Skip to content
Global sound
This Machine Kills

This Machine Kills

435. Schoolwork Will Set You Free

· 1 h 26 min

Show notes

After discussing the Council of Neo-Nicaea — but like, what if Jesus was an AI? — we then discuss an incredibly harrowing story of abusive practices at Alpha School, charter schools structured around AI authoritarianism where personalized learning software enact a cruel regimes of punishing metrics, where any humanity is replaced by the cold logic of optimization, where kids are indoctrinated early into the harsh reality of a control society.

••• Parents Fell in Love With Alpha School’s Promise. Then They Wanted Out https://www.wired.com/story/ai-teacher-inside-alpha-school/
••• Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html

Standing Plugs:
••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite
••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble
••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

Website: soundcloud.com

Live, last hour: 6,707 songs on 2,920 stations in 131 countries

Discover the world through radio

More ways to discover (9)

Heard something good? Save it, or open it straight away in Spotify.

Lev HapisgaContinue listening