Computer Says Maybe

Alix Dunn
  • 5,0 (16)
  • TECHNOLOGIES
  • CHAQUE SEMAINE

Technology is changing fast. And it's changing our world even faster. Host Alix Dunn interviews visionaries, researchers, and technologists working in the public interest to help you keep up. Step outside the hype and explore the possibilities, problems, and politics of technology. We publish weekly.

  1. Short: RightsGone? Why Zambia May Have Pulled the Plug on RightsCon

    -21 H

    Short: RightsGone? Why Zambia May Have Pulled the Plug on RightsCon

    RightsCon has just been cancelled by the Zambian government with no word to the organizers, five days before it was set to begin. RightsCon is the biggest annual global gathering of the digital rights community. Every year thousands of people come together to figure out how to make the internet safer and freer for everyone. When they can't connect, we all lose. Alix shares a few theories about why Zambia pulled the plug (geopolitics, trade deals, and "values"). She also talks through her views on what it could mean that safe global spaces for this work are collapsing, and why you should care even if you've never heard of RightsCon. If you were planning on attending RightsCon we're so sorry. If you're in Zambian civil society fighting for space to engage on these issues, please know there is a global community that has your back. Further reading & resources: World’s Largest Digital Human Rights Conference Suddenly Canceled — 404 Media, April 29**Subscribe to our newsletter to get more stuff than just a podcast — we run events and do other work that you will definitely be interested in!** Computer Says Maybe is produced by Georgia Iacovou, Kushal Dev, Marion Wellington, Sarah Myles, Van Newman, and Zoe Trout

    14 min
  2. Computer Says Kill: A License for Unlimited War w/ Amos Toh

    -1 J

    Computer Says Kill: A License for Unlimited War w/ Amos Toh

    Military spending on AI is a triple black box: How is AI being used in the military? Who is winning these contracts and what are they worth? And what is the military’s end-game here? More like this: How a Calculator Company Reshaped Modern Warfare w/ Jeff Stern Amos Toh will help us answer these questions in part three of Computer Says Kill. We will cover how military spending has changed over the last couple of decades: there has been a clear shift from the straightforward buying up of jets, to the over-reliance on licensed software. Amos also shares what hasn’t changed, which is: yes, the government still spend a hell of a lot of money on military tech. Further reading & resources: The Business of Military AI — Amos Toh, Emile Ayoub, March 2026Read Amos and Emile’s explainer on the military’s use of AIPentagon's use of Claude during Maduro raid sparks Anthropic feud — Axios, Feb 13Department of War's Artificial Intelligence-First Agenda: A New Era for Defense Contractors — Holland & Knight, Feb 2026The Double Black Box by Ashely DeeksAI at war: Five things to know about Project Maven — Euractiv, April 2026Safety Co-Option and Compromised National Security: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of Weakened AI Risk Thresholds — Heidy Khlaaf, Sarah Myers West, April 2025**Subscribe to our newsletter to get more stuff than just a podcast — we run events and do other work that you will definitely be interested in!** Computer Says Maybe is produced by Georgia Iacovou, Kushal Dev, Marion Wellington, Sarah Myles, Van Newman, and Zoe Trout

    48 min
  3. Computer Says Kill: How a Calculator Company Reshaped Modern Warfare w/ Jeff Stern

    24 AVR.

    Computer Says Kill: How a Calculator Company Reshaped Modern Warfare w/ Jeff Stern

    Precision weapons are meant to make warfare more exact. But what happens when the executive branch uses precision as an excuse to make more war and target with less and less accountability for accuracy? More like this: Computer Says Kill: Collapsing the Chain w/ with Matt Mahmoudi In part two of Computer Says Kill, Jeff Stern shares how a calculator company transformed modern warfare by making more precise weapons. After the Second World War, the US military wanted to be able to wage more war and target with more accuracy. At first it was about saving American troops. Over time it became a permission structure for more executive control over lethal force. What does this history tell us about the role of precision and accountability in war? Further reading & resources: Get The Warhead by Jeff Stern nowMore on Weldon Word and the development of precise weaponry during the Vietnam warOperation Desert Storm: 25 years on — CNN 2019Right to strike when your boss sells AI to the military? — Cori Crider, The Register Lecture, 2019 **Subscribe to our newsletter to get more stuff than just a podcast — we run events and do other work that you will definitely be interested in!** Computer Says Maybe is produced by Georgia Iacovou, Kushal Dev, Marion Wellington, Sarah Myles, Van Newman, and Zoe Trout

