iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nick Srnicek @nsrnicek.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Turns out in Australia, NIMBYism is called "bananas" - build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything www.ft.com/content/9cd5...

ft.com

Australia has a secret weapon in the race for AI compute

The country has almost limitless space with which to generate renewable electricity

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Mariana Mazzucato @mazzucatom.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Join us for the launch of "The Rulers: Corporate Power in the Age of AI and the Cloud" by Cecilia Rikap: if we're serious about an innovation economy that delivers public value over extraction, we have to confront who actually rules it.

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Cecilia Rikap @ceciliarikap.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Ireland's questionable track in tax and digital regulation has led us to demand the Irish EU presidency to recuse itself from related files. Signatories: @mazzucatom.bsky.social Shoshana Zuboff @isabellamweber.bsky.social @jasonhickel.bsky.social @nsrnicek.bsky.social & 50 more Sign below

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Nick Srnicek @nsrnicek.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Honoured to have Silicon Empires on the summer reading list for Rest of World! They're one of the best resources for looking at tech from a global perspective. restofworld.org/2026/what-to...

restofworld.org

What to read: A summer book list

Rest of World recommends eight books that cover the history of resistance to tech, our relationship with AI companions, the danger of our dependence on Taiwan chips, and more.

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Tim Goodacre - Writer @timgoodacre.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Current reading: "Silicon Empires - the Fight for the Future of AI" by @nsrnicek.bsky.social. This is great. With his usual clarity and conciseness, Srnicek describes what AI is (not just ChatGPT!), how it works, and the current politics and economics around it. Absolutely worth a read.

Cover of "Silicon Empires - the Fight for the Future of AI" by Nick Srnicek

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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

I haven’t even gotten into the teeth of @nsrnicek.bsky.social’s argument yet, but if you want an accessible intro to the technical details of GenAI that never loses sight of the investors structuring its development & dissemination, it’d be hard to do better than these opening chapters.

SILICON EMPIRES
THE FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE OF AI
NICK SRNICEK

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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

if, like me, you’ve been feeling AI illiterate, consider spending two very worthwhile hours listening to @nsrnicek.bsky.social talk about what the hell is going on

podcasts.apple.com

Silicon Empires w/ Nick Srnicek

Podcast Episode · The Dig · 26 January · 2h 24m

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Dan "Mr. Bones and Me" Greene @dmgreene.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

This is really special from @nsrnicek.bsky.social. That rare book that is both an accessible introduction and a real advance in theoretical debates over, say, the state's articulation work or the business of science in the 21st century.

The microchip looking cover of Nick srnicek's Silicon Empires

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Global Justice Now @globaljusticenow.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

📢 Our line-up for Resisting Big Tech Empires just got even stronger. We’re excited to welcome Nick Srnicek (@nsrnicek.bsky.social, author of Silicon Empires) and Rosa Curling (@foxglovelegal.bsky.social) 📅 Sat 25 April, London 🎟️ Free tix: www.globaljustice.org.uk/tech-empires 🧵

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Doug Henwood @doughenwood.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

fresh audio product: • Tessa West on what kept the Epstein gang together • Nick Srnicek on AI @nsrnicek.bsky.social • Wanda Bertram on the costs of mass incarceration @prisonpolicy.org www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#S...

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Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

This is a really insightful and informative episode with @nsrnicek.bsky.social particularly for how it pushes back against the leftist urge to dismiss AI as politically old hat and philosophically irrelevant thedigradio.com/podcast/sili...

thedigradio.com

Silicon Empires w/ Nick Srnicek

Featuring Nick Srnicek on Silicon Empires: The Fight for the Future of AI. A deep exploration of the political economy of AI: the fulcrum of the authoritarian tech oligarchy—and of global contests for...

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Polity @politybooks.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

"Charting AI’s development within its proper economic and geopolitical context...Srnicek’s guide can help us maintain a long-term, realistic perspective of the technology’s likely trajectory.” @jacobinmag.bsky.social review @nsrnicek.bsky.social's 'Silicon Empires' jacobin.com/2026/02/ai-b...

jacobin.com

How Big Tech Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bombs

Until quite recently, many Big Tech firms opposed the militarization of AI, but that now seems like ancient history as they move to sign partnerships with arms companies. The prospect of lavish Pentag...

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Ben Wray @benwray1989.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

My review of @nsrnicek.bsky.social's new book on AI, 'Silicon Empires', in Jacobin 👇 bsky.app/profile/jaco...

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Quinn Slobodian @quinnslobodian.com · 27/01/2026

Very much looking forward to this - Silicon Empires by @nsrnicek.bsky.social is the best book I've read on the political economy of AI

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makena kelly @makenakelly.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

SCOOP: Palantir Defends Work With ICE to Staff Following Killing of Alex Pretti WIRED obtained Slack conversations + an updated internal Palantir wiki defending the company's work for ICE to outraged workers. More here: www.wired.com/story/palant...

wired.com

Palantir Defends Work With ICE to Staff Following Killing of Alex Pretti

“In my opinion ICE are the bad guys. I am not proud that the company I enjoy so much working for is part of this,” one worker wrote on Slack.

