The New Luddites: Why People Are Destroying Surveillance and AI Infrastructure
May 4, 2026
52 min
Full
180 of 194
May 4, 2026
The New Luddites: Why People Are Destroying Surveillance and AI Infrastructure
0:00 / 52:39
Excerpt playback isn’t available for this episode — use the full-episode link.
Search the Record
Moment search isn’t open for this episode yet
When it opens, you’ll be able to type any phrase and jump straight to the second it was said.
404 Media Episodes Around May 4, 2026
Episode 180 of 194 — walk the feed in the order it was published.
The New Luddites: Why People Are Destroying Surveillance and AI Infrastructure
Summary
This week, we talk to Brian Merchant, author of Blood in the Machine, about a rash of people physically destroying AI and surveillance infrastructure. Brian puts this wave of attacks in the historical context of the Luddites, who are notoriously misunderstood and fought for worker protections against automation during the Industrial Revolution. Over the last few months, we have seen people in San Francisco and Los Angeles torch Waymos, bash delivery robots with baseball bats, destroy Flock cameras, and threaten AI data centers and the politicians championing them. This type of political violence doesn’t and cannot occur in a vacuum, it happens because people feel they are being taken advantage of and that their representatives aren’t listening to them. Given the current state of things, we can likely expect more of these sorts of attacks to occur.
Blood In The Machine
YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/1Z4k_vDovbY
Go to surfshark.com/404Media to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN, plus there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee—or just use code 404MEDIA at checkout!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Episode details and artwork are published by the show’s own feed. Sentinel plays short cited excerpts and links every episode back to its publisher.