# #1797 AI Spent $540 Billion to Make You Lonelier: Betting Against Jobs, Art, and Community Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/best-of-the-left-leftist-perspectives-on-progressive-politics-news-culture-economics-and-democracy-457587/1797-ai-spent-540-billion-to-make-you-lonelier-betting-against-jobs-art-and-community Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/best-of-the-left-leftist-perspectives-on-progressive-politics-news-culture-economics-and-democracy-457587/1797-ai-spent-540-billion-to-make-you-lonelier-betting-against-jobs-art-and-community.md Podcast: [Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy](https://stenobird.com/podcast/best-of-the-left-leftist-perspectives-on-progressive-politics-news-culture-economics-and-democracy-457587) Published: 2026-06-03T15:05:00+00:00 Episode link: https://www.bestoftheleft.com/1797 Audio file: https://pdrl.fm/829673/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/hippiesympathizer/1797_AI.mp3?dest-id=22784 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/best-of-the-left-leftist-perspectives-on-progressive-politics-news-culture-economics-and-democracy-457587/episodes/1797-ai-spent-540-billion-to-make-you-lonelier-betting-against-jobs-art-and-community Duration seconds: 12142 ## Resource Air Date: 6–3-2026 Today we examine the AI industry's economic house of cards, the ideology Silicon Valley uses to sell a broken product, and the very real human costs being paid by workers, the lonely, and communities bulldozed for data centers nobody asked for. Direct Download Full Show Notes Transcript Be part of the show! Leave a voice message , message us on Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!) Use our links to shop Bookshop.org and Libro.fm for a non-evil book and audiobook purchasing experience! Join our Discord community ! TOP TAKES KP 1: The AI Backlash Just Got VERY Public - House of El - AI - Air Date 5-24-26 KP 2: The AI Industry Is Losing - Better Offline - Air Date 5-26-26 KP 3: The Aesthetic Pipeline to Techno-Fascism - Alice Cappelle - Air Date 5-27-26 KP 4: Joe Rogan Accidentally Exposed AI in Four Words - Mo Bitar - Air Date 5-22-26 KP 5: How AI Companions Are Destroying Human Intimacy | Angela Ivy Leong | TEDxWest Vancouver - TEDx Talks - Air Date 1-14-26 KP 6: Astra Taylor on AI Data Center Resistance & Fighting "Billionaire Big Tech Agenda"- Democracy Now! - Air Date 5-13-26 (00:51:20) NOTE FROM THE EDITOR AI Is a Drug and We're All Self-Medicating My commentaries on YouTube - Share them! DEEPER DIVES (01:09:29) SECTION A: THE BUBBLE ECONOMICS A1: Will SpaceX and OpenAI Starve the Market? - UNFTR Media - Air Date 5-26-26 A2: Karen Hao: AI Creating a DESPERATE BASE OF WORKERS with No Full-time Employment - Channel 4 News - Air Date 5-22-26 A3: AI and Cancer: Why Superintelligence Won't Get Us to a Cure - Your Undivided Attention - Air Date 4-30-26 (01:37:24) SECTION B: IDEOLOGY OF THE TECH ELITE B1: The Left Doesn't Hate Technology with Gita Jackson - Tech… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/best-of-the-left-leftist-perspectives-on-progressive-politics-news-culture-economics-and-democracy-457587/episodes/1797-ai-spent-540-billion-to-make-you-lonelier-betting-against-jobs-art-and-community/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/best-of-the-left-leftist-perspectives-on-progressive-politics-news-culture-economics-and-democracy-457587/1797-ai-spent-540-billion-to-make-you-lonelier-betting-against-jobs-art-and-community.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.