and ban future wealth taxes Gavin Newsom opposes California’s $100 billion billionaire tax. The fight may outlast the vote Billionaire Tax Explained: What Proposition 40 Would Mean for California Google co-founder Sergey Brin spends $102M opposing California Prop. 40 | abc10.com California’s ‘carpet-bombed’ wealth tax measure runs into a wall - POLITICO Get full access to Blood in the Machine at www.bloodinthemachine.com/subscribe

    California vs. the tech billionaires

  4. Oct 2

    The two words the AI industry hates more than anything

    “Stochastic parrots,” a term coined in an influential 2021 paper written by two AI researchers and two computational linguists, essentially holds that large language models are not “intelligent” but are rather systems that output material based on what’s in their training data. Now, while LLMs and technologies described as AI today have become more sophisticated and complex over the last 5 years, the term remains a fundamentally accurate way of describing LLMs. Yet the industry hates it like the plague. AI industry folks absolutely lose their minds over the term, and often bring it up, unprompted, just to try to debunk it again and again. Why does this particular term have a unique capacity to enrage AI industry folks? I had a theory that, even more so than other critiques about shaky financing or dubious functionality, stochastic parrots undercuts the very foundation that the AI boom is built on: That tech companies are building a machine god of infinite power and potential. These firms have relied on narrative to build up and to sell to the world a very expensive, resource-consumptive technology. If it turns out it’s an unthinking system that’s often fallible in predictable ways, well, that might not be worth quite as many trillions of dollars. To discuss this theory in greater depth, I thought I’d go right to the source—to one of the paper’s co-authors, professor Emily M. Bender, of the University of Washington. Quick PSA: I can only do this work thanks to readers, listeners, and viewers who chip in a few bucks each month to help me keep the lights on. If you’re one of them, you have my sincere thanks; you’re the reason I can cover subjects and do the sort of reporting so few others will. If you’re a fan of the “Great 2026 Blood in the Machine Podcast Experiment” or appreciate what we’re doing here, consider upgrading to a paid subscription; it takes no small amount of work to book great guests, research, write, and produce the thing, and we’re early days yet. Okay! That’s enough from me; thanks for tuning in, and hammers up. Articles and media mentioned in the show: The “Stochastic Parrots” paperStochastic Parrots 🦜: Frequently Unasked Questions | by Emily M. Bender | MediumEmily M. Bender on BlueSkyThe AI Con, with Alex Hanna. Producer Ryan’s NewsletterRyan’s Bluesky Articles mentioned AI Bros Are Having a Meltdown Because the Associated Press Stylebook Clarifies That AIs Don’t Have Feelings Weekend Update: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on AI’s Threat to Humanity - SNL Alec Stapp on X Trump AI deal rebrands ‘artificial intelligence’ as ‘superintelligence’ | Donald Trump | The Guardian Trump’s new accord on ‘super intelligence’ includes spelling error “White House Accord on Super Intelligence” / X Stochastic Parrots paper Stochastic Parrots 🦜: Frequently Unasked Questions | by Emily M. Bender | Medium Nate Silver on X: View of The TESCREAL bundle: Eugenics and the promise of utopia through artificial general intelligence “Be willing to destroy a rogue data center by airstrike” - leading AI alignment researcher pens Time piece calling for ban on large GPU clusters Canada’s AI minister blames OpenAI for ‘failure’ after mass shooting - POLITICO Parents of teenager who took his own life sue OpenAI Get full access to Blood in the Machine at www.bloodinthemachine.com/subscribe

    The two words the AI industry hates more than anything

  5. Sep 25

    What’s really behind AI ‘super intelligence’

    While billionaires and world leaders expound the dangers of all-powerful, “super intelligent” AI, the reality on the ground is that it's a tech product that’s only made possible by countless human beings, laboring for sometimes dollars a day, doing work like “cleaning” data sets so they’re usable, scanning books and literature into databases, creating usable content, and moderating the output of AI systems to weed out offensive, gruesome, and racist content. These workers are underpaid, overtaxed, and fighting for better conditions—even as AI executives are declaring that the systems they prop up are so powerful they’re about to extinguish life on the planet. In the meantime, workers like Joan Kinyua and Michael Geoffery Asia of the Data Labelers Association just want fair pay and basic protections. I recently spoke to both of them about what it’s like to perform crucial work day in and day out and yet be completely invisible to the company that relies on your labor—and to the world at large. To help feed Silicon Valley’s illusion that these systems are actually machine gods. And to fight for better conditions, rights and recognition in spite of it all. Show Notes Data Labelers Association Blood in the Machine NewsletterBrian’s Bluesky Producer Ryan’s NewsletterRyan’s Bluesky Articles mentioned My latest newsletter: Dario Amodei — We Must Pace the Frontier The hidden workforce behind every AI tool you use: Announcing the data work landscape 2.0 - TechEquity Collaborative Altman and Amodei address UN: ‘There are many things that AI cannot and should not automate’ Tech Influence Watch How to use AI doom marketing to dupe the media and rake in billions in 10 easy steps Frontier AI safety regulations: A reference for lab staff - METR AI giants tap into the social media playbook: self-regulation AI leaders call for tougher protections against AI-aided bioweapons | The Verge AI Labs Want Someone to Stop Them - Bloomberg The AI extinction narrative is winning out Models Don’t Go Rogue Misleading Metaphors, Real Risks - by Melanie Mitchell Rapid Response 47 on X: “.@POTUS: The United States totally rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme of control for Artificial Intelligence Get full access to Blood in the Machine at www.bloodinthemachine.com/subscribe

