How the tech bros of AI are breaking our democracy
5/29/202651 min
In his essay this week on the way forward for Britain, Tony Blair posits that "governing in the age of AI will be the principal challenge. And opportunity" for our political class.
Karen Hao certainly agrees that it will be one of the defining challenges of our lives. An MIT grad, she started off in Silicon Valley, before turning to journalism and becoming one of the most authoritative reporters on the new world of AI. She is deeply alarmed by the AI race, and by the companies - and men - leading the pursuit.
Her book, 'Empire of AI', contends that these new giants of industry have weaponised the sales pitch around AI to extract immense resources to swell their bottom line, and erode democracies around the world in the process.
Lewis sat down with her to discuss the acutely political nature of AI, the new, uniquely powerful empires being built, and how - and if - democracies can wrestle back control.
The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
No matter what car you drive, you know that new tires can be an unexpected expense. Don't wait any longer because your locally owned Big O Tires has the perfect tires for you. They'll get you back up and running fast with no credit needed financing made easy. They work with multiple lending partners, so the financing is tailored to you. So if you need new tires, you can't afford to wait. Get into your locally owned Big O Tires, the team you trust. [news jingle] This is a Global Player original podcast.
Lewis Goodall· Host0:35
OpenAI, when it came along, what was it? And what has it become?
Karen Hao· Guest0:38
It was a nonprofit. It was a nonprofit contracted- Which seems hilarious now. Yeah. AI is a political project. Meta, which was a social media company and now an AI company, the kind of AI data center that it's constructing now in Louisiana is nearly four hundred times the size and footprint of the first data center that it built to support Facebook. If someone is saying you cannot stop one of the, the forces that will come to shape how the future looks, then what's even the point of democracy after that?
Lewis Goodall· Host1:09
It is a truism that AI will dominate our lives, that it already is, that there is something inexorable or inevitable about it. As Tony Blair has said in his recent essay that, "Artificial intelligence will change everything. I mean everything. There is no point in debating whether this technological revolution is a