Show Notes
The year has been marked by the rise of open, widespread, and increasingly spirited backlash to AI, data centers, and big tech. As such, the stage was well set for the Summer of Ludd, a series of protests, performances, talks, and meetups in New York City organized around the idea that we need to get people into the streets and break Silicon Valley’s grip over our lives. There were mock trials of big tech, plays staged detailing the Luddites’ true origin story, marches, and teach-ins. By just about any count, it was a smashing success; the event drew favorable coverage everywhere from the Washington Post to WIRED to the Economist. It was even, amusingly, transmuted into a clickbait MSN listicle produced to maximize on-screen engagement. I sadly couldn’t be there on the ground for the proceedings, so I did the next best thing: I invited the Luddite documentarian, organizer, and activist Amanda Hanna-McLeer, who was there for the festivities, and who directed the Luddite Recreations play that ran throughout the week in Tompkins Square Park, to give us the rundown. Hanna-McLeer has been documenting the youth-led Luddite movement for years now; as she explains, it started with the Luddite Clubs students formed to reject social media and organize offline activities in high schools and colleges across the nation. In many ways, the Summer of Ludd is a culmination of that movement thus far. It also, however, Hanna-McLeer notes, feels like the beginning of something else, something even bigger. We get into all of that: the size of the crowds, the enthusiasm among so many people have for logging off and plugging in, and how the people who encounter the new Luddites are increasingly open to movements that challenge big tech. One simple reflection of all this is the positive news coverage I mentioned above. I can comfortably say from my experience as a tech journalist, that even five to ten years ago, these kids and activists would have been mocked and scorned. Instead, most people immediately get where they’re coming from. Their message about fighting big tech, anyway, if not the gnome hats. Progress is progress. Events like the Summer of Ludd—which not only protest big tech but proactively envision an alternative, participatory future; one grounded in community, commonality, and sociality—are dovetailing with data center protests, AI-critical labor movements, and students (and everyone else!) roundly booing AI. It does feel like the ground is shifting in some real and interesting ways, and that new spaces are opening up. Here’s to hoping. Some related reading: Now for some other stories about our rapidly unfolding dystopia that caught my eye this week, and about those fighting to keep it at bay. BUT FIRST, before we move on: Today’s edition of BITM is sponsored by DeleteMe, whose mission is hunting down and, yes, deleting the data that brokers have hoovered up about you over the years and made available to their clients. DeleteMe is Wirecutter’s top-rated data removal service, and I’ve used it myself, to locate and eradicate scores of sites that were listing and selling personal info like my home address and phone number. If you’re interested in taking DeleteMe for a spin, sign up here and use the code LUDDITES for 20% off an annual subscription. OK! Onwards. A treasury report drafted by Trump officials outlines fears of the AI bubble bursting This is a bit of news that seemed to glance the surface without breaking through. I didn’t see this too widely reported, but thought it was pretty telling nonetheless. The report isn’t public, but was obtained by journalists; including those at NOTUS, who report that This draft report inside the Treasury Department is set to warn of the risks posed by the artificial intelligence market, likening key aspects of it to the dotcom bubble that upended the U.S. economy when it burst in the early 2000s. Career Treasury analysts found that AI firms are more deeply entrenched in the U.S. economy
More from Blood in the Machine
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
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
“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
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
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/