96. Taking Control of the Data Pipeline (ft. Meredith Whittaker, Salomé Viljoen)

Intro: Contra – This Machine Kills (remixed) https://contra805.bandcamp.com/track/this-machine-kills We’re joined by two of the sharpest minds on the politics of AI and data governance—Meredith Whittaker and Salomé Viljoen—to chat about the relationship between corporate gatekeepers and academic research, the construction and infrastructure of data, AI as a universal hammer for all nails, how the state enforces Silicon Valley’s power, and what it would take to seize the data pipeline from private capital for the public good. This discussion expands on a recent article we published in Nature: Everyone should decide how their digital data are used—not just tech companies | Jathan Sadowski, Salomé Viljoen, Meredith Whittaker: nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01812-3 Salomé’s profile: law.columbia.edu/faculty/salome-viljoen And Twitter: twitter.com/salome_viljoen_ Meredith’s profile: ainowinstitute.org/people/meredith-whittaker.html And Twitter: twitter.com/mer__edith Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Grab your TMK gear: bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)