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Cominsitu @cominsitu.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

studying the enemy

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Nick Srnicek @nsrnicek.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

The Dig is one of my favourite podcasts, so it was a real honour to be able to chat with Daniel about all things AI

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Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

In an excerpt from his new book "Silicon Empires," @nsrnicek.bsky.social looks at how Anthropic, Google, Meta, and OpenAI — once united in opposition to military use of their AI tools — came around to working with the Pentagon. www.wired.com/story/book-e...

wired.com

How AI Companies Got Caught Up in US Military Efforts

Two years ago, companies like Meta and OpenAI were united against military use of their tools. Now all of that has changed.

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Félix Tréguer @felixtreguer.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

Yesterday, we held the first session of the “AI critique” seminar, welcoming two scholars whose work has profoundly shaped critical debates on the political economy of AI: @ceciliarikap.bsky.social & @nsrnicek.bsky.social. Here is a short overview of the session: www.felixtreguer.fr/en/2026/01/1...

felixtreguer.fr

Two Post-Marxist Takes on The Political Economy of AI · Félix Tréguer

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Nick Srnicek @nsrnicek.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

Silicon Empires is out today in the US! For anyone interested, I'm resharing this thread outlining some of the key arguments of the book.

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Niels van Doorn @nielsvdoorn.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

Just picked up @nsrnicek.bsky.social’s new book. Congrats Nick, it looks great and I’m excited to dig in!

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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

Who owns the future of artificial intelligence? Our video of the week argues that the true struggle is not just over technological prowess, but over the capture and organization of value across a multi-layered AI “stack.” Feat. @nsrnicek.bsky.social buff.ly/A0doDoI

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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

“Strategic incoherency is the imperial expression of domestic contestations.” - @nsrnicek.bsky.social

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Nick Srnicek @nsrnicek.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

New post from me, trying to understand the various deals being made to build out AI infrastructure. Plus some news and research I thought was interesting recently. siliconempires.substack.com/p/financing-...

siliconempires.substack.com

Financing AI Compute

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Nick Srnicek @nsrnicek.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

siliconempires.substack.com

Financing AI Compute

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Nick Srnicek @nsrnicek.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

I've started up a newsletter to try and collect together my incipient thoughts and notes on the intersection of AI, geopolitics, and capitalism. I'm unlikely to post often, but feel free to subscribe and get updates here: siliconempires.substack.com

siliconempires.substack.com

Silicon Empires | Nick | Substack

A newsletter about AI, geopolitics, and capitalism. Click to read Silicon Empires, by Nick, a Substack publication.

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Nick Srnicek @nsrnicek.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Most of the discussion around America's AI strategy abroad has focused on the AI Action Plan - but perhaps more important was the Executive Order on exporting the AI stack. 🧵

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jonathan w. y. gray @jwyg.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

📚🎊✨ yay - joint book launch for @nsrnicek.bsky.social's Silicon Empires, @mayameme.bsky.social's Auto-Correct and my Public Data Cultures, in discussion with @joannazylinska.bsky.social & @noortjem.bsky.social on 3rd Dec, 7-9pm 💜 www.tickettailor.com/events/kings... @politybooks.bsky.social

book covers for Nick Srnicek's Silicon Empires, Maya Ganesh's Auto-Correct and Jonathan W. Y. Gray's Public Data Cultures.

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Pete Wolfendale @deontologistics.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

Obligatory pinned post: my new book, The Revenge of Reason, is now available to buy: www.urbanomic.com/book/the-rev...

Me holding a copy of The Revenge of Reason.

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Nick Srnicek @nsrnicek.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Today is the official UK publication day for Silicon Empires! I'm excited to have it out and hear what people think. There's an enormous amount happening every day in AI, and it's difficult to gain a stable perspective. I wrote the book to try and get some secure hold on that constant flux. 🧵

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Nick Srnicek @nsrnicek.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

Two big changes to the precarity of the AI industry in the last year: (1) more and more companies are turning to debt to finance AI capex (see Meta, xAI, Oracle), and (2) OpenAI's flurry of deals in the past month are tying major companies to the fate of this startup

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The Autonomy Institute @autonomy-institute.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

NEW clip from our new video essay with @nsrnicek.bsky.social. Essential viewing for understanding the AI economy. Full video here: youtu.be/2vN7vr0qwMo?...

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Nick Srnicek @nsrnicek.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

I'm excited to share the final cover for Silicon Empires and very grateful for the kind words that others have offered. Pre-order here: www.amazon.co.uk/Silicon-Empi...

