Computer Says Maybe

What better way than movies to help us process the world. Brian Merchant shares how our collective anxieties turn into cultural products.
More like this: One Filmmaker’s Fight Against AI w/ Valerie Veatch

Brian Merchant, author of Blood in the Machine, joins us this week to discuss his favorite unsettling, horror and thriller picks that bring our fears about AI and tech to life on screen.
Alix and Brian talk Terminator, Pluribus, and how even comedies about technology have a spectre of violence that helps us understand everything form labour exploitation to alienation to machine autonomy. All of this contributes to the role that film plays in helping us make sense of societal and technological change.
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Further reading & resources:
The best books, film, and TV about AI in 2025 — Brian Merchant, Dec 2025
The Complete Guide to Luddite Horror Films — Brain Merchant, Oct 2024
The Chair Company (TV show)
Pluribus (TV show)
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
Exhalation and *The Lifecycle of Software Objects* by Ted Chiang
The Most Aggressively Anti-AI Film of the ChatGPT Era — Brian Merchant on ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’, March 2026
The Comeback (TV series staring Lisa Kudrow)
Mrs Davis (TV series about a nun on a mission to destroy AI)
Computer Says Maybe is produced by Georgia Iacovou, Kushal Dev, Marion Wellington, Sarah Myles, Van Newman, and Zoe Trout

Naomi Klein has spent her career studying political movements — and she thinks progressives are doing better than we think. Because the fascists are scared.
More like this: To be Seen and not Watched w/ Tawana Petty

In her forthcoming book, End Times Fascism, Klein and co-author Astra Taylor take stock of the history of fascism and the collective power that has been brought to bear to fight it. This time is different. Tech titans accumulated tremendous power and wealth, and are firmly on the side of the fascists. And our information environment is flooded and disoriented. While that might portend a dark outcome, Klein has a different diagnosis. Fascist powers seem angrier and more aggressive than ever; but Klein thinks this is a sign that we are winning.
Further reading & resources:
The Rise of End Times Fascism by Astra Taylor & Naomi Klein
On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
More about Naomi & Astra’s upcoming book End Times Fascism and the Fight for the Living World.
In 2026, We Are Friction-Maxxing by Kathryn Jezzer-Morton, The Cut, Jan 2026
Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis
Walter Benjamin’s Concept of History
UN expert says world has given Israel ‘licence to torture Palestinians’ — Al Jazeera quoting Francesca Albanese, March 2026
How The 'Free Helicopter Rides' Meme Went Viral — The Progressive Magazine, September 2023
Safe or Just Surveilled?: Tawana Petty on the Fight Against Facial Recognition Surveillance — Logic(s) Magazine 2020
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Computer Says Maybe is produced by Georgia Iacovou, Kushal Dev, Marion Wellington, Sarah Myles, Van Newman, and Zoe Trout

The way artists make art matters. And some artists, like filmmaker Valerie Veatch, are exploring what role AI has in the craft of filmmaking.
More like this: Fantasy Factory: AI Supervillains w/ Anat Shenker-Osorio

Valerie Veatch is the director of Ghost in the Machine, a new film that explores the depths of the Silicon Valley fantasies around AI, and platforms all the people that challenge these fantasies. With this film, Valerie is working to change the culture of AI: it is not inevitable, in many way it’s not even possible, and therefore we have a right to refuse to engage with it. Valerie discusses why she made the film, what she learned, and what impact she’s hoping it will have.
Ghost in the Machine will be available for rentals and screenings beginning March 27, via Kinema! Pre-sales are now available at open now (go to Kinema and slelect the "Watch" tab). Proceeds will go towards the production of the film. The film will also be available on PBS in fall 2026.

Further reading & resources:
Trailer for Ghost in the Machine
Resisting AI by Dan McQuillan
On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots by Emily Bender et al
The TESCREAL Bundle by Timnit Gebru and Emile P. Torres
Kinema — where you can watch Ghost in the Machine
**Subscribe to our newsletter to get more stuff than just a podcast — we run events and do other work that you will definitely be interested in!**
Computer Says Maybe is produced by Georgia Iacovou, Kushal Dev, Marion Wellington, Sarah Myles, Van Newman, and Zoe Trout

Grammarly launched a feature that no one wanted and now they’re getting sued. They used the names of writers, journalists, and editors to pretend that AI versions of those people were making writing suggestions via the application. None of these ‘expert reviewers’ had any idea. Grammarly pissed off the wrong journalist.
And now Julia Angwin is suing them.
More like this: The Toxic Relationship Between AI & Journalism w/ Nic Dawes

In this episode Julia (and her lawyer Peter) discuss what happened with Grammarly, why she’s suing, and how neither of them can believe that this tool made it through their legal team and into the public realm.
Please email [email protected] for more info, or if you would like your name to be searched in the list of experts that Grammarly used for their tool.

Further reading & resources:
Julia’s op ed in the New York Times
Pre-order Julia’s new book On Courage: How to be a Dissident in an Age of Fear
Check out The Markup, founded by Julia
Grammarly pulls AI author-impersonation tool after backlash — BBC 12th March 2026
Shishir Mehrotra’s (CEO of Grammarly) apology on LinkedIn
Grammarly Is Offering ‘Expert’ AI Reviews From Your Favorite Authors—Dead or Alive — Wired 4th March 2026
Grammarly is using our identities without permission — The Verge 6th March 2026
Grammarly turned me into an AI editor against my will and I hate it — Casey Newton, Platformer 9th March 2026
Details of the case, from PRF Law, Julia’s representative firm
**Subscribe to our newsletter to get more stuff than just a podcast — we run events and do other work that you will definitely be interested in!**
Computer Says Maybe is produced by Georgia Iacovou, Kushal Dev, Marion Wellington, Sarah Myles, Van Newman, and Zoe Trout

The left has a messaging problem. Silicon Valley elites are literally making up impossible fantasies and their narratives are winning out. Why?
More like this: The Stories we Tell Ourselves About AI

This week in our second episode leading to the AI Doc, we are joined by Anat Shenker-Osorio, a progressive campaign strategist who hosts the Words To Win By podcast. Anat tries to focus on the positives: if you don’t think people should join the AI party, throw a better party. She gives us some quick lessons on messaging: how to paint tech CEOs as actual villains, how to flip the script and convince AI men that actually, it’s okay to die — and how to avoid what Anat refers to as ‘Mar-a-lago face’
Further reading & resources:
Listen to Anat’s podcast Words to Win by
Pre-Suasion and Influence by Robert Cialdini
Messaging This Moment — a critical handbook for progressive comms 
**Subscribe to our newsletter to get more stuff than just a podcast — we run events and do other work that you will definitely be interested in!**
Computer Says Maybe is produced by Georgia Iacovou, Kushal Dev, Marion Wellington, Sarah Myles, Van Newman, and Zoe Trout