Tech Won't Save Us

Paris Marx is joined by Jathan Sadowski and Brian Merchant to reflect on the year in tech, discuss the worst people in Silicon Valley, and share what they’ll be keeping an eye on in 2026. Jathan Sadowski is the author of The Mechanic and the Luddite, co-host of This Machine Kills, and a Senior Lecturer at Monash University. Brian Merchant is the author of Blood in the Machine and writes a newsletter of the same name. Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon. The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. Also mentioned in this episode: Visit Francesca Bria’s useful Authoritarian Stack Trump signs an executive order to keep states from implementing their own AI legislation The Trump administration is gutting the Department of Education, climate science programs, and public health Disney and OpenAI have reached a billion dollar deal Bernie Sanders calls for a moratorium on AI data centre construction

Paris Marx is joined by Cam Wilson to discuss the new social media age limit in Australia, including how successful the rollout has been so far and the missed opportunities of taking a more nuanced regulatory approach. Cam Wilson is an associate editor at Crikey and writes The Sizzle newsletter. He’s a co-author of Conspiracy Nation: Exposing the Dangerous World of Australian Conspiracy Theories. Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon. The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. Also mentioned in this episode: Cam wrote about his experience reporting on the social media age limit debate and the removal of the exemption framework. Paris wrote about his thoughts on social media age limits and the need for much more comprehensive regulations on social media. 64% of US teens are using chatbots daily. Submit questions to Paris for an upcoming mailbag episode at [email protected] Patreon supporters can join the year-end livestream this Friday, Dec 19 at 6PM ET

The United States wanted Europe to take action on Nexperia, even if it meant hurting its relationship with China. The Dutch government was forced to act, and tried to claim it wasn’t pressured.

Europe is talking a lot about digital sovereignty. Those in power are using it to justify deregulating the tech industry.

Tech companies want us to believe data centers are being powered by nuclear and renewables. The reality is that they’re burning a ton of fossil fuels.