Shows / Computer Says Maybe
Computer Says Maybe
Technology is changing fast. And it's changing our world even faster. Host Alix Dunn interviews visionaries, researchers, and technologists working in the public interest to help you keep up. Step outside the hype and explore the possibilities, problems, and politics of technology. Learn more at www.themaybe.org/podcast.
Episodes
Computer Says MaybeThe Urge to Merge: Reclaiming Competition in an Economy of Giants w/ Alvaro Bedoya
Those at the top all know each other. The workers fighting the same fights against them and their monopolies, from taxi drivers to farmers to filmmakers, never…
Computer Says MaybeFollow the AI Money: Big Tech’s Midterm Spending Spree w/ Steven Renderos
The AI industry is so unpopular that it has started paying for the support it can’t earn. So what does it take for people to turn that mistrust into power that…
Computer Says MaybeFlock Shock: How Local Fights Over Surveillance Are Reshaping American Politics w/ Sarah Hamid & Anthony Ralphs
You may have seen the viral clip of a man in a full Darth Vader costume protesting Flock at a San Diego City Council meeting. The man behind the mask was…
Computer Says MaybeThe Climate Cost of AI Prophecies: How Data Centers Fuel Big Fossil w/ Ketan Joshi
Tech companies keep telling us that the answer to solving climate change lies in AI. Meanwhile, the data centers required to power AI are keeping coal plants…
Computer Says MaybeBeware the AI Prophets: Hype, Doom, and Prediction as Tools of Control w/ Carissa Véliz
When a tech executive says AI will be doing your job next year, it sounds like a forecast. Dr. Carissa Véliz argues it's something else: a command, delivered…
Computer Says MaybeThe Kids Are Online: Are Social Media Bans the Answer? w/ Cori Crider and Pamela Wisniewski
Almost everyone studying kids’ safety online agrees that a blanket social media ban won't work. And nearly every government moving on the issue is passing one…
Computer Says MaybeWhen Kids Can’t Consent: The Case Against Tech in the Classroom w/ Andrew Liddell
No tech that your kid uses in the classroom was designed for their benefit. Not the tablet, not the "learning app," not the AI chatbot helping with homework…
Computer Says MaybeThe Battle for Power Inside Big Tech: Against Tech Oligarchy w/ JS Tan & Clarissa Redwine
Over the last decade, tech workers have staged walkouts, signed open letters by the tens of thousands, and built more than a dozen new unions across the…
Computer Says MaybeMeet the Mom Winning Against AI in Schools w/ Ifeoma Ozoma
Imagine dropping your kid off at school, assuming they’ll spend the day being taught by… teachers, of course. But then you find out that part of their day is…
Computer Says MaybeThe Digital Delusion: The False Promise of Ed Tech w/ Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath
A screen is built to do one thing well: split your attention across as many things as possible, as fast as possible. A developing brain needs the opposite—…
Computer Says MaybeMeet the Guy (Actually) Passing Tech Laws
You've likely heard of the National Sexual Assault Hotline. What you might not know is that it's operated by RAINN, an organization that has become one of the…
Computer Says MaybeHow Anduril Tried to Kill Democracy in Ohio (& How Farmers Fought Back)
In Madison Township, Ohio, families have farmed the same land for generations. Then a commercial real estate company started buying up their neighbors' fields…
Computer Says MaybeA Sneak Peek into The Maybe Collective
We’re taking a short summer break and will be back on your feed in a couple of weeks. But we've got news before we go. Catch up on our most recent series…
Computer Says MaybeThe Colossus Crossroads: Fighting for the Future of Memphis w/ KeShaun Pearson
In Memphis, companies don't come in to invest in the city. They come in to extract from its people and its land, no matter how high the human cost. That's…
Computer Says MaybeThe Gig is Up: How Uber Ruined Wage Labor with Veena Dubal
In 2013, taxi drivers were beginning to notice something unusual: unmarked, black cars were cutting them off in taxi lines and picking up their passengers…
Computer Says MaybeThe Collective Fight for Our Humanity - REAL Resistance
Anna Bacciarelli and Shazeda Ahmed know more than anyone that there are only a handful of tech companies asserting dominance around the world by talking in…
Computer Says MaybeWho's Behind Big Brother? - REAL Resistance
Mariel Garcia-Montes and Crofton Black share their stories and investigations that uncover the backdoor deals that allow the surveillance industry to thrive…
Computer Says MaybeThe Global Fight Against Technocolonialism - REAL Resistance
Paola Ricaurte Quijano, Fernanda Rodrigues, Angela Chukunzira, and Kauna Love Malgwi make it clear that colonial powers have never gone away. The people and…
Computer Says MaybeAgainst Automated Governments - REAL Resistance
