Historian Jill Lepore Warns Against Letting Robots Take Over Our Democracy episode artwork

EPISODE · Aug 26, 2026 · 54 MIN

Historian Jill Lepore Warns Against Letting Robots Take Over Our Democracy

from KQED's Forum · host KQED

In her new book, “The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State,” Harvard historian and New Yorker writer Jill Lepore issues a warning that in our desire for more efficient, data-driven governance we’re falling into “the rule of humans by machines manufactured by corporations.” Her book is an alarming call to action and, she writes, an “inquiry into what humans mean and intend in abandoning constitutional democracy, the liberal nation-state and even humanity itself for rule by automation, government by machine and replacement by artificial intelligence.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Aug 26, 2026

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Historian Jill Lepore Warns Against Letting Robots Take Over Our Democracy

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