Steer the Future or Get Steamrolled: Baratunde Thurston on Our Collective Power

2026-02-03

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Baratunde Thurston wants us to live well with machines — not for us live under them, nor to be their almighty overlords. Baratunde is a technologist, a comedian, and an Emmy-nominated storyteller who explores interdependence. He gets spicy in this episode. The host of Life With Machines explores how he uses AI — without succumbing to its literal mediocrity — and why he feels he must use AI because otherwise he’s ceding the future to big tech. He also digs into the compromises made in service of buil...

Baratunde Thurston wants us to live well with machines — not for us live under them, nor to be their almighty overlords.

Baratunde is a technologist, a comedian, and an Emmy-nominated storyteller who explores interdependence. He gets spicy in this episode. The host of Life With Machines explores how he uses AI — without succumbing to its literal mediocrity — and why he feels he must use AI because otherwise he’s ceding the future to big tech. He also digs into the compromises made in service of building AGI, why strongmen are actually weak, and why CEOs need to stop bending the knee and learn how collective power and strength actually work.

But he doesn't just critique—he offers builders a concrete path forward for how we can build a better future , because:

"If we build these systems in a good way, there'll be more for everybody, more freedom for everybody and more money for everybody. I do believe that that is possible, but if we do this the wrong way, most of us are gonna suffer and a handful will enjoy their riches in a very secure compound."

This episode is a banger. You will be inspired to take action!

Chapters:

(02:00) - “I don't want to live under machines… I also don't want to be like master of the machine”
(06:25) - Creating good goals for AI systems and products
(09:00) - “Nothing about us without us” – principles of community-based action
(11:10) - How Baratunde stays creative and avoids mediocrity when using AI
(14:10) - Building BLAIR, Baratunde’s AI “co-host” and “producer” on Life With Machines
(16:50) - “You know nothing, John Snow.” Generative AI systems are not knowledge repositories!
(20:00) - Practice what you preach: on Mustafa Suleyman (Microsoft AI CEO) and his warning against building “Seemingly Conscious AI”
(24:26) - The AI funding shell game
(25:26) - Racing to AGI and the compromises (trust & safety, copyright, etc…) along the way
(28:56) - How Baratunde reconciles his unease with his own heavy use of AI
(32:10) - “Comedy will not save us; we will save us.” On the role of comedy vs. authority / authoritarians
(36:26) - Bending the knee: why Baratunde says tech CEOs need to learn how collective power works
(38:26) - What builders — what we! — can do (today!) to exercise our power about how these systems will be built
(40:26) - “If we build these systems in a good way, there’ll be more for everybody…”

Where to find Baratunde Thurston:

Life with Machines: https://www.lifewithmachines.media/

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Music by Jonathan Zalben

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