Half the Answer #27: AI as a Political Project

Caitlin and Trent check in with Hagen Blix about the ways we talk about AI, the most prominent angle its critics take, and the angle that’s often missing. When AI is advertised as a tool for generating journalism or research, what is the social and political order that use would entail? When the press hypes AI weapons dealers as the new vanguards of technology, what does it mean in terms of a vision for the world to come?

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Resources:

Palmer Luckey speaks to Taiwan students https://www.thefp.com/p/palmer-luckey-i-saw-the-future-of-war-taiwan

Anduril gets big US contracts https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/startup-anduril-becomes-third-us-srm-supplier-amid-rising-defense-demand-2025-08-05/

Peter Thiel and tech fascism https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/13/end-times-fascism-far-right-trump-musk

Grok makes nonconsensual nudes https://gizmodo.com/groks-spicy-mode-makes-nsfw-celebrity-deepfakes-of-women-but-not-men-2000639308

American Historical Association https://www.historians.org/resource/guiding-principles-for-artificial-intelligence-in-history-education/

British MP launches bot of himself https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy5pr3q6lrpo

Automating Inequality https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250074317/automatinginequality/

Mutually Assured AI Malfunction https://dev.ua/en/news/eksholova-google-zasterihaie-proty-agi