The deepest bias in American intellectual society; a new Moby-Dick; the US isn't making the best robots; plastics; process knowledge as industrial deepening
We used to get excited about technology. What happened?
Innovation that truly serves us all is in scarce supply. That’s a problem.
Comparing U.S. and global attitudes toward AI
Five charts on how Americans feel about the current and future impact of AI on society, and how Americans’ views on the technology stack up against the rest of the world
The Future of American Industry Depends on Open Source Tech
Instead of launching into a costly trade war with China, we need to fully embrace the fastest, safest, and most democratic way of advancing technology.
The AI spending boom could have real consequences for the U.S. economy
As revisions to U.S. jobs numbers call into question economic growth, Big Tech is becoming an even more important part of American prosperity.
As more Americans adopt AI tools, fewer say they can trust the results | TechCrunch
AI adoption is rising in the U.S., but trust remains low, with most Americans concerned about transparency, regulation, and the technology’s broader societal impact, according to a new Quinnipiac poll.
On technological optimism and technological pragmatism
"There are no guarantees that things are going to turn out very well for anyone.”
On technological optimism and technological pragmatism
"There are no guarantees that things are going to turn out very well for anyone.”
On technological optimism and technological pragmatism
"There are no guarantees that things are going to turn out very well for anyone.”
Most Americans say AI development is moving too fast and twice as many are AI pessimists as AI optimists
Young adults are more likely than older Americans to believe that AI will create economic gains that benefit everyone, but they are also more likely to worry that AI will replace jobs they depend upon
Technological parables and iconic illustrations: American technocracy and the rhetoric of the technological fix
This paper traces the role of American technocrats in popularizing the notion later dubbed the ‘technological fix’. Channeled by their long-term ‘chief’, Howard Scott, their claim was that technolo...
Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology
A witty, often terrifying that chronicles our transform…
Presentations — Benedict Evans
Every year, I produce a big presentation exploring macro and strategic trends in the tech industry. New in May 2025, ‘AI eats the world’.
The Golden Age Is Behind Us: How the Status Quo Impacts the Evaluation of Technology
New technology invariably provokes concerns over potential societal impacts. Even as risks often fail to materialize, the fear continues. The current research explored the psychological underpinnings of this pattern. Across four studies ( N = 2,454 adults recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk), we found evidence for the role of status quo thinking in evaluating technology. In Study 1, we experimentally manipulated the reported age of unfamiliar technology and found that people evaluate it more favorably when it is described as originating before (vs. after) their birth. In Studies 2 through 4, participants’ age at the time of invention strongly predicts attitudes toward a wide range of real-world technologies. Finally, we found that individual differences in status-quo-based decision-making moderated evaluations of technology. These studies provide insight into how people respond to the rapidly changing technological landscape.
A Real Political Economy of Technology - The Ideas Letter
Two technological futures are competing for political and material priority: generative AI and the green transition. Benanav argues that while AI is marketed as a world-reordering breakthrough, its productivity gains…
A Thesis on the History of the 21st Century: Technocracy, AI, and the End of the World
Reviewing a trio of books by a sextet of ruling-class ideologues, Mathias Fuelling finds an ambient anxiety hanging over a perceived crisis in American capitalism, with visions of bolstering a Silicon Valley-led technocracy fueled by AI investment reflecting American fears over the dawn of a "Chinese Century."
AI and the Fall? of the Creative Class
America is Losing Hundreds of Thousands of Jobs in Media, Film & the Arts. How Much is AI to Blame?