Maria Pilar Llorens, Divij Joshi, Gabriel Geiger, and Purity Mukami reveal how digitised welfare is not welfare — it’s just efficiency theatre. More like this…
Computer Says MaybeThe AI Information Warp - REAL Resistance
Klaudia Jaźwińska, Aliya Bhatia, and Yanick Kemayou come together to answer: What happens when a small collection of AI companies start colonising the truth?…
Computer Says MaybeComputer Says Kill: How To Say No w/ Matt Mahmoudi and Marwa Fatafta
How do we stand up against the human rights violations that exist in the gruesome relationship between the business of AI and war? More like this: Computer…
Computer Says MaybeComputer Says Kill: The AI Safety Circus w/ Heidy Khlaaf
The AI industry loves to talk about safety, but their version of safety is putting us at risk. More like this: The Palestine Laboratory w/ Antony Loewenstein…
Computer Says MaybeComputer Says Kill: The Palestine Laboratory w/ Antony Loewenstein
Israel has a long history of making new technological weapons of war and exporting them to the world. They have used Palestine as a testing ground to show how…
Computer Says MaybeSPECIAL: Israel’s AI Kill List in Lebanon w/ Nabih Bulos
The Israeli military is using data, surveillance, and AI to kill noncombatants in Southern Lebanon. More like this: Computer Says Kill: Collapsing the Chain w/…
Computer Says MaybeComputer Says Kill: Anthropic is NOT the Good Guy w/ Madeline Batt
Anthropic’s AI systems have been used in illegal American invasions in Iran and Venezuela. They have partnered with Musk in the disastrous Memphis Colossus…
Computer Says MaybeComputer Says Kill: The Toxic Love Triangle of Big Tech, Big War & Big Science w/ David Gray Widder
Academia, Big Tech, and the military are caught in a sordid love triangle — and their love language is money. More like this: Computer Says Kill: The Blank…
Computer Says MaybeComputer Says Kill: The Blank Check to Beat China w/ Lis Siegel
The US is in a race to ‘beat China’ at AI. Or is it? What if I told you that powerful actors in the US have built the story of an all-or-nothing race to get…
Computer Says MaybeShort: RightsGone? Why Zambia May Have Pulled the Plug on RightsCon
RightsCon has just been cancelled by the Zambian government with no word to the organizers, five days before it was set to begin. RightsCon is the biggest…
Computer Says MaybeComputer Says Kill: A License for Unlimited War w/ Amos Toh
Military spending on AI is a triple black box: How is AI being used in the military? Who is winning these contracts and what are they worth? And what is the…
Computer Says MaybeComputer Says Kill: How a Calculator Company Reshaped Modern Warfare w/ Jeff Stern
Precision weapons are meant to make warfare more exact. But what happens when the executive branch uses precision as an excuse to make more war and target with…
Computer Says MaybeComputer Says Kill: Collapsing the Chain w/ with Matt Mahmoudi
How does a country wage war using LLMs? Oh and WHY? More like this: AI in Gaza: Live from Mexico City In Computer Says Kill Ep #1 we are joined by Matt…
Computer Says MaybeComputer Says Kill: New Series Trailer
This is Computer Says Kill, a new series on series focused on tracing the people, decisions, and systems that have recklessly ushered AI into the business of…
Computer Says MaybeFantasy Factory: Luddite Horror w/ Brian Merchant
What better way than movies to help us process the world. Brian Merchant shares how our collective anxieties turn into cultural products. More like this: One…
Computer Says MaybeHow to Scare a Fascist w/ Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein has spent her career studying political movements — and she thinks progressives are doing better than we think. Because the fascists are scared…
Computer Says MaybeFantasy Factory: One Filmmaker's Fight Against AI w/ Valerie Veatch
The way artists make art matters. And some artists, like filmmaker Valerie Veatch, are exploring what role AI has in the craft of filmmaking. More like this…
Computer Says MaybeShort: Grand Theft Grammarly w/ Julia Angwin & Peter Romer-Friedman
Grammarly launched a feature that no one wanted and now they’re getting sued. They used the names of writers, journalists, and editors to pretend that AI…
Computer Says MaybeFantasy Factory: AI Supervillains w/ Anat Shenker-Osorio
The left has a messaging problem. Silicon Valley elites are literally making up impossible fantasies and their narratives are winning out. Why? More like this…
Computer Says MaybeFantasy Factory: AGI is Scientifically Impossible w/ Adam Becker
Next time someone tells you that we can build data centres in space, show them this podcast episode — because it is literally impossible. More like this: AI…
Computer Says MaybeLivestream: The People’s Policy: Holding Big Tech Accountable
