Episode
How AI Is Threatening Democracy!
- Podcast
- The Tea with Myriam Francois
- Published
- May 15, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 4141
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://youtu.be/dYDAbZpVuUU
- Audio
- https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/673e0d1d045942e8b63ce9e8/e/6a07324868dc584eda38b4e4/media.mp3
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Summary
AI is being sold to us as an oracle, objective, neutral, inevitable. But when corporations and governments present predictions as facts, what they often demand is obedience. We’re living through a golden age of surveillance. As monitoring reaches levels once associated with totalitarian regimes, the question becomes unavoidable: how much surveillance can a democracy sustain before it ceases to be one? This week on The Tea, Oxford Associate Professor Carissa Véliz, a leading voice on the ethics of AI, joins us to cut through the noise. AI isn’t just forecasting the future—it’s shaping behaviour, eroding accountability, and normalising control. Our guest argues that the rise of authoritarian tendencies alongside digital technology isn’t a coincidence. Digital tech is inherently authoritarian. And while tech executives warn of jobless, dystopian futures, they’re also shaping that reality—then positioning themselves as the solution. Manufacture the fear, sell the cure. Also in the show: ⚡ Surveillance at an unprecedented scale ⚡ AI prediction as the blueprint for control ⚡ The rise of the “uninsurable” individual ⚡ Big Tech resignations — principled exits or strategic PR? ⚡ AI in medicine — the hidden risk of overdiagnosis ⚡ Palantir, Anthropic, and warfare — where does accountability go? ⚡ AI as the “ultimate bullshitter” ⚡ When chatbots act human — the Air Canada case ⚡ AGI — genuine goal or marketing myth? ⚡ AI companions — a mirror of our delusions ⚡ The Online Safety Act — and why it may not protect children at all Carissa argues that if we want to resist this trajectory, we need to look up from the screen. The more we obsess over AI, the more we neglect the real world—and the human relationships that anchor it. 👉 Subscribe for fearless, independent conversations 🎧 Li…