This Week in Life With Machines: Silicon Valley’s New Techno-Religion
They're creating AI so that AI can save us from...AI?
First, some news from the Life With Machines Cinematic Universe. We submitted a panel to SXSW 2026 to build off last year’s success. We propose to lean into the absurdity, comedy, and satire of this AI moment. Check it out and vote for Stand Up to the Singularity: Comedy Takes On AI.
🔦 Spotlight
The Rise of Silicon Valley’s Techno-Religion
From the New York Times
In Berkeley, a former hotel has been transformed into Lighthaven — a gated campus and social hub for the Rationalists, a movement blending AI safety, Effective Altruism, and a quasi-religious zeal for shaping humanity’s future. Their influence runs through companies like Google DeepMind, OpenAI, and Anthropic, backed by tech billionaires and bound together by a belief that it’s their duty to ensure AI saves humanity rather than destroys it.
Why We Care
These aren’t just quirky Bay Area housemates; they’re among the most influential people setting AI’s trajectory. As Elizabeth Stewart warned at the beginning of Season 1, knowing the worldview of AI’s architects is key to decoding why they make the design choices they do — and to spotting the gap between public messaging and private intent.
From the Archives
Elizabeth Stewart: "Let's ask questions. Let's understand. What's your philosophy of how you see the world, of where you're trying to take this, and why? Because it helps us understand why certain design decisions are being made. And to see behind the hood of how things are being pitched to us and sold to us."
The full moment is worth a revisit on Youtube or Apple podcasts.
Baratunde Note:
I can’t read this story about the Rationalists without seeing the same tension I’ve been talking about all summer: power is concentrating in the hands of a small, self-selected group, and they believe they’re doing it for our own good. Sure, they’re worried about AI wiping us out, but they’re also the ones building the very systems they warn us about — while hanging in a literal gated compound that looks like a mash-up of MIT, Middle-earth, and that house from season 2 of The OA.
📰 More Things You Should Know
Kansas City joins others using AI for civic services
From Axios
Kansas City will pilot machine-learning triage in its 311 system to classify resident requests and dispatch crews faster, with a goal of reducing service inequities. The pilot runs through 2026 while officials monitor for bias or routing errors.
Why We Care
This is a real-world test of civic augmentation. These are people in public service trying to solve clearly-defined problems, so already it’s better than the AI-for-everything brigade. The real test is how much transparency, accountability, and democratic involvement happens here, in a clear public service setting. I’m all for better service delivery or more fair access to public resources. Rooting for the people of KC.
HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED AI INFUSED INTO YOUR PUBLIC SERVICES?
Amazon thinks you should make your own TV shows
From Variety
Fable Studio raised Alexa Fund cash to launch Showrunner, a $10–$40/month platform where fans generate or remix animated series and earn royalties if others build on their work. Pitched as a “Netflix of AI,” it could redefine authorship and community storytelling.
Why We Care
Fans have always wanted to create, not just consume. The challenge is ensuring this ancient human instinct doesn’t get trapped in a corporate walled garden. I’ve honestly been hoping for something like this for a long long time. My friend Kenyatta Cheese first alerted me to the concept that “the audience has an audience” to explain how fan communities like to create, not just consume. If there’s a way to technically enable this while having the originating artist give their consent and receive credit and compensation, that’s a good thing. If the remixers are also getting compensated, even better. The only thing I’m not sure about in this whole arrangement is Amazon’s involvement. They don’t have the best track record for respecting IP or labor or enabling fair compensation schemes for folks on their platform.
😂 Palette Cleanser
Artist Ari Kushnir uses AI to deliver potent political messages. His entire account is worth exploring. But I really want you to see MAGA BALLROOM 2028 — watch until the end.
The fact that our unsubtly-fascist US federal government leadership has embraced AI so thoughtlessly makes it the most appropriate medium for satirizing their unpopular behavior. The video above is doing a lot of work, technically and narratively, and I’m here for it.
We are experiencing the sometimes violent dismantling of our democracy. That’s just a fact. But that fact does not have to be our end. So really, watch till the end of the video, and let’s remember we will get through this extremely stupid phase in US history. We’ll get through it faster by remembering the best of who we are and standing for that every day in every way we can.
If you see other creative and politically poignant or comedic AI creations, send them our way.
💬 YOUR WORDS
We’ve been getting a lot of reaction and commentary to Tuesday’s newsletter about a Web in which bots are the dominant population. This one from Ann Hawkins grabbed my attention:
I'm talking a lot to my solo business owners about this - most don't realise that all the work they put into Google analytics, crafting keywords, href links on the webpages etc have no value any more.
Writing for humans - the people you know and understand, who love your work, still works. Delivering straight to their inbox via newsletters has always worked.
That's where the work needs to be now more than ever. Relying on search to get people to your website is over.
I agree. Thanks Ann.
Until Next Time…