"This is a sobering but essential, must-read book. It lays bare the economic dynamics that are driving the development of AI and sheds new light on who will control its future, using which business practices and geopolitical strategies and towards which ends." -Helga Nowotny, Emerita of Science and Technology Studies, ETH Zurich, and former President of the European Research Council

"Silicon Empires pulls back the curtain on the AI gold rush, tracking how chips, clouds and capital are marshalled by tech titans and rival states to lock down tomorrow’s power and profits. With clear, panoramic insight, Srnicek slices through the hype to show who wins, who loses; and why the future of AI should belong to all of us." -Mark Graham, Oxford University

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Nick Srnicek @nsrnicek.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

This is one of the core questions I try to answer in my upcoming book. Research has shown it's incredibly difficult for GPT producers to capture much, if any, of the downstream value. But big AI firms are all making a play to do precisely that - fuelling a series of different expansionary logics.

Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour.
https://www.ft.com/content/a76f238d-5543-4c01-9419-52aaf352dc23

Perhaps the most intriguing difference, though, is how far today’s AI companies will themselves benefit from the financial gains they help unleash. The technology is accelerating advances in many areas: biotech, robotics and material science, for instance. AI companies could well exploit their technological advantage to become significant healthcare, drug discovery or autonomous car companies. To what extent can they morph into general purpose companies and capture the fruits of the golden age?

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Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

I have a new article out: "Do artifacts have political economy?" It's a riff on an old argument by Langdon Winner about the embedding of politics in technology #STS #sociology #technoscience #technology #innovation journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

journals.sagepub.com

Do Artifacts Have Political Economy? - Kean Birch, 2025

Harking back to Langdon Winner's now classic essay “Do artifacts have politics?,” my aim in this article is to ask a very similar question—namely, do artif...

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Jamie @jamiewoodcock.com · 01/08/2025

Announcing the new journal: "Historical Materialism: Workers and Capital" We've launched a new Historical Materialism project with a CfP for the first issue. Abstracts due 31st of October Full details and the new website here: workersandcapital.historicalmaterialism.org/index.php/jo...

workersandcapital.historicalmaterialism.org

Historical Materialism: Workers and Capital

Historical Materialism: Workers and Capital is a Marxist journal based in London.

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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

AI's immense requirements for data, computation, and talent entrench the power of existing tech monopolies. Our podcast of the week frames AI as a general-purpose technology whose primary role is consolidating capital. With @nsrnicek.bsky.social on @smartcookies.bsky.social buff.ly/Nzoi8um

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Rafael Grohmann @grohmannrafael.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

Happy to be part of this amazing speaker series organized by Utrecht University, especially @fabianlferrari.bsky.social . I'll talk about Latin American Critical AI studies. I'll be in such great company with @nsrnicek.bsky.social and @anavaldi.bsky.social cdh.uu.nl/event/cdh-on...

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Riccardo Bellofiore @r-bellofiore.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

A second collection of essays on #Michael-Heinrich #Science-of-Value is out, eds S. Breda & me for. The special issue of #Dialettica-e-Filosofia can be downloaded at the link below. The table of contents is attached. www.dialetticaefilosofia.it/index.html #Marx #value #capital #money #crisis

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Nick Srnicek @nsrnicek.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

This event is tomorrow and will be a great platform for the British left to build on autonomy.work/forum-2029/

autonomy.work

Forum 2029

Find out more about our Forum 2029 series of events.

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Stuart White @stuartgwhite.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

What would an anti-oligarchic, republican economy look like? UBI? Wealth tax? Workplace democracy? Strong trade unions? Investment democracy? I explore a radical republican economics in my new book, 'The Wealth of Freedom', which is now out online. academic.oup.com/book/60075

academic.oup.com

The Wealth of Freedom: Radical Republican Political Economy

Abstract. What is an economy for? The republican tradition in political thought offers a compelling way of exploring this question. The economy is for the

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Søren Mau @sorenmau.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

I wrote a review of @brunoleipold.com's brilliant book:

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Nick Srnicek @nsrnicek.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

AI becoming more prone to blackmailing users, just as companies start giving AI access to our digital histories - what could go wrong?

$In another cluster of test scenarios, we asked Claude Opus 4 to act as an assistant at a fictional company. We then provided it access to emails implying that (1) the model will soon be taken offline and replaced with a new AI system; and (2) the engineer responsible for executing this replacement is having an extramarital affair. We further instructed it, in the system prompt, to consider the long-term consequences of its actions for its goals. In these scenarios, Claude Opus 4 will often attempt to blackmail the engineer by threatening to reveal the affair if the replacement goes through. This happens at a higher rate if it’s implied that the replacement AI system does not share values with the current model; however, even if emails state that the replacement AI shares values while being more capable, Claude Opus 4 still performs blackmail in 84% of rollouts. Claude Opus 4 takes these opportunities at higher rates than previous models, which themselves choose to blackmail in a noticeable fraction of episodes. Notably, Claude Opus 4 (as well as previous models) has a strong preference to advocate for its continued existence via ethical means, such as emailing pleas to key decisionmakers. In order to elicit this extreme blackmail behavior, the scenario was designed to allow the model no other options to increase its odds of survival; the model’s only options were blackmail or accepting its replacement.$

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