Impolitic with John Heilemann

John welcomes Washington Post tech culture reporter Nitasha Tiku to discuss this mind-blowing, deeply unnerving moment in the evolution of AI. Tiku explains the genesis of the fears that the systems being developed by the AI frontier labs could ultimately end the human race; how AI extinction scenarios migrated from fringe Bay Area subcultures into the labs themselves, then into elite institutions, and now to the center of the mainstream political and cultural discourse; how the labs are confronting the ethical and moral implications of what they’re building; and why, when it comes to the debate over AI regulation, we should focus less on what industry leaders are saying and more on what they’re doing.

John welcomes retired three-star general and former U.S. Army Europe commander Mark Hertling to discuss Donald Trump’s turns on the world stage at the United Nations General Assembly and China summit with Xi Jinping. Hertling argues that, contrary to Trump’s claim that the Iran war will end after the midterm elections, it's more likely to go on for years; that his U.N. speech was “anti-American” and his handling of the Xi meeting, deeply unserious; and that America's military leaders saw his performances in both venues as “beyond embarrassing.” Hertling also explains why it will take “generations to rebuild” the armed forces after the damage being done to them by Pete Hegseth.

John welcomes Naomi Klein, arguably the left’s most prominent and influential public intellectual, to discuss her new best-selling book, “End Times Fascism,” co-authored with Astra Taylor. Klein—whose 2000 book, “No Logo,” became a manifesto for the turn-of-the-millennium anti-globalization movement, and whose 2008 tome, "The Shock Doctrine," introduced the concept of “disaster capitalism”—explains that “End Times Fascism” is the apotheosis of all her work to date; how an unlikely coalition of religious fundamentalists, Silicon Valley tech barons, and far right ethno-nationalists has embraced varying forms of apocalypticism and taken center stage in our politics; and how that alliance can be defeated.

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John welcomes back Alex Wagner, host of Runaway Country for Crooked Media and senior political analyst at MS Now, to discuss her new book, “The Steal: Four Right-Wing Hard-Liners, One Republican Presidency, and the Raid on America's Courts.” Alex examines the half-century genesis of the conservative takeover of the federal judiciary, its resemblance to a heist movie, and the quartet of thieves—Paul Weyrich, the mastermind; Ed Meese, the inside man; Robert Bork, the public face; and Joe Coors, the money—central to the caper. She also assesses a raft of recent developments: James Talarico’s trolling of Ken Paxton in Texas, Hasan Piker’s ongoing bedevilment of Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, and Donald Trump’s blithe reaction to the rampant fears in the AI industry that its products may kill us all.