Power Hungry: How the AI Oligarchy Is Reshaping America.
The Bill Press Pod
BP Pods
4.7 • 601 Ratings
🗓️ 28 April 2026
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Guest host Joe Cirincione fills in for Bill Press and interviews Mother Jones investigative journalist Tim Murphy about his cover story, “Power Hungry: How the AI Oligarchy Gobbled Up America.” Murphy describes how the post–ChatGPT AI race has driven a boom in hyperscale data centers—projects the size of Central Park that demand immense electricity, water, and even on-site power plants, sometimes pushing nuclear plants like Three Mile Island to reopen. He argues this “hyperscale” moment has narrowed and intensified U.S. oligarchy, fusing concentrated tech wealth with political power, including major 2024 election spending and alliances with Donald Trump. Murphy details disruptive impacts on rural communities, secrecy via shell companies and NDAs, fears of boom-and-bust “empty hulks,” and growing bipartisan local backlash raising questions about democracy, agency, and the future envisioned by AI leaders.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, good friends, and welcome to the Bill Press pod. |
| 0:10.6 | This is obviously not Bill Press, but that is my best Bill Press imitation, and it's not very good. |
| 0:17.4 | I'm Joe Cirrenzioni, filling in for Bill while he is on sabbatical in Italy. |
| 0:21.6 | I'm sure we'd all like to join him there. |
| 0:25.6 | But we're stuck here, and you're stuck with me. |
| 0:28.6 | I've been a frequent guest on this show, having worked for over 40 years in Washington, D.C., |
| 0:33.6 | on national security and nuclear policy, most recently as the president of Plowshares Fund, |
| 0:39.3 | a global security foundation. I'm delighted that Bill has given me the chance to sub in for him. |
| 0:45.0 | Today, we're going to take a deep dive into something that impacts all the issues we confront, |
| 0:51.0 | the rise of artificial intelligence, not the software itself, but the corporations and business |
| 0:57.8 | titans who were in a race for AI dominance. |
| 1:02.3 | In their efforts to create the most advanced, most capable |
| 1:05.6 | AI system, they are transforming large parts of America |
| 1:09.7 | with gigantic data centers. And in the process, |
| 1:13.8 | they may be transforming American society as well. To help us understand all this, our guest |
| 1:19.6 | today is Tim Murphy. Tim has been an investigative journalist at Mother Jones for over 16 years. |
| 1:26.6 | A graduate of the University of Chicago, he's got the cover |
| 1:30.0 | story in the new May-June issue of Mother Jones that is emblazoned with the title, Power-Hungry, |
| 1:37.6 | how the AI oligarchy gobbled up America. Magazine argues that the Techans quest for wealth and power is destabilizing a democracy |
| 1:49.0 | and reshaping our society. |
| 1:52.0 | We're delighted that Tim can join us today for a comprehensive look at our new AI overlords |
| 1:58.0 | and the world they are striving to create whether we like it or not. |
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