fresh audio product: • Tessa West on what kept the Epstein gang together • Nick Srnicek on AI @nsrnicek.bsky.social • Wanda Bertram on the costs of mass incarceration @prisonpolicy.org www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#S...

This is a really insightful and informative episode with @nsrnicek.bsky.social particularly for how it pushes back against the leftist urge to dismiss AI as politically old hat and philosophically irrelevant thedigradio.com/podcast/sili...

"Charting AI’s development within its proper economic and geopolitical context...Srnicek’s guide can help us maintain a long-term, realistic perspective of the technology’s likely trajectory.” @jacobinmag.bsky.social review @nsrnicek.bsky.social's 'Silicon Empires' jacobin.com/2026/02/ai-b...

My review of @nsrnicek.bsky.social's new book on AI, 'Silicon Empires', in Jacobin 👇 bsky.app/profile/jaco...

Very much looking forward to this - Silicon Empires by @nsrnicek.bsky.social is the best book I've read on the political economy of AI

SCOOP: Palantir Defends Work With ICE to Staff Following Killing of Alex Pretti WIRED obtained Slack conversations + an updated internal Palantir wiki defending the company's work for ICE to outraged workers. More here: www.wired.com/story/palant...

studying the enemy

The Dig is one of my favourite podcasts, so it was a real honour to be able to chat with Daniel about all things AI

In an excerpt from his new book "Silicon Empires," @nsrnicek.bsky.social looks at how Anthropic, Google, Meta, and OpenAI — once united in opposition to military use of their AI tools — came around to working with the Pentagon. www.wired.com/story/book-e...

EVENT | @nsrnicek.bsky.social on Silicon Empires | | Fri 13th Feb, 18:30 | | Newspeak House, London |

Yesterday, we held the first session of the “AI critique” seminar, welcoming two scholars whose work has profoundly shaped critical debates on the political economy of AI: @ceciliarikap.bsky.social & @nsrnicek.bsky.social. Here is a short overview of the session: www.felixtreguer.fr/en/2026/01/1...

Silicon Empires is out today in the US! For anyone interested, I'm resharing this thread outlining some of the key arguments of the book.

Just picked up @nsrnicek.bsky.social’s new book. Congrats Nick, it looks great and I’m excited to dig in!

Who owns the future of artificial intelligence? Our video of the week argues that the true struggle is not just over technological prowess, but over the capture and organization of value across a multi-layered AI “stack.” Feat. @nsrnicek.bsky.social buff.ly/A0doDoI

“Strategic incoherency is the imperial expression of domestic contestations.” - @nsrnicek.bsky.social

New post from me, trying to understand the various deals being made to build out AI infrastructure. Plus some news and research I thought was interesting recently. siliconempires.substack.com/p/financing-...

New post from me, trying to understand the various deals being made to build out AI infrastructure. Plus some news and research I thought was interesting recently. siliconempires.substack.com/p/financing-...

Joint book launch at King’s 🌟 Featuring: • @jwyg.bsky.social, Public Data Cultures • @nsrnicek.bsky.social, Silicon Empires • @mayameme.bsky.social, Auto-Correct In conversation with @noortjem.bsky.social & @joannazylinska.bsky.social 📅 3 Dec, 19:00-21:00 www.tickettailor.com/events/kings...

I've started up a newsletter to try and collect together my incipient thoughts and notes on the intersection of AI, geopolitics, and capitalism. I'm unlikely to post often, but feel free to subscribe and get updates here: siliconempires.substack.com

Most of the discussion around America's AI strategy abroad has focused on the AI Action Plan - but perhaps more important was the Executive Order on exporting the AI stack. 🧵

📚🎊✨ yay - joint book launch for @nsrnicek.bsky.social's Silicon Empires, @mayameme.bsky.social's Auto-Correct and my Public Data Cultures, in discussion with @joannazylinska.bsky.social & @noortjem.bsky.social on 3rd Dec, 7-9pm 💜 www.tickettailor.com/events/kings... @politybooks.bsky.social

Obligatory pinned post: my new book, The Revenge of Reason, is now available to buy: www.urbanomic.com/book/the-rev...

Today is the official UK publication day for Silicon Empires! I'm excited to have it out and hear what people think. There's an enormous amount happening every day in AI, and it's difficult to gain a stable perspective. I wrote the book to try and get some secure hold on that constant flux. 🧵

Today is the official UK publication day for Silicon Empires! I'm excited to have it out and hear what people think. There's an enormous amount happening every day in AI, and it's difficult to gain a stable perspective. I wrote the book to try and get some secure hold on that constant flux. 🧵

Two big changes to the precarity of the AI industry in the last year: (1) more and more companies are turning to debt to finance AI capex (see Meta, xAI, Oracle), and (2) OpenAI's flurry of deals in the past month are tying major companies to the fate of this startup

NEW clip from our new video essay with @nsrnicek.bsky.social. Essential viewing for understanding the AI economy. Full video here: youtu.be/2vN7vr0qwMo?...

