Computer Says Maybe

Israel has a long history of making new technological weapons of war and exporting them to the world. They have used Palestine as a testing ground to show how new tools can enable mass killing. And they are banking that demand for their products might protect them on the world stage.
More like this: Anthropic is NOT the Good Guy w/ Maddy Batt
In part seven of Computer Says Kill, author of The Palestine Laboratory Antony Loewenstein explains that for Israel, precision warfare is just performative. Israel has the means to kill with precision, but this is at odds with the logics of genocide. Antony will take us through the history of Israel’s dealings with authoritarian states, and Israel and American states do not need to take state control of a their domestic tech industries because they are already so ideologically aligned with their regimes.
Further reading & resources:
Buy The Palestine Laboratory by Antony Loewenstein (Verso Books)
Watch The Palestine Laboratory series on Al Jazeera
‘Hondurasgate,’ the alleged US and Israeli interference plot to destabilize Mexico and other progressive governments — El Pais May 2026
Israeli drone strikes on vehicles in Lebanon kill 12 people, including 2 children — LA Times May 2026
What is Project Nimbus? Al Jazeera, 2024
Israeli authorities are using facial recognition technology to entrench apartheid — on ‘Red Wolf’ from Amnesty International, 2023
Check out our Youtube for Tech Story of the Week
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Computer Says Maybe is produced by Georgia Iacovou, Kushal Dev, Marion Wellington, Sarah Myles, Van Newman, and Zoe Trout

The Israeli military is using data, surveillance, and AI to kill noncombatants in Southern Lebanon.
More like this: Computer Says Kill: Collapsing the Chain w/ with Matt Mahmoudi
This week, we're kind of taking a break from our Computer Says Kill series to play a interview from our YouTube channel that is extremely relevant to the conversations we've been having about AI and militarization. Alix sat down with Nabih Bulos, the Middle East Bureau Chief at the LA Times, to discuss his recent reporting on Israel’s complex system of surveillance-driven targeting where, as he writes, even data from a phone can become a death sentence.
Further reading & resources:
Inside Israel’s AI targeting system: How data from a phone become a death sentence — Nabih Bulos, The Los Angeles Times, May 2026
Watch the interview on our YouTube channel
Catch up on episodes of Computer Says Kill, our series on AI, warfare, and power 
**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

Anthropic’s AI systems have been used in illegal American invasions in Iran and Venezuela. They have partnered with Musk in the disastrous Memphis Colossus facility. And yet! News coverage, some civil society, and a lot of normies act like Anthropic is one of the good guys. They aren’t!
More like this: The Toxic Love Triangle of Big Tech, Big War & Big Science w/ David Gray Widder

For part six of Computer Says Kill, we are joined by legal fellow Maddy Batt, who filed an amicus brief in the courtroom battle between Anthropic and the US Department of War. We talk about what we know from the lawsuit, what we know about how AI is being used in illegal invasions, and what might be possible for corporate accountability.
Further reading & resources:
The amicus brief filed by Tech Justice Law
Buy Project Maven by Katrina Manson
Autonomised Harming — Linda Eggert, July 2023
Autonomous Weapons Systems and Human Rights — Linda Eggert, July 2024
Moral Crumple Zones: Cautionary Tales in Human-Robot Interaction — Madeleine Clare Elish, 2019
**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

Academia, Big Tech, and the military are caught in a sordid love triangle — and their love language is money.
More like this: Computer Says Kill: The Blank Check to Beat China w/ Lis Siegel

For part five of Computer Says Kill, researcher David Widder describes the powerful trifecta that is academia, Big Tech, and the US military: all of them need each other to survive, but who is benefiting the most? Half of Carnegie Mellon’s research funding comes from the DoW or the DHS — and David will explain how it’s being used to both prop up war apparatus, and serve as an on-ramp to Big Tech platforms.
Further reading & resources:
It’s about power: What ethical concerns do software engineers have, and what do they (feel they can) do about them? — David Widder et al, June 2023
Basic Research, Lethal Effects: Military AI Research Funding as Enlistment — David Widder et al
Open (For Business): Big Tech, Concentrated Power, and the Political Economy of Open AI — David Widder, Sarah West, Meredith Whittaker, August 2023 
To Build Our Future, We Must Know Our Past: Contextualizing Paradigm Shifts in Natural Language Processing — Sireesh Gururaja, Amanda Bertsch, Clara Na, David Widder, Emma Strubell, December 2023
What Tech Calls Thinking by Adrian Daub
The Undone Computer Science Conference
Computer-vision research powers surveillance technology — Nature Magazine, June 2025
What’s happening in Memphis with Anthropic? — The Maybe Media
**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 US is in a race to ‘beat China’ at AI. Or is it? What if I told you that powerful actors in the US have built the story of an all-or-nothing race to get what they want?
More like this: Computer Says Kill: A License for Unlimited War w/ Amos Toh

In part four of Computer Says Kill we are joined by Lis Siegel who shares the history. We start with a document produced by China in 2017, and arrive at today when the Chinese bogeyman is being used to drive money, political influence and supply chain control to a few US tech giants. Listen in for some insight into how we got here.
Further reading & resources:
Examining AI Safety as a Global Public Good: Implications, Challenges, and Research Priorities — Lis Siegel et al, March 2025
Silicon Valley enabled brutal mass detention and surveillance in China, internal documents show — AP News, September 2025
A Dark-Money Campaign Is Paying Influencers to Frame Chinese AI as a Threat — Taylor Lorenz, Wired, May 2026
Slogan Politics by Jinghan Zeng
Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future by Dan Wang
Final Report from the National Security Commission for AI — 2021
Yellow Techno-Peril: The ‘Clash of Civilizations’ and anti-Chinese racial rhetoric in the US–China AI arms race — Kerry McInerney 2024
Bernie Sanders urges international cooperation to halt AI’s ‘runaway train’ — The Guardian, April 2026
**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