Computer Says Maybe

Latest Episodes:

The Colossus Crossroads: Fighting for the Future of Memphis w/ KeShaun Pearson Jul 24, 2026

Show notes

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 exactly what xAI did when they decided to build one of the largest data centers in South Memphis, regardless of what it meant for the wellbeing of the people already living there.

More like this: The Collective Fight for Our Humanity - REAL Resistance

In this episode, KeShaun Pearson, Executive Director of Memphis Community Against Pollution (MCAP), connects this fight to a much longer history of disinvestment and oppression in South Memphis— one that existed long before xAI showed up and shaped what it actually means to become a "sacrifice zone." But KeShaun also knows that when you're fighting to take something down, you have to build something better in its place. He shares his vision for what co-governance could look like between communities, cities, and corporations, and what it would take for a company that says it's here to give something back to actually mean it.

Further reading & resources:

Livestream w/ Alix Dunn: The Battle for Memphis
Elon Musk’s Memphis AI empire is the epicenter of the data center backlash — CNBC
xAI built an illegal power plant to power its data center — Southern Environmental Law Center
xAI in Memphis — What you need to know — Memphis Community Against Pollution

Join The Maybe Collective to explore the politics of technology through fresh ideas that you won't hear anywhere else. Sign up for monthly insights, access to exclusive digital events, and real ways to get more involved on issues you care about.

Computer Says Maybe is produced by Georgia Iacovou, Kushal Dev, Marion Wellington, Sarah Myles, Van Newman, and Zoe Trout

The Gig is Up: How Uber Ruined Wage Labor with Veena Dubal Jul 17, 2026

Show notes

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. Little did these drivers know that those black cars were the start of Uber — and it wasn’t just going to destroy the taxi industry, but wage labor as we knew it.

More like this: REAL Resistance — Against Automated Governments

In this episode, Alix Dunn sits down with Veena Dubal, one of the leading experts on gig labor and Professor of Law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law. Veena shares with us her firsthand account of the Uberization of everything from the beginning to now. She breaks down how this seemingly-innocuous ride sharing app would lead to algorithmic wage fixing around the world and the gamblification of workers’ lives.

Further reading & resources:

On Algorithmic Wage Discrimination — Veena Dubal
AI Shouldn’t Be Setting Prices or Wages. States Need to Push Back. — Veena Dubal, 2026
How artificial intelligence uncouples hard work from fair wages through ‘surveillance pay’ practices—and how to fix it — Veena Dubal, Wilneida Negrón
Algorithms of Exploitation — Human Rights Watch

Computer Says Maybe is produced by Georgia Iacovou, Kushal Dev, Marion Wellington, Sarah Myles, Van Newman, and Zoe Trout

The Collective Fight for Our Humanity - REAL Resistance Jul 10, 2026

Show notes

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 high-level abstractions about what the future looks like. At REAL ML, they want to change that.

More like this: REAL Resistance: Who's Behind Big Brother?

This is REAL Resistance, a collection of conversations produced in collaboration with Real ML, featuring the experts and advocates who make up Real ML’s global network.

In this final conversation, Real ML executive director Anna Bacciarelli and researcher Shazeda Ahmed discuss what it takes to knit together a global community that is working to resist the material harms of big tech: the powers that be want to keep any discussion about the future of AI as vague as possible — which is why the experts that attend Real ML workshops take the time to get specific about the issues.

Further reading & resources:

More about Real ML
Field-building and the epistemic culture of AI safety by Shazeda Ahmed et al
A 2024 profile on Frantz Fanon — The Guardian
Computer-vision research powers surveillance technology, by Abeba Birhane, Ria Kalluri, et al — Nature Magazine June 2025

**Subscribe to our newsletter to get more stuff than just a podcast — we run events and do other work that you will definitely be interested in!**

Computer Says Maybe is produced by Georgia Iacovou, Kushal Dev, Marion Wellington, Sarah Myles, Van Newman, and Zoe Trout

Who's Behind Big Brother? - REAL Resistance Jul 07, 2026

Show notes

Mariel Garcia-Montes and Crofton Black share their stories and investigations that uncover the backdoor deals that allow the surveillance industry to thrive under the guise of ‘security’. If you have nothing to hide, you won’t mind if we spy, right?

More like this: REAL Resistance: The Global Fight Against Technocolonialism

This is REAL Resistance, a collection of conversations produced in collaboration with Real ML, featuring the experts and advocates who make up Real ML’s global network.

In this conversation, two guests from the network take us on a guided tour of the global underground surveillance tech market:

Mexico is the world’s biggest importer of surveillance tech, and has a rich history of spying on citizens. Mariel Garcia-Montes briefs us on that history and what it means for Mexico now
Surveillance technology represents a global industry that is mediated by exclusive conferences and backdoor deals; Crofton Black has spent years investigating this industry, the players, and the vulnerabilities they exploit

Further reading & resources:

More about Mariel’s work
Surveillance Secrets — Lighthouse Reports, 2025
Ghost in the Network — Lighthouse Reports, 2023
More on the Mexican Student Movement of 1968 — Eugenia Allier-Montano, 2022
The Tierra Común Network, which Mariel invites any scholars and practitioners to join

Join The Maybe Collective to explore the politics of technology through fresh ideas that you won't hear anywhere else. Sign up for monthly insights, access to exclusive digital events, and real ways to get more involved on issues you care about.

