Cargo Cult

Friendship is so important. Photo: Avi Schiffman

We ask Albert Fox Cahn, founder and Executive Director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), about how local policing has turned into local surveillance, the campaign to ban facial recognition in New York State, personalized "AI" pricing, opting out at airport security, and more. Cahn's Business Insider piece on home insurance spying: https://www.businessinsider....

Disclaimer of Liability: The "Cargo Cult" podcast (hereinafter referred to as "the Podcast") is produced and distributed by Naomi Karavani, Michele Greenstein, their affiliates, partners, agents, and any of their representatives (collectively referred to as "the Producer"). By accessing and listening to the Podcast, you acknowledge and agree to be bound by the terms and con...

We got a Peter Thiel-funded venture capital tech bro on the ticket before GTA 6 Jorge on X: https://x.com/LineGoesDown Unlimited Hangout article about Vance & Thiel: https://unlimitedhangout.com/2024/07/investigative-reports/the-man-behind-trumps-vp-pick-its-worse-than-you-think/

Thousands of unionized workers at Samsung, the world’s largest memory chipmaker, are striking against the company’s refusal to negotiate. Demands include a 3.5% base rate increase, paid leave for the date of union establishment, compensation for loss of wages during the strike, and transparency into the incentive-based bonus system. The union has about 30k members and represents 24% of all workers...

We explore the secret 2011 meeting between then-Google CEO Eric Schmidt and then-on-house-arrest Julian Assange and consider how the internet has changed the relationship between people and the corporate state. We also talk about brat summer and the Council on Foreign Relations. Photo: Eric Schmidt & Jared Cohen Transcript of 2011 Meeting: https://wikileaks.org/Transcript-Meeting-Assange-Schmi...

We talk about Julian Assange's plea deal, the "censorship pyramid," encryption as resistance, an NSA patent Assange found in 1999, Hillary Clinton's Russian Wikileaks, the CIA being able to hack into Apple and Android cellphones, and more. TW: Cenk Uygur's voice at 7:30 ish. Photo: Julian Assange Assange’s 2006 Blog Post: https://cryptome.org/iq-org/IQ.ORG.htm Independent Artic...

Apple's launching a new set of generative AI tools and making privacy promises about integrating with OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Elon Musk is OpenAI's #1 hater, and also bad at dating.

We watch 20 hours of the two-day "AI Expo for National Competitiveness" so you don't have to, and talk about Eric Schmidt's new kamikaze drone company. Photo: Eric Schmidt

Private U.S. corporations like Google and Meta mediating access to the internet is lowkey goated when digital colonialism is the vibe. Photo: Mark Zuckerberg

Scarlett Johansson is suing OpenAI for using a voice "eerily similar" to hers for ChatGPT 4o. We also yap about NYC Mayor Eric Adams's voice clone speaking Yiddish, ElevenLabs turning every news article into a podcast, BBL Drizzy, Joaquin Phoenix's high-waisted pants, and Google entering its "Gemini era."

We're talking about the iPad commercial, German anti-Tesla activists, AI dating concierges, and the underwater internet cables of the deep sea bourgeoisie. Photo: Jeff Bezos

We talk about central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), which will enable a new level of financial surveillance and social control. And we’re joined by John F O’Donnell, a guy with horrible karaoke etiquette. We promise we're not a con op lim hang !!! Photo: Jerome Powell - - Kitty History: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-Lvv1f5Qu4 Guaranteed Income Pilot Program Act of 2023: https://www.cong...

We talk about Israel’s automated kill lists generated by an “AI” assassination machine named Lavender and Amazon’s automated checkout experience called “Just Walk Out.”

Talking about Truth Social and killer robots.

Boeing has certainly helped kill people in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. But did it also kill a Southern funcle? Fasten your seatbelt, because this Boeing story has it all. Plane crashes, union busting, offshoring, whistleblowers, and a mysterious parking lot death. We also talk about the Justice Department’s new lawsuit against Apple for monopolizing smartphone markets. Btw rejected titles for...

Here we discuss the TikTok ban and Clearview AI, a US company with a database of more than 40 billion facial images from the public internet. We also listen to big tech kingmaker Peter Thiel explain why artificial intelligence and facial recognition are "kind of communist." And we're joined by Pat Burtscher ( https://www.instagram.com/patburtscher/ ), the nation's foremost cabbage...

We explore Reddit’s journey from online community to data business. We also cover NYT suing OpenAI for copyright infringement and Google laying off a group of striking contractors. RIP Aaron Swartz. Photo: Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman

They say the next dystopian surveillance technology will be launched by a gay CEO ... Really makes you feel like part of history. Photo: Tim Cook

In Part 2 of this series on Neuralink and the brain-computer interface (BCI), we discuss the current human trials for the N1 implant, FDA commissioner Robert Califf, and key figures in the movement of transhumanism such as Julian Huxley (President of the British Eugenics Society), Ray Kurzweil (Director of Engineering at Google), and Zoltan Istvan (Bus Driver). Sorryyyyyyyy this is late. This was...

Founded in 2016, Neuralink has developed a device that can implant ultra-thin threads inside the brain. The threads connect to a custom-designed chip with electrodes that can read data from groups of neurons. It’s a yarmulke homie no cap. In Part 1 of this series on Neuralink and the brain-computer interface (BCI), we explore the cruel and unusual monkey torture that built the company and Elon Mus...

Fortune Tellers and Cameos are in. Sam Altman and Tom's Toothpaste are out. Welcome to Season 2. Send your burning questions to cargocultpod@gmail.com. Photo: Sam Altman

This one is about having feelings for "AI." We look into Replika, the company whose chatbot was in the news because it encouraged a 19-year-old to become an assassin. Then we learn about InflectionAI, the second-best-funded generative AI startup (behind OpenAI) whose owners want to create "personal AI for everyone."

We debate the viability of solar geoengineering and learn about the Drapers, a "venture capital family" with a pretty racist and eugenicist history. Then, we try to figure out how a Silicon Valley-based robot pizza company called Zume failed to turn a profit.

On this 4th of July, it's time to meet Palantir, a powerful and Patriotic software company that helps Western countries derive insights from their data and whose first client was the CIA. In this episode, we disclose the company's underreported origins, make fun of the eccentricities of its bipartisan founders, and cover its controversial work with the US military, cops, border patrol, and...