Brian Merchant

writer, former la times tech columnist, science fiction editor, luddite

NEWSLETTER: https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/

BLOOD IN THE MACHINE: https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/
twitter: https://twitter.com/bcmerchant
website: https://brianmerchant.org/

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Last Notes

2025-08-12 19:42:20 UTC

GPT-5 has been hyped for years as the next step towards AGI. Sam Altman promised a "PhD-level intelligence on any topic." It's not even close.
On the terms OpenAI itself laid out for its own product, any fair assessment must conclude that GPT-5's launch is a failure.
Now the question is: Will it change anything?
https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/gpt-5-is-a-joke-will-it-matter

2025-07-23 17:20:21 UTC

Big tech promotes the story that since ChatGPT burst onto the scene, AI has become so popular it's rushed to meet the demand.
The reality on the ground is a bit different. A study by a trio of design scholars shows how tech co's have had to push AI on its users with a variety of intrusive tactics.
This is how big tech is force-feeding us AI:
https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/how-big-tech-is-force-feeding-us

2025-05-09 17:16:45 UTC

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So, if you have a story about how AI has impacted your working life, please send it to [email protected]. It’s an encrypted ProtonMail account. I will keep all details private and, if desired, your identity anonymous. Your message can be as long or as short as you’d like.
Since publishing the call to my newsletter, I've gotten dozens of testimonials. So many difficult and illuminating stories—thanks to all who've written in.
If you know someone impacted, please share, and thanks again.

2025-05-09 17:13:47 UTC

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I think there’s great value in sharing and learning from these stories. We can't hold AI companies or the managers using AI accountable if we do not know what they’re doing, after all. We must understand the tactics used, the justifications made and how to confront them.

2025-05-09 17:13:26 UTC

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And when I ask if AI killed your job, I don’t mean it literally. “AI” is after all a loose term that describes a broad array of technologies. And “AI” can’t kill any jobs on its own—that’s a management decision.
I'm interested in how and when management is deciding to implement AI.

2025-05-09 17:13:12 UTC

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Over the last week—and few years—I've heard from translators, writers, marketers, tech workers, coders, artists, illustrators, graphic designers and more.
Sometimes they feel the impact of AI suddenly, when a boss institutes mass layoffs; more often it's a gradual downgrading.

2025-05-09 17:12:28 UTC

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There are *so many ways* that bosses use AI—not just to replace work, but to speed it up, surveil workers, gain leverage over them, or erode what made a job worth doing. Sometimes AI *creates more work*.
I've heard lots of these stories, and want to hear more.
Here's an explanation of what I'm trying to achieve with the project:
https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/did-ai-kill-your-job

2025-05-09 17:11:44 UTC

Did AI kill your job? If so, I want to hear about it.
The response to my recent story on the AI jobs crisis has been pretty overwhelming. I heard from so many people hit by AI I decided to collect and organize such stories to better understand the phenomenon.
Share yours at: [email protected]

2025-04-12 03:34:36 UTC

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As I write this, the therapists are likely enjoying their first meal all week. But the fight goes on next week, when they head to the bargaining table with Kaiser.
The hunger strike is over, but the regular strike, goes on.
https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/therapists-went-on-a-hunger-strike

2025-04-12 03:34:15 UTC

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This is, the therapists say, very dangerous—the algorithm doesn't know how to detect nuance, or when to ask follow up questions, for instance, and may be turning away people in genuine crisis. Algorithmic triage, they say, has been a disaster, and they've fought it since its inception.

2025-04-12 03:34:00 UTC

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That algorithm then decides if a patient needs further care, or is to be turned away by the untrained clerk. This system, implemented in 2019, took the place of what used to be handled by physicians and nurses, as per CA state law. Now, patients are even assessed for suicide by algorithm.

2025-04-12 03:33:43 UTC

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This week was honestly the first that I'd learned of what's called "algorithmic triage"—a system designed to automate work away from therapists. Patients call in and answer questions about their mental health to an untrained—and less well paid clerk, who plugs the answers into an algorithm.

2025-04-12 03:33:27 UTC

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These therapists and social workers are truly amazing. Adriana Webb hadn't had a bite since Monday, and she was lucid and forceful in demanding mental health professionals get necessary time with patients, that Kaiser turn back its factory-like approach to care.

2025-04-12 03:33:13 UTC

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I know it is Friday, but I felt that this story wasn't getting enough press—again, there's a lot going on—but therapists in LA went on a hunger strike! Because Kaiser wouldn't come to the table for 6 months, and because they've recklessly automated crucial parts of the mental healthcare system.

2025-04-12 03:32:57 UTC

Therapists at Kaiser went on a hunger strike in Los Angeles to protest "factory" like working conditions and the automation of healthcare. I went down to the picket line on the last day to talk to the workers, some of whom hadn't eaten for 100 hours.
https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/therapists-went-on-a-hunger-strike

2025-03-27 23:20:20 UTC

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Here's how one artist, Reid Southen, told me he feels about the AI Studio Ghibli trend:
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/236/953/974/440/634/original/9d7c4eb8f6c682ad.png

2025-03-27 23:18:26 UTC

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I realize that language is strong, and for a long time I have been skeptical of this notion that 'AI bros hate artists' or such—but seeing the response to this critique, which on the other site really actually has too often been literally 'Fuck Miyazaki', what other conclusion are we to come to?

2025-03-27 23:17:57 UTC

OpenAI is using Studio Ghibli-style memes as an ad hoc promotional campaign for its new image generator—despite Ghibli founder Hayao Miyazaki's famous hatred of AI. Sam Altman even made his X avatar a 'Ghiblified' portrait.
Disgracing Miyazaki is part of the point: It's more proof to the industry's biggest boosters that they have won—that they're free to use, appropriate, and commoditize art however they see fit.
https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/openais-studio-ghibli-meme-factory

2025-03-10 16:50:23 UTC

So the LA Times replaced me with an AI that defends the KKK
https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/so-the-la-times-replaced-me-with

2025-02-18 19:57:37 UTC

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In my previous life, I was the tech columnist at the LA Times, where I wrote critical pieces about the AI industry, the gig economy and tech billionaires. Last year, I was laid off by—imagine this—a tech billionaire.
The newsletter was a way to continue that work.

2025-02-18 19:57:16 UTC

Hello all. So, as many of you know, I've been writing BLOOD IN THE MACHINE: The newsletter, for months, but I've been on the fence about going all-in. Recent events have made the call easier.
Elon Musk, the Silicon Valley oligarchs and their AI are taking over. I want to do all I can to push back. I hope you'll join me, and I'm asking for your support.
https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/the-tech-oligarchs-and-their-ai-are

2024-08-23 22:39:03 UTC

This week, in a stunning series of events, a bill that was written to save local journalism from big tech was gutted in a backroom deal—and wound up bailing out Google and *boosting AI* instead. You can't make this stuff up.
How it happened:
https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/how-a-bill-meant-to-save-journalism