Brian Merchant is an American technology journalist and author. His work often focuses on social and environmental issues relating to technology and tech companies.
His writing on technology movements and cultural developments has appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times, Wired, Slate, The Atlantic, and The Guardian. He was the technology columnist at the Los Angeles Times.
Brian is the author of two books, The One Device: the Secret History of the iPhone (2017) and Blood in the Machine: the Origins of the Rebellion against Big Tech (2023), excerpted here (by permission of the Hachette Book Group).
Brian currently works full time reporting for his Substack newsletter, Blood in the Machine, where he reports on how big tech and developments in generative AI affect workers and consumers.
In this interview, Brian discusses the following topics:
How the acceleration of tech is rapidly changing culture, education and society
The current state of generative AI and how LLM marketing has surpassed reality
Commonalities between the original Luddite movement and today’s backlash.
The effect of generative AI on contemporary artists, creators and human workers
How human creators can fight back against tech and genAI overreach.
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The complete interview is available here for paying subscribers »
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