  6. Sep 20

    How to kick Flock out of your town

    In a year rife with backlash to big tech, data centers, and AI, one company still manages to stand out: Flock Safety. Over the past decade, Flock has been building out a massive network of surveillance cameras across the nation. The images those cameras record are uploaded to a central database, and can be accessed by law enforcement and federal authorities. Abuse of the system has been rampant. Police have used Flock’s Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs) to stalk exes and to track women seeking abortions across state lines. ICE has accessed Flock data to assist in crackdown on immigrants. Innocent people have been wrongfully imprisoned after being flagged by the system.  With the anti-Flock movement growing, and more people looking into how to get Flock out of their communities, I sat down with Ed, an organizer with DeFlock, to explain, step by step, how you can start a movement to get the surveillance tech out of your town, too. Check out DeFlock here. Blood in the Machine Newsletter: https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/ Brian’s Bluesky. Ryan’s Bluesky. Articles Mentioned in this Episode https://atlpresscollective.com/2026/07/28/flock-cameras-atlanta-clearance-rates/ https://ij.org/police-have-reportedly-used-license-plate-readers-to-stalk-romantic-interests-at-least-14-times-in-recent-years/ https://www.commondreams.org/news/police-abusing-flock-cameras https://immpolicytracking.org/policies/reported-ice-accessing-flock-automated-license-plate-reader-cameras-via-local-law-enforcement/ https://cybernews.com/privacy/de-flock-america-halloween-flock-surveillance-cameras/ https://www.cnet.com/home/security/flocks-ai-cameras-may-have-misread-over-70-of-license-plates-creating-new-headaches-for-cities/ https://www.404media.co/flock-taught-cops-how-to-surveil-no-kings-protesters/ https://www.gadgetreview.com/flock-safety-employees-watched-kids-gymnastics-room-to-pitch-surveillance-tech https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/05/she-got-abortion-so-texas-cop-used-83000-cameras-track-her-down https://deflocktheusa.com/cancellations/ Get full access to Blood in the Machine at www.bloodinthemachine.com/subscribe

    How to kick Flock out of your town

  7. Sep 13

    The ‘End Times Fascists’ of AI, ft. Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor

    End Times Fascism by Naomi Klein & Astra Taylor. Naomi Klein’s Newsletter, Patterns.Astra Taylor on BlueskyBlood in the Machine Newsletter: Brian’s Bluesky.Producer Ryan’s Newsletter: Ryan’s Bluesky.Articles mentioned in this episode: The Automation Charade by Astra Taylor. The politics and possibilities of ‘AI could kill us all’ by Brian. More: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-and-nationalism-are-a-deadly-combinationhttps://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/the-ai-jobs-apocalypse-is-for-thehttps://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/saudi-arabia-and-us-sign-strategic-artificial-intelligence-partnership-2623228https://theconversation.com/iran-war-shows-how-ai-speeds-up-military-kill-chains-278492https://influence.citationneeded.news/https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Americas-AI-Action-Plan.pdfhttps://www.axios.com/2025/09/17/anthropic-dario-amodei-p-doom-25-percenthttps://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5926181-xai-naacp-memphis-grok/ Get full access to Blood in the Machine at www.bloodinthemachine.com/subscribe

  8. Sep 4

    The real AI jobs apocalypse

    AI executives like Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and OpenAI’s Sam Altman have been forecasting an incipient AI jobs apocalypse for three years now. So where is it? Well it’s here, kind of. But instead of replacing tens of millions of workers, it’s mostly making them miserable. Across the US, workers are souring on AI, and they’re increasingly outspoken about it. A new report from Glassdoor documents how workers are becoming more and more negative towards —at the moment that AI CEOs have promised that the products would be making everyone’s working life easier and more streamlined. Yet the data paints a pretty clear picture: Just as people are getting fed up with data centers, Meta AI glasses, and AI in general, they’re getting angrier about bosses pushing AI on them in the workplace, too. To discuss all this and more, I’m joined by Alex Hanna. Hanna is a sociologist, a director at the Distributed AI Research Institute, and the co-author of the AI Con; she’s also behind the Luddite Lab, a project that provides resources to workers who are navigating AI in the workplace. Blood in the Machine Newsletter: https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/ Brian’s Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/bcmerchant.bsky.social Producer Ryan’s Newsletter: https://www.thestorieswetell.co/ Ryan’s Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thestorieswetell.coAlex Hanna’s Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/alexhanna.bsky.social The Luddite Lab: https://labor.dair-institute.org/primers Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 Podcast: https://dair-institute.org/maiht3k/ Articles mentioned in this episode:https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/why-office-workers-are-turning-againsthttps://www.glassdoor.com/blog/how-workers-feel-about-ai-2026/https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/sep/02/we-have-had-enough-thousands-of-staff-at-the-university-of-sydney-walk-off-the-job-over-ai-job-securityhttps://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/01/nyregion/ai-ban-schools-nyc.htmlhttps://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-02-04/unions-urge-newsom-california-lawmakers-to-rein-in-aihttps://www.pen-guild.org/news/pen-guild-wins-landmark-arbitration-on-ai-protectionshttps://www.bcg.com/publications/2026/why-ai-pilots-rarely-deliver-valuehttps://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/amazon-cuts-jobs-its-artificial-general-intelligence-group-2026-07-22/https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-coo-andrew-macdonald-ai-token-spending-harder-justify-2026-5?op=1https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/after-firing-700-employees-for-ai-swedish-company-admits-their-mistake-and-plans-to-rehire-humans-what-happened/articleshow/121252776.cms Get full access to Blood in the Machine at www.bloodinthemachine.com/subscribe

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4.9
out of 5
24 Ratings

About

A show about AI, labor, and power. Veteran tech journalist Brian Merchant chronicles the growing backlash and resistance to Silicon Valley and big tech. www.bloodinthemachine.com

Information

  • Creator
    Brian Merchant
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    19
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Brian Merchant
  • Show Website
    Blood in the Machine

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