Computer Says Maybe is produced by Georgia Iacovou, Kushal Dev, Marion Wellington, Sarah Myles, Van Newman, and Zoe Trout

The Global Fight Against Technocolonialism - REAL Resistance Jul 03, 2026

Show notes

Paola Ricaurte Quijano, Fernanda Rodrigues, Angela Chukunzira, and Kauna Love Malgwi make it clear that colonial powers have never gone away. The people and technology powering them have just changed, and one of them is AI…

More Like This: REAL Resistance: Against Automated Governments

This is REAL Resistance, a collection of conversations produced in collaboration with Real ML, featuring the experts and advocates who make up Real ML’s global network.

In this conversation, four guests from the network discuss how the business of AI continues legacies of colonialism in Brazil, Mexico, and Kenya:

AI companies are taking land in Querétaro for data center expansion, and they’re doing it without asking first. Paola Ricaurte Quijano explains that these are the mechanisms of dispossession at play — and it’s nothing new.
The government in Brazil are adopting a risk-based approach for AI regulation; Fernanda Rodrigues demonstrates the problems with this approach, and how they disproportionately harm Black people.
African data workers suffer the worst mental health harms when compared to other localities. Angela Chukunzira and Kauna Love Malgwi have worked to build a resistance movement for oppressed workers, and a framework for decolonising mental health.

Further reading & resources:

A Mental Health Intervention for Data Workers — Kauna Ibrahim Malgwi
"It's not drought, it's plunder" Querétaro, the valley of data centers — By Paola Ricaurte Quijano and Teresa Roldán Soria, July 2025
Facial recognition surveillance in São Paulo could worsen racism — Al Jazeera, 2023
The Feminist AI Research Network
More about the African Content Moderators Union
Iris — The Institute for Research on Internet and Society
Siasa Place — a youth organisation that helped tech workers who had been dismissed

**Subscribe to our newsletter to get more stuff than just a podcast — we run events and do other work that you will definitely be interested in!**

Computer Says Maybe is produced by Georgia Iacovou, Kushal Dev, Marion Wellington, Sarah Myles, Van Newman, and Zoe Trout

Against Automated Governments - REAL Resistance Jun 30, 2026

Show notes

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: REAL Resistance: The AI Information Warp

This is REAL Resistance, a collection of conversations produced in collaboration with Real ML, featuring the experts and advocates who make up Real ML’s global network.

In this conversation, three guests from the network explore the rapid digitisation of public and judicial services around the world:

Courts in LatAm countries are using ChatGPT to power through the case backlog. Maria Pilar Llorens explains that speed is not a virtue in judicial settings
Kenya has adopted algorithmic proxy means-testing for healthcare — Gabriel Geiger & Purity Mukami reverse-engineered it to reveal its inequities
Digitised public services kind of have a formula now: Divij Joshi’s work takes an aerial view of digitised payments, IDs, and consolidated data sets that govern the efficiency playbook

Further reading & resources:

Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights Courts — Maria Pilar Llorens
Hiding Behind AI — Gabriel & Purity’s report on the new Kenyan healthcare system
Suspicion Machines — Gabriel Geiger et al, Lighthouse Reports March 2023
How an algorithm denied food to thousands of poor in India’s Telangana — Divij Joshi, Tapasya, Kumar Sambhav, Al Jazeera January 2024
AI governance in India – law, policy and political economy — Divij Joshi, 2024
Use of Entity Resolution in India: Shining a light on how new forms of automation can deny people access to welfare — Amnesty International 2024

Computer Says Maybe is produced by Georgia Iacovou, Kushal Dev, Marion Wellington, Sarah Myles, Van Newman, and Zoe Trout

The AI Information Warp - REAL Resistance Jun 26, 2026

Show notes

Klaudia Jaźwińska, Aliya Bhatia, and Yanick Kemayou come together to answer: What happens when a small collection of AI companies start colonising the truth?

More like this: The Toxic Relationship Between AI & Journalism w/ Nic Dawes

This is REAL Resistance, a collection of conversations produced in collaboration with Real ML, featuring the experts and advocates who make up Real ML’s global network.

In this conversation, three guests from the network share all the ways in which AI is shaping our relationship with news, language, and learning:

People are increasingly using AI for search and to get their news; but Klaudia Jaźwińska’s research finds that chatbots have a huge citation problem
Many LLMs claim to be ‘multi-lingual’ — but also only tested in US English? Aliya Bhatia explains that porting outputs from English into all other languages in not gonna cut it
Higher education in Africa is completely disconnected from local knowledge, which is why Yanick Kemayou founded Kabakoo: an alternative learning platform that leverages and preserves local knowledge with the use of technology, and without exploitation

As Yancik says in this episode, “openness without governance is extraction with extra steps”.