How does an oppressed workforce organise against Big Tech employers with even bigger lobbying muscle? More like this: Worker Power & Big Tech Boss Men w/ David…
Computer Says MaybeLingo Bingo at the India AI Summit w/ Naomi Klein, Timnit Gebru, Nikhil Dey, and Chinasa Okolo
This is the last of our series AI Lingo Bingo Series! We dig into four more co-opted concepts with four more all stars. More like this: Last week’s episode…
Computer Says MaybeIs Claude Out of the War Business? w/ Amos Toh
Anthropic’s Claude was used in the military operation to kidnap president Maduro earlier this year. Why? Unclear. Was this legal? Absolutely not. More like…
Computer Says MaybeLingo Bingo at the India AI Summit w/ Meredith Whittaker, Audrey Tang, Abeba Birhane, and Usha Ramanathan
It’s our second week of playing AI lingo bingo. The summit in India is underway and the air is thick with vague terms that fail to describe the big problems…
Computer Says MaybeLingo Bingo at the India AI Summit w/ Karen Hao, Joan Kinyua, Chenai Chair, and Rafael Grohmann
The AI Impact Summit in India is just a couple of days away and we are ready to drown in vague terms that kinda describe AI, and definitely obscure power…
Computer Says MaybeThe Vaporstate: All Hail Scale at the India AI Summit
In The Vaporstate, we have traveled to Brazil, India, and the UK. But what does this look like as a global movement of nations and companies evangelising…
Computer Says MaybeThe Vaporstate: Buy Blair, Sell AI
What does US tech billionaire Larry Ellison get when he gives the Tony Blair Institute hundreds of millions of dollars? More like this: The Vaporstate: ID in…
Computer Says MaybeThe Vaporstate: Brazil is Banking on Apps
What happens when the very way you prove who you are is stolen by someone else? And what happens when a country stands up to Meta and builds their own. More…
Computer Says MaybeThe Vaporstate: ID in India
Our first exploration of The Vaporstate takes us to India, home of Aadhaar: a mammoth digitisation project that charts a path from technical solution for…
Computer Says MaybeThe Vaporstate: A New Mini-Series
This is The Vaporstate, a new series on the worldwide government bonanza of enthusiastic digitisation: Digital IDs, digital payment systems, massive data…
Computer Says MaybeThe Age of Noise w/ Eryk Salvaggio (replay)
Infinite AI slop means we are moving away from our the age of information into what Eryk Salvaggio calls ‘the age of noise’. More like this: Straight to Video…
Computer Says MaybeGotcha! Enshittification w/ Cory Doctorow (replay)
Welcome to the final boss of scams in the age of technology: Enshittification More like this: Nodestar: The Eternal September w/ Mike Masnick We’re replaying…
Computer Says MaybeWorker Power & Big Tech Bossmen w/ David Seligman (replay)
Litigator David Seligman describes how big tech companies act brazenly as legal bullies to extract wealth and power from the working class in the US. More like…
Computer Says MaybeReporting on AI’s climate injustices w/ Karen Hao (replay)
Reporting on the tech industry proves a huge challenge due to how opaque it all is — Empire of AI author Karen Hao talks us through her investigative methods…
Computer Says MaybeHow to (Actually) Keep Kids Safe Online w/ Kate Sim (replay)
A replay of our conversation with Kate Sim, on the state of child safety online. More like this: Dogwhistles: Networked Transphobia Online We’re replaying five…
Computer Says MaybeDigitisation, Privatisation, and Human Centipedes: Our Learnings from 2025
Before we break for the year we wanted to reflect on what the podcast brought us in 2025, and what we want to see for 2026 This week Alix is joined by two…
Computer Says MaybeBen Collins: Computer Says MozFest
The Onion CEO Ben Collins has successfully turned political satire into a sustainable business. He explains why humorous messaging is important to understand…
Computer Says MaybeAudrey Tang: Computer Says MozFest
Audrey Tang has some big ideas on how we can use collective needs to shape AI systems — and avoid a future where human life is seen as an obstacle to paper…
Computer Says MaybeLuisa Franco Machado: Computer Says MozFest
You can’t build a digital rights movement if you don’t know what you’re fighting for. Luisa says that we’re in a crisis of imagination, and that participation…
Computer Says MaybeAbeba Birhane: Computer Says MozFest
Earlier this year Abeba Birhane was asked to give a keynote at the AI for Good Summit for the UN — and at the eleventh hour they attempted to censor any…
Computer Says MaybeComputer Says MozFest 2025
Mozilla Festival 2025. Barcelona. Three days in a bonanza of interesting people, ideas, and technology politics. These were our highlights! More like this…
Computer Says MaybeWho Knows? Fact-Finding in a Failing State w/ HRDAG and Data & Society
Everything is happening so fast. And a lot of it’s bad. What can research and science organizations do when issues are complex, fast-moving, and super…