There is a basic problem about us not really thinking seriously about what we're doing

with all these computers we're insisting in building.

Hello and welcome to Tech Won't Save Us, made in partnership with The Nation Magazine. I'm your host, Paris Marks, and this week my guest is James Meadway. James is an

economist and the host of the Macrodose podcast. Now, I've been trying to have James on the show

for a while, but our schedules just weren't lining up. So I'm very happy he was

finally able to find a time. We were able to record this. And I do think it's a really interesting

interview. Maybe you have heard, but since the UK Labor Party came back to power last

year under the leadership of Kirstarmer, it has really embraced AI and this notion that the

UK should be a leader on AI and should be adopting these various policies to make sure that

it is keeping these AI and tech companies happy regardless of the cost. And so I wanted to explore

with James why that is and what the wider repercussions of these

decisions are in the United Kingdom, which is obviously, you know, struggling economically

and has been since the Brexit decision all those years ago.

But there was also something else that I wanted to explore in this conversation, which is,

you know, this notion that the United States has all of these major tech companies.

So many of these countries in Europe or Canada or Australia are dependent on those tech companies.

And so then what is the economic impact of allowing the United States to control so many of these dominant firms for the other economies

that often consider themselves allies of the United States.

I think we're in a time right now where people are reconsidering that dependence, right?

And if it really makes sense to allow American companies to so overwhelmingly

dominate the digital sphere. And knowing those consequences is one part of having that discussion

and deciding on a different policy and a different approach to what is actually going on here.

...