I'm excited to share the final cover for Silicon Empires and very grateful for the kind words that others have offered. Pre-order here: www.amazon.co.uk/Silicon-Empi...

This is one of the core questions I try to answer in my upcoming book. Research has shown it's incredibly difficult for GPT producers to capture much, if any, of the downstream value. But big AI firms are all making a play to do precisely that - fuelling a series of different expansionary logics.

I have a new article out: "Do artifacts have political economy?" It's a riff on an old argument by Langdon Winner about the embedding of politics in technology #STS #sociology #technoscience #technology #innovation journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Announcing the new journal: "Historical Materialism: Workers and Capital" We've launched a new Historical Materialism project with a CfP for the first issue. Abstracts due 31st of October Full details and the new website here: workersandcapital.historicalmaterialism.org/index.php/jo...

AI's immense requirements for data, computation, and talent entrench the power of existing tech monopolies. Our podcast of the week frames AI as a general-purpose technology whose primary role is consolidating capital. With @nsrnicek.bsky.social on @smartcookies.bsky.social buff.ly/Nzoi8um

Happy to be part of this amazing speaker series organized by Utrecht University, especially @fabianlferrari.bsky.social . I'll talk about Latin American Critical AI studies. I'll be in such great company with @nsrnicek.bsky.social and @anavaldi.bsky.social cdh.uu.nl/event/cdh-on...

A second collection of essays on #Michael-Heinrich #Science-of-Value is out, eds S. Breda & me for. The special issue of #Dialettica-e-Filosofia can be downloaded at the link below. The table of contents is attached. www.dialetticaefilosofia.it/index.html #Marx #value #capital #money #crisis

This event is tomorrow and will be a great platform for the British left to build on autonomy.work/forum-2029/

NEW REPORT: Artificial Power, our 2025 Landscape Report, is out. Today’s AI isn’t just being used by us, it’s being used on us. We urgently need to reclaim public power over the future trajectory of AI. Another path is possible. Read the report: ainowinstitute.org/2025-landscape

What would an anti-oligarchic, republican economy look like? UBI? Wealth tax? Workplace democracy? Strong trade unions? Investment democracy? I explore a radical republican economics in my new book, 'The Wealth of Freedom', which is now out online. academic.oup.com/book/60075

I wrote a review of @brunoleipold.com's brilliant book:

AI becoming more prone to blackmailing users, just as companies start giving AI access to our digital histories - what could go wrong?

The complete and utter depravity of this. There are no words. mondoweiss.net/2025/05/isra...

New paper! Latest work from @geoplace.bsky.social @oii.ox.ac.uk exploring the strategic unknowns embedded in the business models of digital care work platforms, published in Critical Sociology. Co-authors @fundaustek.bsky.social and Dr Alessio Bertolini. Read the full paper here: bit.ly/3F4WAJW

World Central Kitchen has run out of food to serve in Gaza. Its bakery ("recently the last working bakery in Gaza") is out of flour. There are 100,000+ tons of food in staging areas within driving distance of Gaza, and Israel refuses to let them in wck.org/news/gaza-up...

A must-read @platformsnsociety.bsky.social: Prodexchange: Digital–industrial economization in Google Search supply chain Koray Caliskan, Donald MacKenzie, Addie McGowan "search engines are not engines, it examines Google Search as a supply chain..." journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Dossier of four pieces on the life and work of Marina Vishmidt 💜🐚🦔🦇 1. Ray Brassier, ‘Crystal drills’ www.radicalphilosophy.com/article/crys...

Symposium on Information Controls on 16th May, bringing together academic and civil society perspectives on information controls around the world: www.kcl.ac.uk/events/sympo... #disinformation #algorithms #censorship #infrastructure #internetstudies @kingsdh.bsky.social @kingsartshums.bsky.social

Excellent analysis of BYD’s global expansion, by @paologerbaudo.bsky.social.

With proofs now edited and index completed, The Rise of the Platform Music Industries by @allanwatson1.bsky.social and me is all set for publication in June 2025. Phew! Delighted too with @agendapub.bsky.social's clever cover design. www.agendapub.com/page/detail/...

Submitted the final version of my next book on AI, Big Tech, and the geopolitical struggles over them. Now hopefully nothing important happens on those topics before it comes out... Pre-order here: www.amazon.co.uk/Silicon-Empi...

Submitted the final version of my next book on AI, Big Tech, and the geopolitical struggles over them. Now hopefully nothing important happens on those topics before it comes out... Pre-order here: www.amazon.co.uk/Silicon-Empi...