Alternative Radio - Episode May 2, 2026

AI & the Crisis of Capitalism AI, artificial intelligence, is rapidly expanding along with its promises and dangers. On the promises side, tech bros like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said, thanks to AI, “We will see diseases get cured at an unprecedented rate.” AI critics such as Geoffrey Hinton, a Nobel Prize winner who has been called the “Godfather of AI,” warns of the technology’s “profound risks to society and humanity.” He adds, “People haven’t understood what’s coming.” He likened AI to “a very fast car with no steering wheel.” Unregulated AI will likely trigger a global economic crisis with its projection of massive layoffs. AI can speed up production, thus making corporations richer, but many workers will be laid off, e.g., Meta is cutting thousands of jobs. Amazon and Microsoft will follow. How will the capitalist economic system deal with AI? Speaker: John Cassidy John Cassidy is a British-American journalist and economic historian. He has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1995 where he writes “The Financial Page” column. He is the author of Dot.con, How Markets Fail and Capitalism and its Critics. Description from www.alternativeradio.org