41: James Bridle—Questioning Machine Intelligence with Peter Bauman

Episode page and full transcript: lerandom.art/episodes/james-bridle-questioning…

In this podcast episode, host Peter (instagram.com/monkantony) Bauman (x.com/monkantony_tez) (Monk Antony, Le Random's editor in chief) speaks with artist and writer James Bridle (jamesbridle.com) about what we actually mean when we say "intelligence." They discuss whether building our most powerful technologies around such a narrow version of it is a fundamental mistake.
They also unpack author Bridle's argument from Ways of Being that intelligence has always been a political construct, and that contemporary AI represents a reduction of a reduction. The conversation moves through the three effects Bridle sees AI concretely producing right now: consolidation of power, environmental destruction, and a spreading ontological crisis.
They end by widening to consciousness, ecological thinking, and what a genuinely non-human intelligence might actually require.
It is one of the more skeptical conversations Le Random has hosted on AI, and one of the most clarifying. Enjoy!
Monday's Editorial: Keiken on the Worldbuilding Lens (lerandom.art/editorial/keiken-on-the-worldbuil…)
Also in this episode: James Bridle (lerandom.art/subjects/james-bridle), Gene Kogan (lerandom.art/subjects/gene-kogan), Hito Steyerl (lerandom.art/subjects/hito-steyerl)

Read next: Hito Steyerl on How It Uses Us (lerandom.art/editorial/hito-steyerl-on-how-it-…)

Listen next: Ep. 36, Stephanie Dinkins—AI, Memory & Survival with Peter Bauman (lerandom.art/episodes/stephanie-dinkins-ai-mem…), Ep. 39, Lawrence Lek—World Entry Points with Peter Bauman (lerandom.art/episodes/lawrence-lek-world-entry…)

Chapters 📖:
00:00 Introduction
01:59 Why is our idea of intelligence biased?
08:01 Boosterism or doomerism?
15:08 Can agentic AI be ecologically smart?
20:05 What can citizens' assemblies teach?
24:35 Are symbionts a third way with AI?
29:53 What actually changes us?
36:14 What are AI's three real effects?
40:58 How do art and ethics meet at Glitch?
45:08 Can mountains and machines be conscious?