    38 min
  4. Computer Says Kill: Collapsing the Chain w/ with Matt Mahmoudi

    16 AVR.

    Computer Says Kill: Collapsing the Chain w/ with Matt Mahmoudi

    How does a country wage war using LLMs? Oh and WHY? More like this: AI in Gaza: Live from Mexico City In Computer Says Kill Ep #1 we are joined by Matt Mahmoudi. The US Department of War is leaning heavily on AI technologies to attack Iran. Matt explains how the use of LLMs to identify ‘legitimate targets’ is collapsing the chain of decisions that lead to lethal force. We discuss what this means at a time when fascist governments are eager to demonstrate their strength on the global stage. From Israel field-testing AI weapons in Gaza, to the US using AI tools in horrifying new ways to perpetuate ever worse war crimes, we start to connect the dots between the technology, the people powering it, and the human costs. Further reading & resources: Automated Apartheid — Amnesty International 2023How Israel uses facial-recognition systems in Gaza and beyond — Matt’s interview in The Guardian about the reportCrimes of Dispassion: Autonomous Weapons and the Moral Challenge of Systematic Killing — Elke Schwartz, 2023Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted? — By Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz, The New York Times, April 2026“Big Brother” in Jerusalem’s Old City — Who Profits Research CentreWhat is Israel's secretive cyber warfare unit 8200? — Reuters 2024Genocide as Colonial Erasure — Francesca Albanese, October 2024Buy Resisting Borders and Technologies of Violence, edited by Mizue Aizeki, Matt Mahmoudi, and Coline SchupferBuy The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World by Anthony Loewesnsteincan we add Francesa Albanese reportMatt’s research (Automated Apartheid, and anything else on warfare to link to?)Palestine Laboratory**Subscribe to our newsletter to get more stuff than just a podcast — we run events and do other work that you will definitely be interested in!** Computer Says Maybe is produced by Georgia Iacovou, Kushal Dev, Marion Wellington, Sarah Myles, Van Newman, and Zoe Trout

    49 min
  5. Computer Says Kill: New Series Trailer

    16 AVR.

    Computer Says Kill: New Series Trailer

    This is Computer Says Kill, a new series on series focused on tracing the people, decisions, and systems that have recklessly ushered AI into the business of war. What we’re watching play out— from AI military chatbots to tech companies in bed with authoritarian governments— isn’t a new story. It's the latest chapter in a much older relationship between technology, military power, institutional systems, and capital— one that has always moved faster than accountability, and always found a way to make the next thing feel inevitable. We're not convinced this is inevitable. But we think it’s time to understand to understand exactly how we got here. The first episode in the series launches Friday, April 17th. Computer Says Maybe is produced by Georgia Iacovou, Kushal Dev, Marion Wellington, Sarah Myles, Van Newman, and Zoe Trout

    1 min
  6. Fantasy Factory: Luddite Horror w/ Brian Merchant

    10 AVR.

    Fantasy Factory: Luddite Horror w/ Brian Merchant

    What better way than movies to help us process the world. Brian Merchant shares how our collective anxieties turn into cultural products. More like this: One Filmmaker’s Fight Against AI w/ Valerie Veatch Brian Merchant, author of Blood in the Machine, joins us this week to discuss his favorite unsettling, horror and thriller picks that bring our fears about AI and tech to life on screen. Alix and Brian talk Terminator, Pluribus, and how even comedies about technology have a spectre of violence that helps us understand everything form labour exploitation to alienation to machine autonomy. All of this contributes to the role that film plays in helping us make sense of societal and technological change. Click here to vote for us for the Webbys! Further reading & resources: The best books, film, and TV about AI in 2025 — Brian Merchant, Dec 2025The Complete Guide to Luddite Horror Films — Brain Merchant, Oct 2024The Chair Company (TV show)Pluribus (TV show)The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas PynchonExhalation and *The Lifecycle of Software Objects* by Ted ChiangThe Most Aggressively Anti-AI Film of the ChatGPT Era — Brian Merchant on ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’, March 2026The Comeback (TV series staring Lisa Kudrow)Mrs Davis (TV series about a nun on a mission to destroy AI)Computer Says Maybe is produced by Georgia Iacovou, Kushal Dev, Marion Wellington, Sarah Myles, Van Newman, and Zoe Trout

