Episode Details

Is AI really going to replace you or is something bigger happening beneath the surface?

In this episode, I’m joined by Brian Merchant, technology journalist and author of The One Device and Blood in the Machine, who writes at the intersection of innovation, labor, and society. We dig into how we got here, where the future of work is heading, and how to define this new version of normal. If you’ve been wondering what artificial intelligence means for the workforce and your place in it, this conversation will help you better understand what’s actually at stake.

Key Takeaways

• Reframe the problem: it’s not AI vs. humans—it’s management vs. labor. The real issue is how AI is implemented to reduce costs and devalue work, not the technology itself.
• Don’t settle for “good enough” creative work. The push for cheaper, faster AI outputs risks devaluing your craft, especially in the middle tier where quality is often compromised.
• Claim your power in how AI is used. The future depends on creatives setting the terms—using AI as a tool when it serves them, not when it replaces them.

Episode Highlights

• Who really benefits from the AI fear narrative
• Dig into a history lesson that reframes how we see technology today
• Recognize how power, labor, and resistance repeat with each wave of new technology
• Why AI’s good enough standard challenges every creative skill level
• How AI is accelerating the never-ending hustle in creative industries
• The true cost of workforce exploitation on the future of storytelling
• How to future-proof your creative career by thinking like a generalist and acting in solidarity
• Starting points for building collective creative leverage

Recommended Next Episode

Why the Machines Will Never Fully Replace the Creative Process | with Walter Murch, ACE

Useful Resources

Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech

Blood in the Machine Newsletter

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Guest Bio

Brian Merchant is a writer, tech journalist, and the author of a bestselling book about the iPhone, The One Device. His most recent book is Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech (2023).

He has been the Los Angeles Times‘ tech columnist, an editor at Motherboard, VICE’s science and technology publication, and the founder of Terraform, its online fiction site. He founded Automaton, a project that examined the human impact of AI and automation, for Gizmodo. He currently serves as Journalist in Residence, AI Now Institute.

Brian is also the co-editor of a print anthology of Terraform stories, called Terraform: Watch/Worlds/Burn (2022). His work has appeared in the New York Times, Harper’s, Wired, the Atlantic, the Guardian, Slate, the Washington Post, Fast Company, Fortune, and beyond. He lives in Los Angeles.

Show Credits

Edited by: Curtis Fritsch

Produced by: 

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