Jill Lepore's 'Artificial State' Book Critiques Tech's Governmental Ambitions

Historian Jill Lepore's upcoming book, 'The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State,' argues that tech companies are increasingly assuming functions of democratic government, often mistaking technological advancement for political progress. In a TechCrunch Equity podcast episode, Lepore discusses how platforms like Twitter and Facebook distort public discourse and displace local news, while AI leaders promise a future where AI makes government more efficient or unnecessary. She draws parallels from the 1984 Macintosh ad to Anthropic's AI constitution and Sam Altman's 'AI president' comments, and cites E.M. Forster's 1909 story 'The Machine Stops' as a blueprint for the artificial state, which she says reads like 'the diary of a very unhappy YouTuber.' Lepore contends the artificial state is unsustainable and suggests what it would take to rein it in. The episode, hosted by Anthony Ha, is available on major podcast platforms.