    35 min
  7. How to Scare a Fascist w/ Naomi Klein

    3 AVR.

    How to Scare a Fascist w/ Naomi Klein

    Naomi Klein has spent her career studying political movements — and she thinks progressives are doing better than we think. Because the fascists are scared. More like this: To be Seen and not Watched w/ Tawana Petty In her forthcoming book, End Times Fascism, Klein and co-author Astra Taylor take stock of the history of fascism and the collective power that has been brought to bear to fight it. This time is different. Tech titans accumulated tremendous power and wealth, and are firmly on the side of the fascists. And our information environment is flooded and disoriented. While that might portend a dark outcome, Klein has a different diagnosis. Fascist powers seem angrier and more aggressive than ever; but Klein thinks this is a sign that we are winning. Further reading & resources: The Rise of End Times Fascism by Astra Taylor & Naomi KleinOn Tyranny by Timothy SnyderMore about Naomi & Astra’s upcoming book End Times Fascism and the Fight for the Living World.In 2026, We Are Friction-Maxxing by Kathryn Jezzer-Morton, The Cut, Jan 2026Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism by Yanis VaroufakisWalter Benjamin’s Concept of HistoryUN expert says world has given Israel ‘licence to torture Palestinians’ — Al Jazeera quoting Francesca Albanese, March 2026How The 'Free Helicopter Rides' Meme Went Viral — The Progressive Magazine, September 2023Safe or Just Surveilled?: Tawana Petty on the Fight Against Facial Recognition Surveillance — Logic(s) Magazine 2020**Subscribe to our newsletter to get more stuff than just a podcast — we run events and do other work that you will definitely be interested in!** Computer Says Maybe is produced by Georgia Iacovou, Kushal Dev, Marion Wellington, Sarah Myles, Van Newman, and Zoe Trout

    45 min
  8. Fantasy Factory: One Filmmaker's Fight Against AI w/ Valerie Veatch

    27 MARS

    Fantasy Factory: One Filmmaker's Fight Against AI w/ Valerie Veatch

    The way artists make art matters. And some artists, like filmmaker Valerie Veatch, are exploring what role AI has in the craft of filmmaking. More like this: Fantasy Factory: AI Supervillains w/ Anat Shenker-Osorio Valerie Veatch is the director of Ghost in the Machine, a new film that explores the depths of the Silicon Valley fantasies around AI, and platforms all the people that challenge these fantasies. With this film, Valerie is working to change the culture of AI: it is not inevitable, in many way it’s not even possible, and therefore we have a right to refuse to engage with it. Valerie discusses why she made the film, what she learned, and what impact she’s hoping it will have. Ghost in the Machine will be available for rentals and screenings beginning March 27, via Kinema! Pre-sales are now available at open now (go to Kinema and slelect the "Watch" tab). Proceeds will go towards the production of the film. The film will also be available on PBS in fall 2026. Further reading & resources: Trailer for Ghost in the MachineResisting AI by Dan McQuillanOn the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots by Emily Bender et alThe TESCREAL Bundle by Timnit Gebru and Emile P. TorresKinema — where you can watch Ghost in the Machine**Subscribe to our newsletter to get more stuff than just a podcast — we run events and do other work that you will definitely be interested in!** Computer Says Maybe is produced by Georgia Iacovou, Kushal Dev, Marion Wellington, Sarah Myles, Van Newman, and Zoe Trout

    50 min
Tout afficher (118)

Bande-annonce

Notes et avis

5
sur 5
16 notes

À propos

Technology is changing fast. And it's changing our world even faster. Host Alix Dunn interviews visionaries, researchers, and technologists working in the public interest to help you keep up. Step outside the hype and explore the possibilities, problems, and politics of technology. We publish weekly.

Informations

  • Création
    Alix Dunn
  • Années d’activité
    2024 - 2026
  • Épisodes
    118
  • Classification
    Tous publics
  • Copyright
    © 2024
  • Site web de l’émission
    Computer Says Maybe

Vous aimeriez peut‑être aussi