It’s becoming something of a theme: Two massive companies are fighting to take over another massive company, in a deal that will enrich a variety of shareholders but leave the rest of us worse off. The news that Netflix struck a bid to take over movie powerhouse Warner Bros. earlier this month likely horrified entertainment workers: Two Goliaths of the industry combining is no good for pay…
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Earlier this month, Vox announced a new vertical dedicated to “growth” that’s funded entirely by the Arnold Foundation, the influence arm of billionaire former Enron energy trader and founder of energy commodity hedge fund Centaurus Energy John Arnold. Arnold has long-donated to center-liberal causes, some seemingly benign (investigative journalism) and others that are, to say the least, controversial (spy planes in poor majority-Black cities, for example). Arnold’s latest ideological—and economic—agenda is to promote so-called Abundance, a vague political movement currently fashionable among wealthy liberals that’s a constellation of conferences, think tanks, political action group, billionaire donors, and best-selling books by New York Times and Atlantic authors. Their primary ethos is “growth” through deregulation of industry. Some of the proposals are sensible (obviously not all regulations make sense and regulations can, and often are, manipulated by other capital actors). But this seed of a decent, if entirely banal, idea has predictably morphed into an all-encompassing politics of deregulation and anti-Left populism that dovetails with the political needs of Silicon Valley, and the ultrawealthy in general.
Aside from the broader ideological aims it’s worth noting that, in a direct and urgent way, the primary focus on “growth” through rapid and broad deregulation aligns neatly with the most direct and urgent needs of Silicon Valley billionaires—including Arnold, and the company whose board of directors he joined in February 2024, Meta (formerly Facebook). Arnold has discussed publicly how he was brought onto Meta’s board specifically to handle the energy crisis facing AI companies, telling Bloomberg’s David Rubenstein in August of last year:
“I think [Meta was] looking for somebody who had some energy expertise. The amount
Over the last few years, artificial intelligence (AI) has become extremely popular in Silicon Valley and is widely regarded as the most transformative technology in the 21st century. In fact, it is already reshaping sectors like education, transportation, finance, health care, media, and telecommunications. Indeed, it is estimated that about 60 percent of jobs in advanced economies may be impacted…
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A senior Texas A&M University System official testing a new artificial intelligence tool this fall asked it to find how many courses discuss feminism at one of its regional universities. Each time she asked in a slightly different way, she got a different number. “Either the tool is learning from my previous queries,” Texas A&M system’s chief strategy officer Korry Castillo told colleagues in…
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Polls show that a majority of US voters — and especially Democrats — want more robust guardrails on artificial intelligence, but Democratic governors’ silence on President Donald Trump’s directive banning states from regulating AI has some observers asking if lobbying by the powerful industry is to blame. Sludge‘s David Moore and Donald Shaw reported Friday that tech titans including OpenAI…
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Award-winning Palestinian reporter Mohammed Mhawish, who left Gaza last year, joins us to discuss his new piece for New York magazine about Israel’s surveillance practices. It describes how Palestinians throughout the genocide in Gaza have been watched, tracked and often killed by Israeli forces who have access to their most intimate details, including phone and text records, social relations…
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