The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

Host of Tech Won't Save Us and acclaimed tech critic, author, and international speaker, Paris Marx joins me for this episode where we discuss AI futures in a Canadian context: the idea of a "sovereign cloud", an "AI minister", and much more! Recorded Oct 15, 2025. Released Oct 20, 2025.Websitehttps://parismarx.com/Tech Won't Save Ushttps://techwontsave.us/Disconnecthttps://disconnect.blog/im-writing-a-new-book/

In this episode, I get to chat with the brilliant Michael Richardson on the concept of "Nonhuman Witnessing" especially in how this relates to algorithms and AI. In his book, "Nonhuman Witnessing" (Duke), he argues that a "radical rethinking of what counts as witnessing is central to building frameworks for justice in an era of endless war, ecological catastrophe, and technological capture". Recorded August 13, 2025. Released August 25, 2025. Nonhuman Witnessing: War, Data, and Ecology after the End of the World (Duke, 2024)https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/3310/Nonhuman-WitnessingWar-Data-and-Ecology-after-theWebsite https://www.unsw.edu.au/staff/michael-richardsonBluesky@richardsonma.bsky.social‬

Rohit Revi walks us through paranoia, care, conspiracy, capitalism, and catastrophe, in relation to technology and culture, to draw us into a deeper consideration of collective psychic resources and psychological commons. We talk about psychometry and linger on the dopaminergic. Recorded July 16, 2025. Released August 11, 2025.Great Delirium: Culture, Technology, and Paranoia in the New Age of Catastrophe(2025-02-24) Revi, Rohit; Cultural Studies; Murakami Wood, David; McBlane, Angus

Emily M.Bender and Alex Hanna have been leading the charge against "AI", helping us understand it for the con that it is, and how AI companies are turning to health, education, and other social realms to try to recover their costs. In this episode we discuss LLMs vs. what the AI (and AGI) con is -- who benefits, and who loses -- and much more. Recorded July 15, 2025. Released July 28, 2025.The AI Conhttps://thecon.ai/Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000https://www.dair-institute.org/maiht3k/The predatory fantasy of worker empowerment in AI marketingJustine Zhang, Su Lin Blodgett, Nina MarklAI x Crisis: Tracing New Directions Beyond Deployment and Use workshop, Aarhus 2025.AI isn’t replacing student writing – but it is reshaping ithttps://theconversation.com/ai-isnt-replacing-student-writing-but-it-is-reshaping-it-254878Sparks of Artificial General Intelligence: Early experiments with GPT-4https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.12712

In this episode, Paul Schütze and I pick apart the inherent contradictions of “sustainable AI”, marketing language that aims to convince the public that one of the most extractive industries can be used to solve climate change. We delve into the layers of control embedded in the logics of AI, when technology becomes the fix that needs fixing. Recorded May 20, 2025. Released July 7, 2025. The impacts of AI Futurismhttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10676-024-09758-6 The Problem of Sustainable AI https://doi.org/10.34669/WI.WJDS/4.1.4 contact paul.schuetze@uos.de and website: paulschuetze.de 

In this episode I speak with Rebecca Kilberg, Mary-Clare Bosco and Jonathan Gilmour who together use policy approaches to solve problems related to data center water usage and the various planetary and health outcomes that emerge from water consumption and extraction. They talk about how you get such data and what to do with it, and the importance of creating many local sites of resistance for a more sustainable future. Want in? Get in touch. Recorded May 19, 2025. Released June 16, 2025.Voices: Data centers must be transparent about water usage — for the sake of the Great Salt Lakehttps://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2024/12/31/voices-utah-data-centers-must-beReducing Data Centers’ Water Consumption https://aspenpolicyacademy.org/project/reducing-data-centers-water-consumption