Dr. Jill Lepore on why AI backlash is vital for the future
Dr. Jill Lepore discusses her new book, 'The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State,' which examines how systemic measurement and data quantification have dehumanized governance. She argues that the rise of Silicon Valley culture has enabled political microtargeting and weakened the traditional state.
Why it matters
It provides a critical historical perspective on how technology and data-driven systems are fundamentally altering modern democracy and institutional trust.
Today, I’m talking with Harvard professor and New Yorker staff writer Dr. Jill Lepore about her new book, The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State , which comes out on August 25. Jill is one of the best writers there is at identifying institutional patterns in history, and Decoder is a show about systems, so this book could not possibly be more in our zone. You build systems by measuring things — gathering information, quantifying it as data, and taking action on it. And Jill’s big thesis in the book is that this kind of systemic measurement is really a dehumanizing act, one that flattens human concerns into something, well, artificial.
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