Historian Jill Lepore has a theory about why tech companies often use soaring language to describe their products \u2014 almost as if they’re forming a new government. And whether you’re thinking of Twitter’s old \u201ctown hall in your pocket\u201d or Anthropic’s Claude constitution, it’s a theory that doesn’t paint Silicon Valley in a very flattering light. <\/p>\n
In Lepore’s upcoming book, The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard historian and New Yorker writer argues that tech companies are gradually taking on the functions of democratic government \u2014 whether that\u2019s Twitter giving a distorted picture of the electorate or Facebook displacing local news. In her view, these leaders often mistake technological advancement for political progress, all while outright declaring their intention to replace the nation-state. <\/p>\n
On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Anthony Ha talks with Lepore about her book and why she thinks today’s AI leaders \u2014 who promise a future where AI makes government more efficient, more responsive, and maybe even unnecessary \u2014 are selling an old fantasy in new packaging.<\/p>\n
Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. <\/p>\n
Chapters: <\/p>\n
00:00 Intro <\/p>\n
0:49 Defining the \u201cartificial state\u201d <\/p>\n
2:17 Why corporations quietly took over state functions <\/p>\n
4:43 Could the internet have gone another way? <\/p>\n
9:01 From the 1984 Macintosh ad to Anthropic’s constitution <\/p>\n
10:20 The Twitter \u201ctown hall\u201d myth <\/p>\n
13:36 Structuring the book: history meets science fiction <\/p>\n
17:46 The Machine Stops, and other bad manuals for the future <\/p>\n
19:16 Musk, Heinlein, and misreading sci-fi <\/p>\n
19:41 Why Lepore thinks the artificial state is \u201cdoomed\u201d <\/p>\n
21:51 Data centers, local politics, and the death of local news <\/p>\n
24:44 Revisiting disruptive innovation, ten years later <\/p>\n
26:54 Outro<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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