Further reading & resources:

AI Search has a Citation Problem — Klaudia Jaźwińska & Aisvarya Chandrasekar
Lost in Translation: Large Language Models in Non-English Content Analysis — Gabriel Nicholas, Aliya Bhatia
More on Kabakoo Academies, founded by Yanick Kemayou
The SPUR Coalition — a UK org seeking to create standards and infrastructure for AI companies and news publishers to do business
The State and Fate of Linguistic Diversity and Inclusion in the NLP World — by Pratik Joshi et al, 2020
The #BenderRule: On Naming the Languages We Study and Why It Matters — Emily Bender, 2019
The silicon gaze: A typology of biases and inequality in LLMs through the lens of place — Francisco W. Kerche et al, 2026
Bamako AI Festival

Computer Says Maybe is produced by Georgia Iacovou, Kushal Dev, Marion Wellington, Sarah Myles, Van Newman, and Zoe Trout

Computer Says Kill: How To Say No w/ Matt Mahmoudi and Marwa Fatafta Jun 19, 2026

Show notes

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 Says Kill: The AI Safety Circus w/ Heidy Khlaaf

In our final installment of Computer Says Kill, Matt Mahmoudi returns, this time with Marwa Fatafta, to share the why and how of their recent joint statement on AI in warfare. The calls on AI companies to stop selling their products for use in military contexts, and for governments to cease buying them. The asks are simple while the execution is complex: what is the historical context of this fight and how long will it take to achieve some level of justice?

Further reading & resources:

Read the joint statement on Access Now and share across your networks
Microsoft: it’s time to come clean about your ties to the Israeli military — Access Now
A million calls an hour’: Israel relying on Microsoft cloud for expansive surveillance of Palestinians — The Guardian, 2025
AI for War: Big Tech Empowering Israel’s Crimes and Occupation — Al Shabaka, 2025
On Violence by Hanna Arendt
Anthropic announces 'Claude Corps' to teach nonprofits to use AI more effectively — The Independent, June 2026
Artificial Genocidal Intelligence: how Israel is automating human rights abuses and war crimes — Access Now, 2024

Computer Says Maybe is produced by Georgia Iacovou, Kushal Dev, Marion Wellington, Sarah Myles, Van Newman, and Zoe Trout

Computer Says Kill: The AI Safety Circus w/ Heidy Khlaaf Jun 12, 2026

Show notes

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

For our second to last series episode of Computer Says Kill, we’re joined by Heidy Khlaaf, a global expert in designing safe critical systems for high-risk infrastructures such as energy grids, nuclear power plants, and weaponry. Heidy outlines how the AI industry is working to redefine and shrink this essential, established field of expertise. By parading around sham “safety benchmarks”, this circus of an industry is marketing statistics that literally amount nothing at best, and proof that today’s LLMs aren’t safe at all, at worst. We explore the centuries of precedent and practice established in the safety field and examine how today’s AI safety “experts” are eroding this work to rush the incorporation of shoddy tech into the lucrative nooks and crannies of our militaries, economies, and physical infrastructure.

Further reading & resources:

Safety Co-Option and Compromised National Security: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of Weakened AI Risk Thresholds — Heidy Khlaaf & Sarah Myers West, 2025
Social Benefit versus Technological Risk: What is our society willing to pay for safety? — Chauncey Starr, 1969
Israel built an ‘AI factory’ for war. It unleashed it in Gaza. — WaPo December 2024

Computer Says Maybe is produced by Georgia Iacovou, Kushal Dev, Marion Wellington, Sarah Myles, Van Newman, and Zoe Trout

Computer Says Kill: The Palestine Laboratory w/ Antony Loewenstein Jun 05, 2026

Show notes

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 new tools can enable mass killing. And they are banking that demand for their products might protect them on the world stage.

More like this: Anthropic is NOT the Good Guy w/ Maddy Batt

In part seven of Computer Says Kill, author of The Palestine Laboratory Antony Loewenstein explains that for Israel, precision warfare is just performative. Israel has the means to kill with precision, but this is at odds with the logics of genocide. Antony will take us through the history of Israel’s dealings with authoritarian states, and Israel and American states do not need to take state control of a their domestic tech industries because they are already so ideologically aligned with their regimes.

Further reading & resources:

Buy The Palestine Laboratory by Antony Loewenstein (Verso Books)
Watch The Palestine Laboratory series on Al Jazeera
‘Hondurasgate,’ the alleged US and Israeli interference plot to destabilize Mexico and other progressive governments — El Pais May 2026
Israeli drone strikes on vehicles in Lebanon kill 12 people, including 2 children — LA Times May 2026
What is Project Nimbus? Al Jazeera, 2024
Israeli authorities are using facial recognition technology to entrench apartheid — on ‘Red Wolf’ from Amnesty International, 2023
Check out our Youtube for Tech Story of the Week

**Subscribe to our newsletter to get more stuff than just a podcast — we run events and do other work that you will definitely be interested in!**

Computer Says Maybe is produced by Georgia Iacovou, Kushal Dev, Marion Wellington, Sarah Myles, Van Newman, and Zoe Trout

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