This Machine Kills

445. What’s Democracy Got to Do With AI? (ft. Bruce Schneier)

We chat with Bruce Schneier — renowned security technologist and, most recently, co-author of Rewiring Democracy — to discuss the relationship between technology and democracy. We get into how people with money/power use systems like AI to create a flywheel of more money/power. But importantly, as an advocate of public-interest technology, Bruce also lays out how AI is being used to empower citizens and strengthen democracy, and the techno-political conditions needed to build these democratic systems. ••• Check out all of Bruce’s work https://www.schneier.com/ ••• Rewiring Democracy | Bruce Schneier and Nathan Sanders https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262049948/rewiring-democracy/ ••• The Promptware Kill Chain: How Prompt Injections Gradually Evolved into a Multi-Step Malware https://www.schneier.com/academic/archives/2026/01/the-promptware-kill-chain-how-prompt-injections-gradually-evolved-into-a-multi-step-malware.html Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

Patreon Preview – 444. The Stories We Tell

We chat about our week as Guests of Honor at Capricon, a science fiction convention in Chicago, and all the great panels and chats we had about luddism, science fiction, politics of futures, and the importance of the stories we tell—and are able to tell and believe—about technology-in-society. Then we wrap up with a recent case study of storytelling: the performative puppetry of moltbook. ••• Moltbook was peak AI theater https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/02/06/1132448/moltbook-was-peak-ai-theater/ ••• Exposed Moltbook Database Let Anyone Take Control of Any AI Agent on the Site https://www.404media.co/exposed-moltbook-database-let-anyone-take-control-of-any-ai-agent-on-the-site/ Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

443. Behold the Big Beautiful AI State (ft. Brian Chen)

We’re joined by Brian Chen — policy director at Data & Society — to discuss his new report on the Trump administration’s industrial policy for building The Big AI State. We lay out how Trump’s is bringing together various forms of intervention to ensure America achieves “global technological dominance.” This includes de-risking the construction of data centers and energy infrastructure, ensuring the American AI tech stack takes over global markets, and even acquiring equity stakes in major private industries in the AI supply chain. We discuss the means and ends of Trump’s industrial policy — and how these policy tools should be wielded differently by future administrations. ••• Great Power Antinomies https://www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/great-power-antinomies/ ••• The Big AI State https://datasociety.net/library/the-big-ai-state/ Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

Patreon Preview – 442. The Empire of Blood and Oil

We chat about the Karp x Fink interview at Davos, the humiliation ritual of making Adam Tooze sit on a panel about how batteries are a Chinese threat to America, how an administrative rule change at the EPA about the (non-)value of life in regulatory cost-benefit analysis will be a major accelerant for the American Empire of Blood and Oil — plus a forbidden riff. ••• Trump’s E.P.A. Has Put a Value on Human Life: Zero Dollars https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/21/climate/epa-human-life-value.html Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

441. The Fight Over AI Use in Mental Healthcare (ft. Ciara Keegan, Ilana Marcucci-Morris)

We chat with Ciara Keegan and Ilana Marcucci-Morris from the National Union of Healthcare Workers about their ongoing contract dispute with Kaiser Permamente over the use and role of AI in healthcare, especially mental and behavioural health. We discuss the impacts of AI on labor conditions and patient care in giant hospital systems like Kaiser — plus the ways Kaiser wants to leave the door open for deeper integration of AI and replacement of healthcare providers. ••• Kaiser, Don't Deny | NUHW https://kaiserdontdeny.org/ ••• Will AI Replace Your Therapist? Kaiser Won’t Say No https://www.kqed.org/science/1999553/will-ai-replace-your-therapist-kaiser-wont-say-no ••• Therapists went on a hunger strike to protest 'assembly line' conditions and the automation of mental healthcare https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/therapists-went-on-a-hunger-strike Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)