One nefarious aspect of the pro-AI rhetoric coming out of Silicon Valley is that it frames AI as an inevitability. But Lepore argued that this brand of fatalism is a “bogus premise,” itself nestled on top of several more dubious propositions. One we hear endlessly is that regulation stifles innovation, so the government should take the handbrake off AI development. The other is that technology always advances democracy, which assures us that all of the very real threats to democracy AI poses in the present will magically sort themselves out.

citations needed just did a two part episode that touches on this inevitable progress

Citations Needed: Ep 241 - The Disempowering Politics of ‘Inevitability’ Part 1: Data Centers and LLM as ‘The Future’

Episode webpage: https://citationsneeded.libsyn.com/ep-241-the-disempowering-politics-of-inevitability-part-1-data-centers-and-llm-as-the-future

Media file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/citationsneeded/CN241_20260805_inevitabilityP1_Woodson-Boulton.mp3?dest-id=542191

Citations Needed: Ep 242 - The Disempowering Politics of ‘Inevitability’ Part 2: US Empire as Mysterious, Teleological Force

Episode webpage: https://citationsneeded.libsyn.com/ep-242-the-disempowering-politics-of-inevitability-part-2-us-empire-as-mysterious-teleological-force

Media file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/citationsneeded/CN242_20260819_inevitabilityP2_Chow_.mp3?dest-id=542191