About this episode

In this episode, Taylor Lorenz interviews Brian Merchant about the escalating backlash against AI and Silicon Valley.

What’s really driving the growing backlash against AI and Silicon Valley? Support my independent journalism: 🙏 Patreon: ⁠ https://www.patreon.com/cw/taylorlorenz ⁠ 🗞️ Buy a paid subscription to my Substack: ⁠ https://www.usermag.co From burning data centers to celebrating an attack on Sam Altman’s house, the anti‑tech backlash has escalated. In this episode of Free Speech Friday, I sit down with journalist and author Brian Merchant to unpack the rise of anti AI sentiment, the growing anger toward Big Tech, and why public hostility toward companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google keeps escalating. We discuss: Why the AI backlash exploded so quickly The connection between AI fear and distrust in capitalism Why people are protesting data centers The rise of anti tech politics AI doomers and effective altruism Sam Altman and Silicon Valley PR failures Whether AI companies created their own crisis How automation fears are shaping public opinion Why people feel powerless against Big Tech The future of AI regulation and resistance Brian Merchant is the author of Blood in the Machine, a book about the original Luddites and the history of anti technology movements. If you’re…

People in this episode

Host: Taylor Lorenz

Guest: Brian Merchant

Topics covered

• AI backlash
• Big Tech
• anti-tech politics
• automation fears
• public opinion
• AI regulation

Keywords

• AI
• Silicon Valley
• automation
• tech criticism
• labor politics
• internet culture

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google

Books & works: Blood in the Machine

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